Governments told not doing enough to halt racism

BUCHAREST, June 6 (Reuters) Governments should work harder to combat racism and other hate crimes which are on the rise globally but go largely unreported, advocacy group Human Rights First said in a report today.

The New York-based group said most European governments lacked mechanisms for reporting anti-Semitic and anti-gay violence, as well as attacks against Muslims.

''Governments need to do more to combat violent discrimination ... and should strengthen criminal laws and law enforcement procedures,'' Human Rights First said in a survey of Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) embers.

The report, released on the sidelines of an OSCE conference in Bucharest on combating discrimination, cited Croatia and Latvia for introducing legislation on hate crimes, but said 24 OSCE members had no special provision for punishing such crimes.

''In the majority of cases, criminal justice systems neither track nor effectively prosecute bias crimes ... Public policy responses to racist, anti-Semitic and other bias crimes too often reflect indifference.'' The report said in Germany, one of five European countries featured in the report, ''extremist crimes'' hit their highest level in 2006 since monitoring began in 2001. It said incidents involving extreme right groups rose 20 per cent in 2006.

In Russia, the report said hate crimes reached ''crisis proportions'' but there was little evidence ''of concerted action to combat such violence through the criminal justice system''.

REUTERS KN ND1724