Following a conference to mark its 25th anniversary, the Council of Europe’s anti-racism commission (ECRI) stressed the need for joint efforts to contain the threats that racism and intolerance pose to society, guarantee respect for human dignity and lay the ground for greater equality in Europe.
ECRI has given itself a number of priorities, including:
- strengthening effective equality and access to rights, including through promoting the independence and effectiveness of equality bodies, inclusive education and LGBTI equality;
- combating hate speech and hatemotivated violence and promoting inclusive integration, particularly for migrants and Roma, and more specifically for children;
- highlighting and promoting good practices in the fight against racism and intolerance;
- taking account of crosscutting issues where the intersection of national or ethnic origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and other grounds can lead to further discrimination and including a gender perspective in all its future work;
- updating its general policy recommendations on combating intolerance and discrimination against Muslims and on the fight against antisemitism; preparing a new recommendation to combat discrimination and intolerance against LGBTI persons; initiating a review of the Charter of Political Parties for a nonracist society;
- highlighting the potential danger of racial profiling and discrimination that may arise as a result of the increasing use of new technologies such as artificial intelligence but also recommending ways to take advantage of the opportunities they bring in the fight against racism and intolerance.
The member states are called on to implement ECRI’s recommendations expeditiously and effectively, with the help of equality bodies for instance, and to promote equality and inclusiveness in the light of the increase in hate speech and intolerance in political discourse.
