Discrimination and inequalities on different grounds remain realities in everyday life throughout the EU, the findings of FRA surveys and various national studies published in 2018 confirm. These findings also consistently show that people who experience discrimination seldom report it. The most common reason cited for not reporting is the belief that nothing would change as a result.
In light of this evidence, it can be noted that both the Racial Equality Directive and the Employment Equality Directive stipulate under their provisions on positive action that, to ensure full equality in practice, the principle of equal treatment shall not prevent any Member State from maintaining or adopting specific measures to prevent or compensate for disadvantages linked to any of the protected grounds.
The Racial Equality Directive and the directives in the area of gender equality also establish bodies for the promotion of equal treatment. They are tasked with providing assistance to victims of discrimination, conducting research on discrimination and making recommendations on how to address discrimination. All EU Member States have established such equality bodies. However, several European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) and Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) country reports published in 2018 expressed concerns regarding the effectiveness, independence and adequacy of human, financial and technical resources of the equality bodies monitored.
The European Commission’s Recommendation on standards for equality bodies and ECRI’s revised General Policy Recommendation No. 2 provide comprehensive guidance on how equality bodies’ mandates, structures and means can be strengthened to increase their effectiveness.
The chart above shows the answers for Group average by 'All' when people were asked about 'Did you report or make a complaint about the most recent time you felt discriminated against because of your ethnic or immigrant background in any area?'. For category 'Sub-Saharan Africa - No' the group 'All' has the highest percentage. For category 'Sub-Saharan Africa - Yes' the group 'All' has the highest percentage. For category 'Turkey - No' the group 'All' has the highest percentage. For category 'Turkey - Yes' the group 'All' has the highest percentage.Note: The areas include: looking for work, at work, education (self or as parent), health, housing, and other public or private services including public administration, restaurant or bar, public transport, shop.