1
June
2006

Annual Report 2006 - Inadequacy of data on racist crime for 2006

The EUMC Annual Report 2006 looks at racial discrimination and data on racist violence and crime. It also includes an overview of positive initiatives.The EUMC finds that migrants and ethnic minorities remain discriminated against across the EU in employment, education and housing.

The EUMC report highlights that most Member States lack the necessary data to monitor potential socio-economic inequalities between different ethnic/national groups. As a result, some groups may experience discrimination without adequate response from the state. In addition, only two of the EU's 25 Member States can be said to have comprehensive data collection systems that can reveal the nature and extent of racist violence. Due to the gaps in official data, it is not possible to compare racist crime rates between different Member States. Victims of racist violence may remain invisible and often without support.

The EUMC calls on politicians to lead on measures which actively combat racism, and thus reduce exclusion and marginalisation that currently affect migrants and ethnic minorities. EUMC Director Beate Winkler urges Decision-makers to "throw their weight behind the national measures called for by the EU's anti-discrimination Directives, especially in those countries where response to them has been slow".

To support this process, the EUMC highlights in its report series of policy initiatives and measures taken by governements and EU Institutions to promote equality and fight against racial discrimination such as putting in place more effective and comprehensive data collection mechanisms, developing and implementing comprehensive National Action Plans (NAPs) to combat racism and discrimination, or developing further discrimination testing.

Corrigendum
Changes have been made to the EN version of the Annual Report 2006.
Following pages are replacing page 75 and 83 of the printed version of the report. PDF: [ page 75 - page 83 ]

The summary:
PDF: [ cs - da - de - et - el - en - es - fr - it - lv - lt - hu - mt - nl - pl - pt - sk - sl - fi - sv ]