On 6 July 2020, the Council of Europe’s anti-racism commission, ECRI, published a statement to warn against racial profiling and systemic racism and inequalities in Europe. ECRI called upon governments to send strong messages and take determined action to expressly prohibit racial profiling and discrimination by law and reiterated that trust in the police by everyone in the society enhances safety for all. In the statement, ECRI urged Council of Europe member states to develop recruitment procedures which ensure that the composition of the police reflects the diversity of the population and to establish fully independent bodies to investigate incidents of alleged police abuse. During its country visits, ECRI has heard many accounts of racist police abuse, including racial profiling and acts of violence, towards minority groups or migrants. As clearly stated in ECRI’s General Policy Recommendation No. 11, racial profiling constitutes a specific form of racial discrimination and must be expressly prohibited by law. It generates a feeling of humiliation and injustice among those groups that are subjected to it, results in their stigmatisation, negative stereotyping and alienation, and hinders good community relations. Furthermore, as concluded by the European Court of Human Rights, the perception by police officers of persons belonging to a particular community as “criminals” and the ensuing practice of racial profiling can result in “institutionalised racism”.
30 June 2020, ECRI organised a webinar on “Inclusive Education in times of Covid-19” together with the Greek Chairmanship of the Council of Europe. The webinar brought together a number of key international and national stakeholders and experts to discuss ways and means of countering what in practice may amount to exacerbated forms of discrimination faced by certain groups of pupils, in particular migrant and/or Roma children, during times of exceptional schooling arrangements as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic or other similar situations.