E/CN.4/2005/18 page 16 46. With regard to collaboration with OSCE, the Special Rapporteur took part in the organization’s Conference on Tolerance and the Fight against Racism and Xenophobia held in Brussels on 13 and 14 September 2004. The Special Rapporteur then invited Mr. Christian Strohal, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights to attend the seminar on the defamation of religions. He attended with two of his assistants. 47. In the Special Rapporteur’s view, the establishment of this cooperation with the Monitoring Centre and OSCE is the only way to raise awareness of the phenomenon of racism and xenophobia at the national, regional and international levels. The Special Rapporteur therefore welcomes the participation of representatives from the Monitoring Centre and OSCE in the Barcelona seminar. IV. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 48. Finally, the Special Rapporteur submits the following conclusions and recommendations to the Commission: (a) The Special Rapporteur draws the attention of the Commission and its member States to the link between racism, discrimination and identity, particularly the fact that the construction of an identity often, if not always, results in the creation of an enemy, the ethnic, religious or cultural isolationism of a people, the rejection and denigration of the other, the odd man out, and, in its contemporary forms, of non-nationals, refugees, immigrants. The Special Rapporteur wishes to draw the attention of the member countries of the European Union to the urgent need to focus in particular on the construction of the identity of the new Europe in order to take account of its ethnic, cultural and religious pluralism. With regard to the political crisis in Côte d’Ivoire, he furthermore recommends that the political stakeholders, the United Nations and the African Union accord central importance, when searching for a lasting political solution, to the reconstruction of the inter-ethnic fabric, which has been badly rent; (b) The Commission and its member States are invited to take account of the growing importance of the intellectual front in the fight against racism, discrimination and xenophobia. In parallel with the anchoring of human rights in legal instruments, which undoubtedly remains of fundamental importance, the Special Rapporteur invites the Commission and its member States to devise an intellectual strategy for combating racism in the domain of ideas, concepts, images, perceptions and value systems; (c) The Commission is invited to alert the member States to the need to treat all forms of racism and discrimination equally, according them the same importance and urgency, while at the same time recognizing their particularity and specificity. In that spirit, any hierarchization of forms of racism or discrimination would constitute a particularly serious setback for the universal fight against racism and discrimination. Hierarchization, in this context, can lead to a form of discrimination; (d) Member States are invited to fight more effectively, and to prosecute, organizations which promote ideas based on the notion of racial superiority or hatred and organizations which commit or incite acts of violence. Parties that make no secret of their