E/CN.4/1996/72/Add.2 page 5 observation for extreme rightist activity (78 in 1993). 5 Compared with the previous year, the membership of such associations and individuals not belonging to any group had visibly fallen by 7,900, to 56,600 (as against 64,500 in 1993). The number of militant rightist extremists, at approximately 5,400, was down slightly on the 1993 figure of 5,600. It included the extreme rightist skinheads belonging to virtually unstructured regional- and local-level associations. 6 19. This slight decline in the number of militant rightist extremists was doubtless due to the many steps taken by the German State, as will be seen below. 20. It should also be noticed that the extreme rightist parties have seen their popularity among the electorate decline after the good showing they made in 1991 and 1993 by exploiting the subject of an invasion of economic refugees. They account for at most 4 per cent of the various electoral constituencies (federal, local, communal and European). 7 II. VIOLENT DISPLAYS OF RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA 8 21. In 1994, the German police recorded 7,952 breaches of the law allegedly or demonstrably motivated by rightist extremism (as against 10,561 in 1993), including 1,489 acts of violence (1993: 2,232) and 6,463 other breaches of the law (1993: 8,329); 3,941 were motivated by xenophobia (1993: 6,721), and of those 860 were acts of violence (1993: 1,609). It will thus be seen that breaches of the law presumably or demonstrably motived by rightist extremism declined by 25 per cent from the levels seen in 1993. 22. The decline in xenophobically motivated violence has come about thanks to action by the State and vigorous moves by the police against extreme rightist organizations and neo-Nazi cells. This action will be discussed in detail in the following chapter. 23. By treating arson as homicide or manslaughter and sentencing those guilty of serious violence to long terms in prison, the courts - and the media, which provided detailed reports on the matter - have had a deterrent effect on potential offenders. 24. There were 1,366 anti-Semitic incidents in 1994. This is an increase since 1993 (656 breaches of the law). But the increase was in non-violent crimes such as demonstrations, incitements to racial hatred, insults, propaganda and vandalism; the number of acts of violence declined from 72 to 41, i.e. by 43 per cent. 25. The large increase in other breaches of the law stems from the fact that agitation and incitement to hatred were up by 130 per cent. One reason is that, unlike the preceding year, there were a number of mailings of multiple letters containing incitements to racial hatred. These statistics reflect the number of inquiries launched because of the many complaints (some 190). 26. Other offences (including insults and vandalism without major violence) also increased disproportionally, to 9.5 times the previous level.