Personal Representatives of the Chairman-in-Office to promote greater tolerance and combat racism, xenophobia and discrimination

In recent years, the OSCE has held several conferences on promoting tolerance and non-discrimination, combating anti-Semitism and tackling hate speech on the Internet. At these events, the participating States have called on the Organization to focus greater attention in this area by appointing Personal Representatives of the Chairman.

In December 2004, then OSCE Chairman-in-Office (CiO) and Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy appointed three Personal Representatives to promote greater tolerance and combat racism, xenophobia and discrimination across the OSCE region.

The appointments were extended by the subsequent OSCE CiOs in 2005-08.

Anastasia Crickley
Personal Representative on Combating Racism, Xenophobia and Discrimination, also focusing on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians and Members of Other Religions.

Current Chair of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, Anastasia Crickley is also a lecturer at the Centre for Applied Social Studies at the National University of Ireland. She has been involved in developing responses to the issues faced by immigrants to Ireland, especially through the Migrants Rights Centre.

Gert Weisskirchen
Personal Representative on Combating anti-Semitism

Gert Weisskirchen, Professor of Higher Education and Member of the German Parliament, is a Vice-President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. He is also Spokesman of the SPD Parliamentary Group with the Bundestag Committee on Culture and Media Affairs.

Ambassador Ömür Orhun
Personal Representative on Combating Intolerance and Discrimination against Muslims

Ambassador Orhun was Head of the Turkish Delegation to the OSCE from 2000 to 2004. Like the other two Representatives, his role includes promoting better co-ordination of participating States' efforts to implement OSCE decisions on tolerance and non-discrimination, working closely with the Chairman-in-Office.