Vijesti ROMI.HR

The first recommendation was the improvement of data collection regarding racist, homophobic and transphobic hate speech incidents. While the Danish police collect all the data needed (category of offence, type of hate motivation, target group and judicial follow up and outcome), informations is divided between two different data collection systems. According to the ECRI, these two systems should be unified in the near future to improve the understanding of hate speech offences in Denmark.

On the other hand, the Danish Police has implemented some activities to improve its battle against hate speech. Meetings with members of the ethnic and religious minorities as well as with the LGBT community were amongst the actions taken by the police. The National Police is also improving its cooperation with representatives of different communities through dialogue. The main goal is to encourage the victims of hate speech to report the incidents. Thus, the ECRI considers that its recommendation against hate speech is still in progress.

The second recommendation was about segregation at school. In 2016, a school in Aarhus was accused of racism as it used to limit the number of students coming from ethnic minorities in each class. According to the headmaster, this had nothing to do with discrimination. He used to think that having a minimum of 50% of Danish students was necessary to ensure proper integration of the other students. However, this practice was a kind of segregation that broke equality and did not follow fundamental rights. Thus, in its 2017 report on Denmark, the ECRI asked the authorities to “take urgent measures […] to prevent such practices”. Following a complaint of the Danish Institute for Human Rights, the school’s headmaster acknowledged that his practice created a form of discrimination and that he would stop it. The two parties thus found a friendly agreement to solve the case.

According to the ECRI, the goodwill of the stakeholders as well as the quick resolution of the case, show that this kind of issue should not happen in Denmark in the future. It also allowed a constructive political debate on how to improve diversity in Danish schools. Thus, the ECRI considers that the implementation of this recommendation has been successful.

Racism and intolerance remain a problem in Denmark. However, thanks to the measures taken recently, relevant stakeholders proved their will to improve the situation.