ThsSCHLuxembourg08

Committee: SCH Topic: Xenophobia Luxembourg Hanna S. Period.3


 * I. //__Background of the Topic:__//** Xenophobia is the fear of anything foreign or previously unknown. In 2007 incidents of xenophobic violence have risen in several countries such as the United States and many countries in Europe including Finland, Ireland, UK, Slovak Republic and Sweden. In the years 2000-2006 eight European countries have had an increase in hate crime these countries are Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Finland, France, Slovakia, and the UK. Xenophobic people most likely fear people of African descent, due to the high level of hate crimes against Africans in many countries. Immigrants who move to an area where there is population with the same ethnic background tend to have more violent attacks against them. This effects the international community because people are not going to want to move or travel to a new area where they may be different.


 * II. __//United Nations Involvement://__** Since 1948, when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted, the international community has been fighting xenophobia. There have been national and international laws that have been created to stop xenophobia. In 2001 the UN held a The World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance, to work on getting rid of all forms of racism.


 * III. __//Country Policy and Involvement://__** In the past the minister thought if you committed a xenophobic attack you should be punished, however not every member of the European Union believeed that they should have a law that punished people. He said " I thought I lived in a community of values in which there was no place for racism and xenophobia," but they didn't all agree. Luxembourg persisted to create a law to punish people for xenophobic attacks. The European Union passed a law that says anyone committing violence or hatred against another person will be sentenced to a 1 to 3 year prison term.

IV. **//__Solution:__//** A great solution for this would be to have people from different countries go to other countries and inform them on the topic. Also they would show them that is okay for people to be different and that they will not hurt them. There would be an organization that funds money for people to go to different countries to talk to them about xenophobia. This would help hate attacks go down because the knowledge of people would go up on this topic and they wouldn't be afraid.

//__**Sources:**__// 1. http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/discrimination/pages.aspx?id=86 2. http://www.un.org/WCAR/e-kit/backgrounder1.htm 3. http://www.eubusiness.com/Living_in_EU/eu-racism.51/ 4. http://www.eu2005.lu/en/actualites/communiques/2005/06/20frieden-pe/index.html