“Racial or ethnic profiling in policing has been defined as “the use by the police, with no objective and reasonable justification, of grounds such as race, colour, languages, religion, nationality or national or ethnic origin in control, surveillance or investigation activities”. Though by no means new, this phenomenon is still widespread across the Council of Europe area, despite a growing awareness of the need to confront it supported by an evolving body of case-law", says Dunja Mijatović, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, in her Human Rights Comment published today.
"There are several areas in which ethnic profiling may manifest itself more prominently. Government policies may provide excessive discretionary powers to law enforcement authorities, who then use that discretion to target groups or individuals based on their skin colour or the language they speak."
