Toronto (October 18, 2019) – Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) was monitoring this week as a new UN report on global antisemitism made its way through formal proceedings.

The report, "Combating Antisemitism to Eliminate Discrimination and Intolerance Based on Religion or Belief", decries the recent growth of antisemitism throughout the world. The report finds an alarming 13% growth in global antisemitic incidents and points to the antisemitic dimensions of the BDS movement and other manifestations of the “new antisemitism.” The report prescribes a “multi-pronged human rights approach” to combating antisemitism, and calls on national and local governments to adopt the definition of antisemitism endorsed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance as a key action tool.

On Thursday, the report’s author UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief Dr. Ahmed Shaheed presented his findings to a committee of the General Assembly. Earlier today, the UN followed up with a panel discussion on the report featuring a keynote speech by Irwin Cotler, Canada’s former Attorney General and Minister for Justice, who spoke out in support of the report. Mark Weitzman of the Simon Wiesenthal Center also addressed the audience, praising the report and calling on governments to waste no time in adopting new and aggressive approaches to combating antisemitism.