K. whereas homophobia continues to manifest itself, in Member States and third countries, in such forms as murders, banned gay prides and equality marches, public use of inflammatory, threatening and hateful language, police failure to provide adequate protection, and authorised violent demonstrations by homophobic groups;

80. Urges the Member States to resolutely prosecute any hate speech in racist media programmes and articles spreading intolerant views, in the form of hate crimes against the Roma, immigrants, foreign nationals, traditional national minorities and other minority groups, or by bands and at neo-Nazi concerts, which can often take place in public without any repercussions; also urges political parties and movements who exercise a strong influence over the mass media to abstain from hate speech and from the use of defamation against minority groups within the Union;

80. Urges the Member States to resolutely prosecute any hate speech in racist media programmes and articles spreading intolerant views, in the form of hate crimes against the Roma, immigrants, foreign nationals, traditional national minorities and other minority groups, or by bands and at neo-Nazi concerts, which can often take place in public without any repercussions; also urges political parties and movements who exercise a strong influence over the mass media to abstain from hate speech and from the use of defamation against minority groups within the Union;

C. whereas recently a series of worrying events have taken place in a number of EU Member States, as widely reported by the press and NGOs, ranging from banning gay prides or equality marches to the use by leading politicians and religious leaders of inflammatory, hat or threatening language, police failing to provide adequate protection or even breaking up peaceful demonstrations, violent demonstrations by homophobic groups, and the introduction of changes to constitutions to explicitly prohibit same-sex unions,

The Foundation will play a vital role in addressing some of the challenges of our society today: the rise of racism and discrimination, intolerance to cultural and religious diversity, the proliferation of organized hate groups, and the perpetuation of hate crime and racially motivated activities.

Every major group among identifiable minorities reports in recent years a troubling and significant increase in hate motivated crime, among them B'nai Brith which has told the Department of Justice that there are now over 40 organized hate groups in Canada.