ECRI Report, (fifth monitoring cycle). Published on 25 February 2014
Country
Belgium
Year
Type of publication
Geographical coverage
National
Area/location of interest
Type of Institution
Council of Europe body
Institution
Main Thematic Focus
Racism & xenophobia Discrimination
Target Population
Muslims Migrants People with migrant background
Key findings
Ethnic and religious groups, in particular Muslims, continue to face in general many disadvantages, including discrimination in key fields of life. Muslims are often represented in a negative way in the public debate.
The law banning the full veil and the failure of a number of local authorities to authorise the opening of mosques have further strengthened the Muslim Community’s feeling that they are the target of discrimination.
A large number of racism, xenophobia, discrimination and homophobia cases are dropped by prosecutors.
The situation concerning hate speech on the Internet is extremely worrying with a sharp increase in racist webpages and discussion fora on Belgian sites. Until now, the Federal Police and the Prosecution Service did not record hate speech as a specific category of a criminal offence.
Methodology (Qualitative/Quantitative and exact type used, questionnaires etc)
The working methods for the preparation of the reports involve documentary analyses, a visit to the country concerned, and then a confidential dialogue with the national authorities.
Sample details and representativeness
ECRI’s reports are analyses based on a great deal of information gathered from a wide variety of sources.