A/70/321 an increasing number of speeches in recent months advocating national, racial, religious or political hatred, along with instances of racist and xenophobic violence. 64. Additionally, war propaganda was pervasive in Ukraine, giving rise to attempts to identify “enemies” and “traitors”. Ultranationalist far-right groups had fostered “anti-communist hysteria”, leading to acts of vandalism, aggression and threats against leaders, members and sympathizers of communis t groups. 65. The organization stressed that two issues required particular attention. The first was an attempt to ban the Communist Party of Ukraine by means of a suit filed in July 2014 by the Minister of Justice. Hearings were held in August and September, but the trial had been suspended indefinitely because one of the judges involved in the case had had his computer and other documents seized by law enforcement officials in a raid of his office. Concurrently, over 300 criminal proceedings have been initiated against Communist Party members. 66. The second issue concerned a package of four bills adopted on 9 April 2015 by parliament. Known as the “Decommunization Laws”, the bills had been signed on 15 May and had gone into effect. They allegedly outlined an official version of twentieth-century Ukrainian history and made any challenge to the official version a criminal offence. The laws also banned the dissemination of communist ideology and the use of its symbols and provided for an extensive decommunization of the public space, including name changes for towns, streets and schools associated with the communist past. Additionally, the laws officially recognized members of the ultra-right political group, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, as “fighters for the country’s independence”. 67. For these reasons, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers called upon the Government of Ukraine to fulfil its human rights obligations and put a stop to the current antidemocratic and belligerent trend in Ukraine. E. Latvian Human Rights Committee 68. The Latvian Human Rights Committee addressed the events and actions taken during the years 2014-2015. The organization’s first main concern was the glorification of the Latvian Legion of Waffen SS, the main Latvian unit that fought alongside the Nazis in the Pskov region of the Soviet Union in 1944. Although the parliament of Latvia could not officially celebrate 16 March as “Legion Day”, owing to controversy, the day was nevertheless celebrated by many individuals who marched in the streets; there were typically between 1,000 and 1,500 marchers. While the current Head of Government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had tried to distance themselves from the marches by referring to freedom of express ion, politicians spoke of the marches in terms of “pride” and “remembering heroes”. 69. The second concern involved a musical staged in the cities of Riga and Liepaja dedicated to Herberts Cukurs, an aviator who had participated in the Holocaust as a member of the Arajs Commando. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel had both condemned the musical. Despite these official positions, individuals, including the actor who played the leading role of Cukurs, claim that Cukurs was a victim of rumours and “a big fairy tale” and that there was no evidence of his having participated in the Holocaust. 15-13793 15/21