Michael de Laine

By Michael de Laine, The Copenhagen Voice, 24 June 2009

Many victims of discrimination are unaware of their rights and do now know where to lodge complains, according to the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. A lack of data collection, poor rights awareness and under-reported discrimination and crime mean the true extent and nature of fundamental rights violations cannot be determined.

“An overwhelming number of people are not aware of their rights should they be a victim of discrimination,” the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) says in its Annual Report 2009, released today.

The FRA said its recent EU-MIDIS (Minorities and Discrimination) survey showed that only 39% of those minorities interviewed were aware of a law that forbids discrimination against people on the basis of ethnicity when applying for a job.

At the same time, only 20% knew of an organisation that offers support or advice to people who have been discriminated against.

“There is an urgent need for better information,” said FRA director Morten Kjaerum. “Most victims of discrimination are not aware that what is being done to them is illegal. At the same time, many do not know how or where to file a complaint. As a consequence, the dark figure of discrimination is extremely high.

“Governments have an obligation to inform everyone of their rights, and ensure access to justice in practice, not just on paper.”

Anastasia Crickley, who chairs the FRA management board, said, “There are still many gaps in legal protection against discrimination. Why should it be possible to sue a landlord for discriminating against someone on the basis of ethnicity or gender but not because of discrimination due to religion, age, disability or sexual orientation? Why are disabled people protected from discrimination in employment but not to the same degree in education?”

In June 2008, the European Commission published a proposal for a directive to close these gaps and extend protection against discrimination (on the grounds of religion, belief, disability, age, and sexual orientation) currently covering the employment sector to areas of social security, healthcare, education and access to and supply of goods and services.

Several FRA reports have been used to underpin this European Commission initiative for a new anti-discrimination directive, such as its legal study and social science report on homophobia in Europe.

“I urge EU governments to adopt the European Commission’s proposal to extend protection against discrimination to cover all grounds,” said Crickley.

The poor rights awareness coincides with insufficient recording and reporting mechanisms of discrimination, the agency said.

FRA noted that 15 of the EU’s 27 Member States have either a complete absence of publicly available official criminal justice data on racist crime, or only limited reporting on a few court cases.

Nine Member States can be categorised as having a ‘good’ data collection mechanism on racist crimes, and data collection mechanisms can be considered ‘comprehensive’ in only three Member States.

“Many EU Member States still have insufficient or no official criminal justice data on racist crime,” said Kjaerum. “This is symptomatic of a lack of political focus and resource allocation to address the problem.”

He added that insufficient or non-existent data collection, combined with poor rights awareness and the under-reporting of discrimination and crime, results in a situation where the true extent and nature of fundamental rights violations cannot be determined.

“Collecting data is not a solution in itself, but it serves to generate an understanding of the nature and extent of fundamental rights violations,” the FRA director said. “Effective, targeted policies at Member State level can only be developed with an accurate knowledge of the situation.”

While noting ‘encouraging developments in some EU Member States with respect to improvements in data collection, particularly on a localised level,’ Kjaerum said national practices regarding the collection and use of data remain varied across Member States.

Click here to read FRA’s comments and to download the FRA annual report.