The CSCE and the New Increase of National Ethnic and Racial Tensions

Stephen J. Roth

Introduction With the demise of the Communist regime in Eastern Europe and the gradual change, or at least attempts to change to democracy, many of the human rights problems which demanded the prime attention of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) at the early stages of its existence after 1975 have disappeared or lessened in their impact. To take just two of the central issues hammered at by the Western countries at all the early CSCE meetings: freedom of religion and freedom of emigration. They were - abridged, if not outright denied, in the countries of Eastern Europe and they are liberally granted now in practically all these countries in their post- Communist incarnation. But the collapse of Communism brought forth a new problem, or rather unleashed a previously suppressed problem, namely that of national, racial or ethnic antagonism. It has undoubtedly become one of the principle human rights crises in the area of Eastern Europe and it has, partly for different reasons, but partly as an indirect effect of the development in the East', engulfed also the Western societies in the geographic area of the CSCE. Of course, there exist more shocking violations of human rights and of corresponding CSCE norms in Europe today than the propagation of national, racial, ethnic or religious hostility. The genocide, 'ethnic cleansing', rape, uprooting of civilians and similar phenomena witnessed in the drama of former Yugoslavia, and lesser but still violent conflicts in some regions of the former Soviet Union, strike at the core of the most basic human rights. However, even at the root of these abhorrent events one can see the evil causative role of intolerance, xenophobia and hatred on national, racial, ethnic or religious grounds. 'Racism' (I shall use this .term as a short-hand code word for the varied national racial, ethnic and religious forms of the phenomena) ought, therefore, to be seen as a central concern of the post-Communist world which needs to be addressed also by the CSCE. The seriousness of the current 'racism' has been fully recognised by the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities2 and by the Secretary-General of the United Nations who, in a

1. Such indirect effects of the Eastern changeson Western societiesare particularly:the upheavalsin the former GDRpart of reunitedGermany and their impacton the wholeof FederalGermany; the massexodus to the West of 'political'refugees from ethnicconflicts in the East; additionallarge scale infiltrationof 'economic'refugees from the East to the West, taking advantageof the new open exit policiesof formerlysealed East European countries. 2. Resolutions1990/2 and 1991/2. 6 report in 19923 explained that we are facing a neo-racism based on "a con- demnation of any mixing [of different groups] and an assertion that 'cultures' can in no sense be assimilated".' The Vienna 'Declaration and Programme of Action', adopted by the UN World Conference on Human Rights on 25 June 1993, declared that "[t]he speedy and comprehensive elimination of all forms of racism and racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance is a priority task for the S international community".' In a similar way, the European Parliament (of the European Commun- ity), in its Resolution adopted on 21 April 19936 noted "with great concern the growth and spread of xenophobia, racism, anti-Semitism, and other forms of religious intolerance", condemned all these phenomena and called for various measures to combat them.

The CSCE rules on `Racism'' It is to the credit of the cscE that it recognised the new danger of 'racism' right at the turning of political orientation in the USSR and in Eastern Europe, notably in the Summer of 1990, at the Copenhagen Meeting of the Human Dimension of the CSCE (held from 5 - 29 June 1990). The 'turning of the political orientation' has, of course, been a gradual process and did not happen at one instance, which could be designated as the turning point. But the Summer of 1990 is a reasonable point in time of the maturing of the process. The preceding important CSCE meeting, the Follow-up Conference in Vienna from 4 November 1986 to 19 January 1989, while already showing the first effect of glasnost and perestroika in the Soviet Union, ended at the beginning of the annus mirabilis of 1989, too early in the process of change to reflect the new thinking fully in the conference's final conclusionsa, even though they

3. Eliminationof RacialDiscrimination. Measures to CombatRacism and RacialDiscrimina- tion and the Role of the Sub-Commission,Report of the SecretaryGeneral, 14 July 1992. (Doc. E/C No.4/Sub. 2/ 1992/ 11 ) 4. Ibid. para. 10, quotingD.A. Tagieff. 5. Part II Para. 8. See alsoPart III. SectionII A I. 6. Resolutionon the Resurgenceof Racismand Xenophobiain Europe and the Danger of Right-wingExtremist violence, No. A3-0127/93.(European Parliament, Minutes of the proceedingsof the sittingof 21 April 1993,Item 19). 7. The present paper does not deal with the discriminationaspect of `racism'. The rule of non-discriminationhas been firmlyestablished in the cscE processat the outset,notably in the first paragraphof Principlevn of the 1975Helsinki Final Act. It has been repeatedin several subsequentdocuments. This paper only focuses on another aspect of racism, namely manifestationsof racist hatred or violenceand incitementto them, as well as incitementto discrimination. 8. ConcludingDocument of the ViennaFollow-up Meeting, 19 January1989 (see: A. Bloed (ed.), The Conferenceon Securityand Co-operationin Europe - Analysisand Basic Documents(Martinus Nijhof 1993), p. 327 ff.