FRA products

This section lists FRA products resulting from fundamental-rights-based projects built upon data collected through desk research, in-depth qualitative fieldwork, and quantitative surveys in the area of hate crime, hate speech, discrimination and harassment. Many of the FRA surveys focus on the experiences of specific population groups that are not adequately covered in other EU surveys.

  • What do fundamental rights mean for people in the EU? – Fundamental Rights Survey (2020)

    This report presents the findings from the survey which encompasses comprehensive and comparable data on people’s experiences and views of their rights in the EU-27. The survey interviewed just under 35,000 people aged 16 years and older – sampled from the general population – in all EU Member States, North Macedonia and the United Kingdom. Among a range of topics covered by the survey, the opinions of the general population were captured concerning, for example: views on having a Muslim as a neighbour; having someone from one’s family marry a Muslim; acceptability of a shop not hiring a Muslim woman, who wears a headscarf because of concerns about how some customers might react.

    To explore the data collected behind the survey, you can access the interactive Fundamental Rights Survey data explorer.
     
  • Bias in Algorithms - Artificial Intelligence and Discrimination (2022)

    This report looks at the use of artificial intelligence in predictive policing and offensive speech detection. It demonstrates how bias in algorithms appears, can amplify over time and affect people’s lives, potentially leading to discrimination, including on the basis of ethnicity, race, religion or belief. It corroborates the need for more comprehensive and thorough assessments of algorithms in terms of bias before such algorithms are used for decision-making that can have an impact on people.
     
  • Encouraging hate crime reporting - The role of law enforcement and other authorities (2021)

    This report examines the concerning rates of non-reported bias-motivated violence and harassment against Muslims across the EU, based on either their ethnicity, race, religion or belief. It outlines the nature, context and prevalence of bias-motivated violence and harassment, underlining the range of victimisation that goes unreported. It then looks at why victims do not report such incidents. The report outlines ways to encourage and enable victims to report.

     
  • Compendium of practices for combating hate crime (last update 2021)

    This compendium collates practices for combating hate crime from across the EU. The practices have been compiled by the Working Party on Improving Reporting and Recording of Hate Crime in the EU. The aim of the compendium is to help policymakers and practitioners such as law enforcement officers understand what is being done elsewhere in the EU to combat hate crime, and which elements could be adapted for use in their own national contexts. In 2021, the Working Group updated the Compendium to reflect the Working Group’s extended mandate, and to illustrate examples of practical application of the existing sets of the Key guiding principles, adopted by the EU High Level Group on combating racism, discrimination and other forms of intolerance against specific groups, including Muslims, on the ground of their race, ethnicity, religion or belief.
     
  • Hate crime recording and data collection practice across the EU (2018)

    This report provides an overview of practices regarding recording and collecting data on hate crimes and the grounds on which specific groups, including Muslims, face different forms of discrimination in all 28 EU Member States, as well as of how law enforcement agencies cooperate with civil society organisations in this regard. The information presented brings together and builds upon work in the field carried out by the EU, its Member States and FRA, as well as by intergovernmental organisations. It aims to assist police investigators, managers, hate crime officers and policymakers working on hate crime by providing rich and detailed information on hate crime recording and data collection practices in the EU. It can serve as a resource to law enforcement agencies in their efforts to improve hate crime recording and data collection systems by helping to identify gaps and inconsistencies, and by illustrating practices from other Member States.
     
  • Together in the EU – Promoting the participation of migrants and their descendants (2017)

    This report examines measures in national integration policies, action plans and strategies concerning ‘active citizenship’ and ‘welcoming society’, in the context of the societal and political participation of migrants and their descendants, including Muslims. These issues are addressed in a 2013 report prepared for the European Commission, Using EU indicators of immigrant integration. The analysis identifies, in the thematic areas covered, patterns in national integration policy responses that promote the Common Basic Principles for Immigrant Integration Policy in the EU, the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the core values of the EU. On this basis, the report clusters national policy responses that adopt a similar approach.
     
  • Ensuring justice for hate crime victims: professional perspectives – Summary (2017) 

    This summary presents the main findings from the FRA report on Ensuring justice for hate crime victims: professional perspectives. The report outlines important insights from a variety of experts, including representatives of criminal courts, public prosecutors’ offices, the police, and non-governmental organisations involved in supporting hate crime victims, as well as identifying the grounds leading to discrimination against Muslims, based on ethnicity, race, religion or belief. In so doing, it sheds light on the complexities that victims face in reporting as well as the organisational and procedural factors that impede their access to justice and the proper recording and prosecution of hate crime.
     
  • Second European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey - Main results (2017)

    The second wave of the European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey aims to assess progress made over the past five years since the first survey was carried out in 2008. Seventeen years after adoption of EU laws that forbid discrimination, immigrants, descendants of immigrants, and minority ethnic groups continue to face widespread discrimination across the EU. These are the main findings of FRA’s second European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey (EU-MIDIS II), which collected information from over 25,500 respondents with different ethnic minority and immigrant backgrounds across all 28 EU Member States. The survey results aim to provide useful comparable data on the actual impact on the ground of EU and national anti-discrimination and equality legislation and policies. This can guide policy makers in developing more targeted legal and policy responses.

    To explore the data collected behind the survey, you can access the interactive survey data explorer
     
  • Second European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey Muslims – Selected findings (2017)

    These are the findings outlined in this report, which examines the experiences of more than 10,500 Muslim immigrants and descendants of Muslim immigrants in 15 EU Member States. In addition to discrimination – including police stops based on ethnic background – it explores issues ranging from citizenship, trust and tolerance, through harassment, violence and hate crime, to rights awareness as a consequence of their race, ethnicity, religion or belief. The report is based on data collected in FRA’s second European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey, which surveyed around 26,000 people with immigrant or ethnic minority backgrounds living in the EU. It provides a unique insight into the experiences and perceptions of the EU’s second largest religious group, representing about 4 % of the EU’s total population.

    To explore the data collected behind the survey, you can access the interactive survey data explorer
     
  • Second European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey - Migrant women - selected findings (2017), European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, Vienna. (MIDIS II) This report examines the results of EU-MIDIS II in relation to immigrants and descendants of immigrants, including Muslim women, in 19 EU Member States. Among the respondents with an immigrant background, half are women (50 %); however, there are substantial variations across countries and the survey’s target groups. These findings examine the situation of the women facing discrimination on the grounds of race, ethnicity, religion or belief surveyed as compared to that of men, as well as compared with the situation of women from the general population, where feasible. The data, disaggregated by gender and by target group, are, however, particularly useful for Member States, as they can assist them in designing gender sensitive measures targeting the different needs of women of diverse immigrant origins living in the EU.

    To explore the data collected behind the survey, you can access the interactive survey data explorer
     
  • Incitement in media content and political discourse in Member States of the European Union (2016)

    This FRA contribution to the second Annual Colloquium on Fundamental Rights provides a snapshot of manifestations of incitement in media content and political discourse against different groups in EU Member States, including Muslims facing forms of discrimination on the ground of race, ethnicity, religion or belief. The paper outlines the European and international legal framework governing such cases, substantiated by relevant case law examples. Highlighting that members of minority groups perceive the prevailing social climate as condoning racism, xenophobia and intolerance, this FRA paper underlines the need for EU institutions and Member States to address the effect incitement can have on the population groups it targets.
     
  • Current migration situation in the EU: hate crime (2016)

    FRA data – as of November 2016 – indicate that violence, harassment, threats and xenophobic speech targeting asylum seekers and migrants, including Muslims, remain pervasive and grave across the European Union, whether committed by state authorities, private companies or individuals, or vigilante groups. The report also examines the diverse factors that undermine the reporting of such incidents and highlights promising practices seeking to counter them.
     
  • Promoting respect and diversity - Combating intolerance and hate (Contribution to the Annual Colloquium on Fundamental Rights) (2015)

    The EU continues to witness challenges to its core principles and values, through violence motivated by hate and intolerance, through terrorist attacks against soft targets such as the media and cultural or religious facilities, and through the discrimination and exclusion of specific groups, including Muslims, on the grounds of race, ethnicity, religion or belief. The EU has adopted legislation to tackle discrimination, hate speech and hate crime, and it has funded many large- and small-scale transnational projects. This contribution paper to the Annual Colloquium on Fundamental Rights provides evidence of the fact that such respect is lacking and suggests ways in which governments can ensure they fulfil their duty to safeguard the fundamental right to non-discrimination for everyone living in the EU. Evidence collected by FRA shows that racism, xenophobia, and related intolerance are widespread, despite measures taken by government and civil society across the EU.
     
  • Racism, discrimination, intolerance and extremism: Learning from experiences in Greece and Hungary (2013) 

    This report examines closely the effectiveness of responses by public authorities, statutory human rights bodies and civil society organisations to counter racism, discrimination, intolerance and extremism against specific groups, including Muslims, on the ground of race, ethnicity, religion or belief. This includes identifying barriers that may prevent the effective implementation of actions taken and what could be done to remove such barriers, as well as drivers that may not be fully used. The analysis presented in this report mainly draws from fact-finding meetings senior FRA staff held in both EU Member States with government officials, prosecutors, law enforcement agencies, members of parliament, statutory human rights bodies and civil society organisations during the second half of 2013.
     
  • Making hate crime visible in the European Union: acknowledging victims' rights (2012)

    The report compares the official data collection mechanisms pertaining to hate crime in place in EU Member States, and highlights challenges inherent in recording the incidence of hate crime. The report concludes by considering how to broaden the scope of official data collection on hate crime to enable EU Member States to meet obligations they have toward victims of hate crime. The focus in this report also lies on crime victimisation surveys that encompass hate crime, such as those conducted by the FRA on the experience of discrimination against Muslims or the grounds of migrant status, ethnicity, race, religion or belief (EU-MIDIS); on perceptions and experiences of antisemitism; on discrimination and victimisation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons; and on gender-based violence against women in the EU.
     
  • Synthesis Report: The Racial Equality Directive: application and challenges (2012)

    The present report discusses the application of the Racial Equality Directive, which implements the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic backgrounds, through the laws and practices in the 27 EU Member States. In doing so it explores the challenges to the effective realisation of the directive’s goals and in conclusion discusses how such obstacles might be overcome. To the extent possible, the report outlines how legislation and practices have evolved over time. However, there is often an absence of data at Member State level and, where data is collected, divergent end-purposes and methodologies impede direct and precise comparisons. Indicators capable of facilitating more standardised measurements of progress in the realisation of fundamental rights are in a state of ongoing development. In this sense the FRA own work on indicators on the rights of the child constitutes a valuable tool for gauging implementation that highlights the need for further research of this nature.