CoE anti-racism commission reviews progress on key recommendations in Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, and Monaco

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) published today its conclusions on implementing its priority recommendations for Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, and Monaco over the past few years.

Anti-racism commission reviews

Cyprus

ECRI recommended to Cyprus that a national LGBTI strategy be prepared, accompanied by a national action plan, with a sufficient separate budget for its implementation. While it is positive that the Cypriot authorities have demonstrated a willingness to work on such a strategy, it has not been issued yet, and thus, this recommendation has not been implemented.

ECRI’s second priority recommendation was to take immediate action to support child asylum seekers and other migrant children in acquiring the Greek language skills necessary to allow them to follow ordinary primary school classes taught in Greek and to conduct individual skills assessments. ECRI welcomes the prompt action taken and concludes that the recommendation has been implemented.

Denmark

Denmark was requested by ECRI to implement two priority recommendations. Firstly, ECRI recommended that the Danish authorities introduce a national action plan against racism, with a particular emphasis on preventing anti-Muslim racism and discrimination and including steps towards securing a proportion of staff from Muslim and other minority backgrounds in such professions as law enforcement officials and teachers. While welcoming the preparations for such an action plan, including the budget allocation, ECRI concludes that the document has not been adopted yet and, therefore, the recommendation has not been implemented.

Secondly, the Council of Europe body recommended that the Danish authorities should introduce positive incentives for all to avoid forced evictions to achieve the objectives of the so-called “parallel society” legislation as regards a more balanced composition between “non-westerners”, EU citizens and “native Danes” in the neighbourhoods concerned. While the Danish authorities’ position is that no eviction of tenants takes place based on their ethnic or national origin from non-Western countries, ECRI nevertheless notes that the aim of the Danish legislation and related policy remains to reduce the share of “non-westerners” in “parallel societies” and “transformation areas” (formerly called “ghetto areas” and “hard ghetto areas” respectively) and that the implementation of the policy has inevitably resulted in forced evictions, decisions on which are being challenged in Danish courts. ECRI concludes that this recommendation has not been implemented.

Estonia

In its most recent report on Estonia, ECRI recommended that the authorities take urgent steps to amend the Penal Code with a view to ensuring that anyone, be it groups of individuals, engaged in hate speech of a criminal nature is duly prosecuted and punished and that citizenship and gender identity be included among the prohibited grounds. ECRI welcomes action initiated by the Estonian authorities to amend the Penal Code, but notes with regret that the government did not propose to insert explicitly citizenship and gender identity among the prohibited grounds and has not yet been able to move forward in parliament after the first reading. The Commission concludes that this recommendation has only been partially implemented so far.

The other priority recommendation was to organise a broad consultation of teachers working with pupils and students with Russian and other non-Estonian backgrounds, as well as parents’ associations and community organisations, to implement the new strategies related to education in Estonia effectively. ECRI acknowledges that the transition to Estonian-language education is a very sensitive topic and welcomes the action taken, but it recalls that consultations should be regular and dissenting voices should be taken into consideration as far as possible. This recommendation has been implemented, ECRI says.

Monaco

ECRI recommended to Monaco strengthening the High Commissioner’s powers of inquiry, to enable the institution to obtain the information it needs for its inquiries – including information not in the public domain – within a set time frame. ECRI takes positive note of some steps taken to facilitate the Commissioner’s requests for information since 2023, says that these measures should be enshrined in law, and concludes its recommendation has been partially implemented.

The second recommendation concerned combatting online hate speech by giving judicial authorities the power to authorise, approve and order the deletion of hate speech or the blocking of sites that use it, in co-operation with the Monegasque Data Protection Authority and, where appropriate, the relevant bodies in other countries concerned. No information on any taken or planned steps was received by ECRI on this matter. ECRI considers that this recommendation has not been implemented.

Hungary

In its most recent report on Hungary, ECRI recommended that the authorities commission an independent review of the legislative measures adopted during the period of “state of danger”, their impact on groups of concern to ECRI, including LGBTI persons, and their compliance with Council of Europe and other human rights standards. ECRI regrets that the Hungarian government has not taken any action to commission such an independent review. ECRI reiterates that the restrictive legislative measures taken during the period of “state of danger” have a strong bearing on the life of LGBTI persons and should be thoroughly and without further delay reviewed by independent experts. It concludes that its recommendation has not been implemented.

The second recommendation by ECRI to Hungary was to enhance the capacity of law enforcement agencies to effectively identify and address racist and LGBTI-phobic hate speech and hate crime by providing more targeted and practical training. While ECRI welcomes the steps taken by the Hungarian authorities so far, it considers that the Hungarian authorities should further expand and improve the provision of such training, with a focus on addressing racist and LGBTI-phobic hate speech and hate crimes and ensuring that the 2019 Hate Crime Protocol is part of the daily police practice. Therefore, ECRI concludes that its recommendation has been partially implemented.

These anti-racism commission conclusions are based on government responses and information gathered from other sources. They only concern ECRI’s priority recommendations and do not aim to comprehensively analyze all developments in the fight against racism and intolerance in the countries concerned.

As we wrote earlier, U.S. report finds serious human rights problems in Hungary.

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