A/HRC/48/77 Ecuador 32. The Government of Ecuador reported that no existence of neo-Nazi or skinhead extremist groups, or crimes carried out by such groups, had been documented. All forms of racism and discrimination were condemned in State legislation, as were all practices based on racial or ethnic motivations, which particularly affected people of African descent and other minorities around the world. 33. In 2016 Ecuador had adopted a national policy in compliance with the objectives and goals of the programme of activities for the implementation of the International Decade for People of African Descent. In addition, Ecuador had adopted the Plurinational Plan to Eliminate Racial Discrimination and Ethnic and Cultural Exclusion, which included affirmative action measures to improve access to employment, health and education and actions aimed at improving the standard of living of those groups that historically had faced discrimination. Article 176 of the Criminal Code criminalized discrimination. 34. In 2014, the National Council for the Equality of Peoples and Nationalities had been created, with representatives from indigenous, Montubio and Afro-Ecuadorian peoples. The main objective was to promote the implementation of public policies to guarantee equality and eradicate discrimination. The Council prepared the National Agenda for the Equality of Nationalities and Indigenous, Afro-Ecuadorian and Montubio Peoples 2019–2021, which contained public policy guidelines for promoting the rights of the groups concerned. The Government also referred to the measures adopted to combat hate speech, including action taken by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage and by the secretariat of the intercultural bilingual education system. Germany 35. The Government of Germany stated that the COVID-19 pandemic had led to further radicalization of right-wing extremist groups, and noted more activity among those groups, known as Reichsbürger. Right-wing extremists made use of the general uncertainty and doubts to disseminate their theories, which were often antisemitic narratives, blurring the lines between their narratives and those of public protests related to the pandemic. 36. As part of a nine-point plan, approved in October 2019, to combat right-wing extremism and hate crime, the Federal Cabinet had adopted measures to investigate rightwing extremism within the public service, and a central department to deal with such activity had been set up at the German domestic intelligence service. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and members of the Cabinet committee on the fight against racism and right-wing extremism had also drawn up a comprehensive catalogue of 89 measures, which the Federal Cabinet had adopted on 2 December 2020. The final package of measures comprised projects in various policy areas to combat right-wing extremism, racism and all forms of group-focused enmity on a broad scale. In 2020, the Federal Minister of the Interior, in accordance with national legislation, had banned a number of right-wing associations – Combat 18 Germany, Nordadler, Wolfsbrigade 44, and Geeinte Deutsche Völker und Stämme, a Reichsbürger association – entailing their dissolution, confiscation of assets, a prohibition on the creation of successor or substitute organizations and a prohibition on the use of their symbols. 37. In 2017, Germany had adopted the international working definition of antisemitism as formulated by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. In 2018, it had appointed its first commissioner for Jewish life in Germany and the fight against antisemitism; federal states had followed that pattern. 38. Education was crucial to preventing antisemitism. Young people were at a greater risk of developing attitudes based on hate speech spread through social media and the Internet. It was therefore important for schools to be prepared to provide the necessary information and education. It was also necessary to train teachers and instructors on how to recognize antisemitism, so they could act as needed. Furthermore, it was necessary to keep alive a culture of remembrance, which must engage the public as a whole, especially the younger generation. 7