"Country code",Year,"Reference details title","Reference details URL","Main thematic focus",Institution,"Key findings - Short summary","Methodology (Qualitative/Quantitative and exact type used, questionnaires etc)","Sample details and representativeness","Area/location of interest - NUTS3 level" Belgium,2014,"ECRI Report, (fifth monitoring cycle). Published on 25 February 2014",https://www.coe.int/en/web/european-commission-against-racism-and-intolerance/b…,"Racism & xenophobia, Discrimination","ECRI | European Commission against Racism and Intolerance | Council of Europe","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.","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.","ECRI’s reports are analyses based on a great deal of information gathered from a wide variety of sources.","Not applicable - national level"