Cyprus/ Commissioner for Administration and Protection of Human Rights/AYT10/2024

Country

Cyprus

Title

Cyprus/ Commissioner for Administration and Protection of Human Rights/AYT10/2024

View full case

Year

2024

Decision/ruling/judgment date

Friday, November 08, 2024

Incident(s) concerned/related

Violence

Related Bias motivation

Racial or ethnic origin

Groups affected

Migrants/Non-EU citizens

Court/Body type

National Human Rights Body

Court/Body

Commissioner for Administration and Protection of Human Rights

Key facts of the case

Τhe Ombudsman published a self-initiated intervention, following media reports about attacks against migrant delivery workers. The Ombudsman had made a similar self-initiated intervention in 2022 on the same subject. The report states that there is a chance that the incidents were motivated by prejudice and that for some of these incidents arrest warrants were issued and criminal prosecutions were initiated, adding that the intervention does not examine the manner in which the police investigated the incidents. The report states that incidents against migrants are on the rise despite the legislative and policy framework and pointed out to the ECRI recommendation of 2022 to adopt a system of monitoring hate crimes and hate speech and to render the legislation stricter. The report refers to police training offered by the ombudsman’s office and to a memorandum of understanding decided between public authorities and CSOs, pursuant to an initiative undertaken by the OSCE.

Main reasoning/argumentation

Due to their racial nature, hate crimes impact fundamental human values and dignity and undermine democratic principles on which equality and non-discrimination is premised. The codification of bias motivation into law recognises the seriousness of hate crimes, however it is evidently not strict enough to contain them. National jurisprudence established that bias motivation may refer to real or assumed protected characteristics which convert the victim into a target in the eyes of the perpetrator.

Is the case related to the application of the Framework Decision on Racism and Xenophobia, the Racial Equality Directive?

Key issues (concepts, interpretations) clarified by the case

Current legislation against hate crime should be rendered stricter and its implementation should be strengthened. There is a need to establish a comprehensive system for monitoring incidents of crime and hate speech. Police authorities should examine and register bias motivation in police reports to combat the phenomenon of under-reporting of incidents of discrimination.

Results (sanctions, outcome) and key consequences or implications of the case

The report recommended to the responsible public authorities that the police examines each incident in order to establish whether or not there is a bias incident and that the recommendations contained in the ECRI report of 2022 be adopted, especially as regards the amendment of the legislative framework to render it more strict, since the current framework appears inadequate in order to serve as a deterrent. Νo sanctions were imposed. The recommendations were not implemented; the legal framework remained unchanged and the police only investigates racist motivation if the perpetrators utter racist slur during the physical attack. There is no protocol in place to be followed by the police in order to identify a racist motivation in the absence of a racist slur and most attacks against delivery workers are prosecuted as common assaults and/or thefts. No measures were adopted and no clarifications were added to police investigation protocols to facilitate the identification of bias motive. Attacks against delivery workers continued after this report was issued. The report refers to police training offered by the ombudsman’s office and to a memorandum of understanding decided between public authorities and CSOs, pursuant to an initiative undertaken by the OSCE.

Key quotation in original language and its unofficial translation into English with reference details

"Ενόψει των ανωτέρω, αναφέρω ότι η Αστυνομία αναμένεται να προβαίνει στην εξέταση του κάθε περιστατικού, προκειμένου να διαπιστώνει κατά πόσο υπάρχει ενδεχόμενο κίνητρο προκατάληψης. Ακόμη, αναμένεται ότι οι συστάσεις που εμπεριέχονται στην Έκθεση της ECRI του 2022, θα τύχουν εφαρμογής από όλους τους αρμόδιους φορείς, και συγκεκριμένα, οι συστάσεις για αυστηροποίηση του νομοθετικού πλαισίου, καθώς διαφαίνεται ότι η ισχύουσα νομοθεσία δεν λειτουργεί αποτρεπτικά για τη διάπραξη των εν λόγω αδικημάτων." "In view of the above, I state that the Police are expected to investigate each incident in order to determine whether there is a possible motive of bias. Furthermore, it is expected that the recommendations contained in ECRI's 2022 Report will be implemented by all relevant actors, in particular, the recommendations to tighten the legislative framework, as it appears that the current legislation does not act as a deterrent to the commission of the offences in question."

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