A/HRC/14/43/Add.2 appointed by a Ministry and that the Agency may be overly responsive to the majority in parliament. D. The National Integration Plan 24. In July 2006, the German Chancellor convened a high-level integration summit, gathering representatives of civil society and migrant communities, as well as representatives of the Federal Government, the Länder and municipalities to discuss ways of addressing the question of migration in Germany and propose concrete actions in this area. The proposals put forward at the summit were integrated into a National Integration Plan, formally introduced in 2007. Most of the Special Rapporteur’s interlocutors recognized that the summit and the Plan fostered a paradigm shift in the way the question of migration was addressed in Germany, as it recognized openly for the first time that Germany is a country of migration. 25. The National Integration Plan brought together for the first time an array of actors dealing with this question: the Federal Government, the Länder, local authorities, migrants, institutions and organizations from science, media, culture, sports, trade and industry, trade unions, and religious groups. According to many authorities, the Plan recognizes integration as creating responsibilities not only for migrants, but also for the host society and the Government. It outlined a number of actions that would support the goal of promoting integration, including the creation of integration courses for foreigners,4 promoting German education at an early age, securing quality education and professional training, etc. 26. Despite the general recognition that integration should be a two-way process involving both migrants and German society, a number of civil society organizations have pointed out that the debate so far has focused solely on the “responsibility” of migrants to integrate, a term which in many instances is interchangeably used to mean assimilation. According to many of the Special Rapporteur’s interlocutors, similarly to the provisions of the National Action Plan against Racism, the question of broader socio-economic structures that enable a proper integration of migrants has generally been avoided. E. The National Action Plan against Racism 27. In line with the provisions of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, Germany has prepared a National Action Plan against Racism covering a range of actions to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. The Plan draws on a number of existing programmes, including “Competent for Democracy – Advisory Networks to Oppose Right-Wing Extremism” and “XENOS – Integration and Diversity”. According to the authorities, the Plan is intended to be a comprehensive aid to prevent and protect against violence and discrimination by clearly demonstrating that neither policymakers, the judicial system nor the society at large are willing to accept or tolerate such phenomena. 28. Many civil society organizations pointed out that the National Action Plan against Racism has a narrow focus on right-wing extremism and is overly concentrated on the role of political parties, while almost entirely avoiding the key issue of indirect and structural 4 8 Integration courses were in fact already initiated in 2005 with the introduction of the new Residence Act. This concept was subsequently expanded and improved with the introduction of the National Integration Plan. GE.10-11624