A/60/283 (e) The need to prevent acceptance of racism and discrimination as a result of the inclusion of racist and xenophobic political platforms in the programmes of democratic parties under the guise of combating terrorism and illegal immigration or “national preference” in a context of economic stagnation; (f) The need to address the rise of racism in sports by conducting preventive educational and awareness-raising activities and condemning the perpetrators of racist incidents, in cooperation with national and international sports organizations. The Special Rapporteur also recommended the establishment of formal and closer collaboration between the United Nations and international sports bodies. He also urged international sports bodies to take tough and credible measures against the perpetrators of racist incidents, especially sports executives, and to focus on the national dimension of the fight against racism by requesting national federations to submit annual reports on racist incidents and the action taken in response to them; (g) The need for a firmer commitment of civil society to the fight against racism in sports through programmes designed to improve knowledge and appreciation of others and their culture. 7. In preparing his report on the defamation of religions and global efforts to combat racism, the Special Rapporteur relied heavily on the inputs and conclusions of the seminar of high-level experts held in Barcelona, Spain, from 11 to 14 November 2004 under the auspices of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Centre for Catalonia and analysed each of the phobias and identified the underlying causes of their growth. He also analysed the dialectic between the specificities and singularities of these three phobias and the universality of efforts to combat racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia. The Special Rapporteur then submitted to the Commission and to member States specific recommendations for each of these phobias and general recommendations covering the following points: (a) The need to take greater account than in the past of two developments in measures to combat racism and discrimination: the increasing intertwining of race, ethnicity, culture and religion and, in this context, the rise of anti-Semitism, Christianophobia and Islamophobia. The Special Rapporteur therefore invited the Commission to urgently draw the attention of member States to the dynamic of the clash of cultures, civilizations and religions generated by these developments, in particular in the current context of overemphasis on the fight against terrorism; (b) The need to take into account the following principles in the strategies to combat anti-Semitism, Christianophobia and Islamophobia: (i) The historical and cultural depth of these three phobias, and thus the need to complement legal strategies with an intellectual and ethical strategy relating to the processes, mechanisms and representations which constitute these phobias over time; (ii) The close and fundamental link between the spiritual, historical and cultural singularity of each of these phobias and the universality of their underlying causes and of the efforts needed to combat them; (iii) Equal treatment of these phobias and avoidance of any prioritization of efforts to combat all forms of discrimination; 6

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