A/74/358 from representatives of Jewish communities and institutions located in Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Mexico, Myanmar and Tunisia who participated in a series of meetings held in Washington, D.C. 6 9. The Special Rapporteur invited civil society and other stakeholders to submit information about laws and policies affecting the right to freedom of religion or belief of Jews, along with information about civil society and government responses to those incidents in their respective countries. 7 Dozens of reports and studies produced by monitors, researchers and human rights organizations, many of which are cited in the present report, were also reviewed. 10. Finally, 22 States responded to a series of questions circulated to all Member States by the Special Rapporteur on 4 March 2019. The survey included questions about legal protections for the right to freedom of religion or belief for Jewish persons; measures for identifying, monitoring and responding to incidents th at constitute incitement to, or perpetuation of, acts of discrimination, hostility or violence against Jewish persons; and best practices for combating anti semitism in their countries. IV. Key findings 11. The Jewish population was estimated at 14,606,000 worldwide in 2018, with 15 countries in the Americas and Western and Eastern Europe being home to the largest populations outside of Israel. It is estimated that almost 45 per cent of Jewish persons (approximately 6,469,800) are located in the A mericas, with the vast majority of them residing in the United States of America, where they make up 2 per cent of the total population, while approximately 390,000 reside in Canada. 8 Some 1,015,000 Jews (6.9 per cent of the world’s Jewish population) live in Western European countries. There are approximately 320,000 Jews in Eastern Europe 9 and approximately 200,000 in the Asia-Pacific and Oceania regions, 10 where the largest populations reside in Australia (91,000), 11 the Islamic Republic of Iran (10,000) 12 and New Zealand (7,000). 13 There are approximately 7,179,400 Jews in the Middle East and North Africa, the vast majority of whom live in Israel. 14 Approximately 75,000 Jews live in South Africa. 15 __________________ 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 19-16257 The consultations were organized with the cooperation of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, the World Jewish Congress, the European Jewish Congress, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, the All-Party Group against Antisemitism (United Kingdom), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, the Government of Canada and the Government of Norway. See www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/FreedomReligion/Pages/ReportSRtotheGeneralAssembly.aspx . See www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-population-of-the-world. Countries included Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, the Republic of Moldova, Romania, the Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine. See www.pewforum.org/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-jew/. United Nations, “Population by religion, sex and urban/rural residence”, Demographic Statistics Database, available at http://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3A28 (20 September 2019). Ibid. Ibid. Countries surveyed: Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. United Nations, “Population by religion, sex and urban/rural residence”, Demographic Statistics Database, available at http://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3A28 (20 September 2019). 5/23