A/74/358 food production purposes practised by the adherents of some religious traditions, including Jews and Muslims. Non-stunned slaughter is banned in Slovenia 67 and is highly regulated in Austria, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia. 68 Poland is also considering restricting the export of kosher meat, which could affect Jewish communities across the continent. 69 Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden require prior stunning before slaughter. Finland requires concurrent sedation, and legislation is pending that would require prior stunning. At the subnational level, two of the three regions of Belgium have recently enacted laws to require prior stunning, which will become effective in 2019 unless overturned by litigation pending in the country’s Constitutional Court. There are currently no restrictions on the export or import of kosher meat to those countries. The Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of Animals for Slaughter and the European Council Regulation (EC) No. 1099/2009 provide that animals should be stunned before they are slaughtered, but they allow Member States to derogate from the stunning requirement to allow for religious slaughter. 42. No Eastern European country bans male circumcision. In Slovenia, however, public officials have publicly criticized the ritual, and rabbis have been obstructed in carrying out the procedure. Several European States have adopted or are considering adopting measures related to circumcision. 43. Restrictions on kosher meat or male circumcision do not appear to be driven solely by antisemitism, but they may interfere with the ability of Jews to observe rituals and ceremonies in accordance with the precepts of their religion or belief. 44. Jews face political exclusion in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the Constitution bars anyone who does not belong to one of the country’s three main ethnic groups – Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs – from holding the office of President or a seat in the House of Peoples, one of the two houses of parliament. Although the European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2009 that the restriction discriminates against Jews (and Roma), 70 the State has not amended its Constitution. 45. In Canada, Jewish groups protested against adoption of bill 21 by the government of Quebec province on 16 June 2019. In the bill, which seeks to amend the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, it is asserted that the wearing of religious symbols interferes with maintaining one’s duty towards the neutrality of the State and that, therefore, there is a need to amend the Quebec Charter to include a measure that restricts public servants, including police officers, judges and public school teachers, from wearing religious attire or symbols while performing their duties. This measure will discriminate against persons, including Jews, who hold religious convictions that must be manifested through attire and symbols as they carry out their daily lives. G. Monitoring and reporting antisemitism 46. Monitoring mechanisms for hate crimes are non-existent in many States. States with such mechanisms have adopted diverse approaches for collecting information about hate crimes, with different States covering myriad criminal offences and bias motivations. In many cases, information is rarely comprehensive or disaggregated, making it difficult to capture important elements of antisemitic acts necessary for __________________ 67 68 69 70 19-16257 See https://english.sta.si/1804329/slovenia-to-ban-ritual-slaughter. See www.loc.gov/law/help/religious-slaughter/europe.php. See https://forward.com/food/416983/all-the-european-countries-where-kosher-and-halal-meatproduction-are-now/. European Court of Human Rights, Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina, application Nos. 27996/06 and 34836/06, Judgment, 22 December 2009. 13/23