A/HRC/4/19 page 20 52. The Special Rapporteur also commends the European Parliament on its 30 November 2005 Written Declaration on tackling racism in football, which strongly condemns all forms of racism at football matches and calls on all other competition organizers in Europe to consider the option of imposing sporting sanctions on national football associations and clubs whose supporters or players commit serious racist offences.2 53. In spite of these efforts, the Special Rapporteur notes with concern that racist violence in stadiums continues, more than ever, to be a serious phenomenon. He wishes to refer in particular to the racist and anti-Semitic incidents that took place in Paris at the end of a match between Paris Saint-Germain and Hapoel Tel Aviv on 23 November 2006, during which hooligans attacked a young French national of Jewish origin and a black plain-clothes policeman who had tried to protect him. The policeman used his service weapon, which resulted in the death of one of the attackers and seriously injured another. IV. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 54. The Special Rapporteur invites the Human Rights Council to draw the attention of the member States to the alarming signs of regression in efforts to combat racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia, particularly the upsurge in racist violence, and to remind them of the crucial importance of political will in the refusal to trivialize racism, xenophobia and intolerance, the rejection of their use in politics and electoral campaigns and the systematic combating of racist and xenophobic political platforms. 55. In this regard, he invites the Council to encourage member States to adopt, as a matter of urgency, national legislation against racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia, pursuant to article 4, paragraphs (a) and (b), of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. 56. In the same spirit, the Council is invited to encourage member States to demonstrate renewed commitment to the implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action. The Special Rapporteur also encourages the organization, in cooperation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, of regional conferences to assess the progress of and challenges and obstacles to the implementation of the Declaration and Programme of Action, following the example of the Regional Conference of the Americas held in Brasilia in July 2006, which brought together Governments, affected communities, civil society and international and regional organizations, on the basis of the respective assessment reports of all these regional actors and leading to specific regional programmes for submission to the Human Rights Council. 2 Available on the Internet at the following address: http://www.enar-eu.org/anti-racismdiversity-intergroup/activities/Declaration69_EN.pdf.