ECRI Report, Fifth monitoring cycle Published on 24 February 2015
Country
Greece
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 Ethnic profiling Hate speech
Target Population
Muslims Migrants Ethnic minorities People with migrant background Refugees & asylum seekers
Key findings
The widespread problem of hate speech had increased substantially since 2009, in particular in the context of the rise of Golden Dawn. Hate speech is mainly directed against migrants, Muslims and Roma, but also against Jews and LGBT persons.
There have been borderline incidents against those whose countries are perceived as being responsible for the economic crisis and the austerity measures taken in response thereto. The exact number of these incidents is difficult to ascertain in the absence of systematic data collection.
There are no detailed statistics on the few cases that reach the courts, since there is no central hate crime database.
Since ECRI’s last report, Greece has seen the rise of Golden Dawn, which entered the Athens City Council in 2010 and the national Parliament in 2012. The leadership and members of Golden Dawn have openly voiced their hatred of immigrants and Jews on many occasions. Praise of Nazism and Hitler, Holocaust denial and antisemitic hate speech are frequent occurrences.
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.