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Equality

Equality, non-discrimination and racism

Equality is a core value of the EU. You have the right to fair treatment regardless of who you are, what you believe, or how you chose to live.

We carry out research and share expertise to help fight discrimination, inequality and racism in all its forms.

Highlights

Products
21
March
2011
The Handbook on European non-discrimination law is jointly produced by the European Court of Human Rights and the FRA. It is a comprehensive guide to non-discrimination law and relevant key concepts.
18
June
2013
This year’s summary of the FRA Annual report – Highlights 2012 – puts the spotlight on key legal and policy developments in the field of fundamental rights in 2012.
18
June
2013
Against a backdrop of rising unemployment and increased deprivation, this FRA Annual report closely examines the situation of those, such as children, who are vulnerable to budget cuts, impacting important fields such as education, healthcare and social services. It looks at the discrimination that Roma continue to face and the mainstreaming of elements of extremist ideology in political and public discourse. It considers the impact the crises have had on the basic principle of the rule of law, as well as stepped up EU Member State efforts to ensure trust in justice systems.
17
May
2013
In light of a lack of comparable data on the respect, protection and fulfilment of the fundamental rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) launched in 2012 its European Union (EU) online survey of LGBT persons’ experiences of discrimination, violence and harassment.
This major online survey, carried out in 2012, collected information from more than 93,000 LGBT people in the EU on their experiences of discrimination, violence, verbal abuse or hate speech on the grounds of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The data explorer also allows the filtering of responses by age, sexual orientation and country of residence.
8
May
2013
Many of us enjoy and take pride in supporting sports clubs and teams. Nevertheless, racism, xenophobia and antisemitism continue to blight sport. These phenomena persist in many sports, but tend to be most visible in football due to its popularity, its coverage and the number of people engaged in the sport at all levels.
11
March
2013
Certain people are seen as particularly vulnerable to unequal treatment, because they share a combination of characteristics that may trigger discrimination. A Roma woman sterilised without her informed consent, for example, has suffered discrimination not just because of her sex, as all women do not face this treatment, nor just because she is Roma, as Roma men may not face this treatment. The discriminatory treatment is based specifically on the intersection of her sex and ethnic origin.
11
March
2013
The FRA report 'Inequalities and multiple discrimination in access to and quality of healthcare' examines experiences of unequal treatment on more than one ground in healthcare, providing evidence of discrimination or unfair treatment.
10
March
2013
This book will tell you about FRA’s work on how people might be treated differently in healthcare and on multiple discrimination in healthcare.
7
March
2013
This brief provides a short compilation of FRA findings on the issue of combating hate crime in the EU.
June
2012
This summary in easy read format provides information about FRA’s work on the right to live independently.
27
November
2012
Discrimination and intolerance persist in the European Union (EU) despite the best efforts of Member States to root them out, FRA research shows. Verbal abuse, physical attacks and murders motivated by prejudice target EU society in all its diversity, from visible minorities to those with disabilities. This FRA report is designed to help the EU and its Member States to tackle these fundamental rights violations both by making them more visible and bringing perpetrators to account.
27
November
2012
This EU-MIDIS Data in focus report 6 presents data on respondents’ experiences of victimisation across five crime types: theft of or from a vehicle; burglary or attempted burglary; theft of personal property not involving force or threat (personal theft); assault or threat; and serious harassment. The European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey (EU-MIDIS) is the first EU-wide survey to ask 23,500 individuals with an ethnic and minority background about their experiences of discrimination and criminal victimisation in everyday life.
Report / Paper / Summary
April
2005
This summary provides an insight into the extent of, and policy responses to, racist violence in the EU15. To this end they provide an overview of current knowledge about and responses to racist violence, by the State and civil society, in individual Member States.
26
January
2010
The European Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) conducted European-wide research in 2009 on the contribution of memorial sites to Holocaust education and human rights education in the European Union (EU). This summary report, derived from the main report 'Discover the past for the future. The role of historical sites and museums in Holocaust education and human rights education in the EU', provides selected findings, discussion points and recommendations.
Report / Paper / Summary
10
October
2010
Racism and ethnic discrimination in sport have increasingly become a public issue in European sport over the past decades. This report examines the occurrence and different forms of racism, ethnic discrimination and exclusionary practices in sports, focusing on different sports and levels of practice in the EU.
7
December
2010
The arrival of thousands of separated children in the European Union from third countries poses a serious challenge to EU institutions and Member States, since, according to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, they have a duty to care for and protect children. This summary highlights the key findings of the FRA research on separated, asylum-seeking children in EU Member States.
20
June
2012
This year‘s summary of the FRA Annual report – Highlights 2011 – chronicles the positive developments made in 2011 as well as the challenges facing the EU and its Member States in the field of fundamental rights, drawing on objective, reliable and comparable socio-legal data.
Karoline Edtstadler, State Secretary at the Austrian Ministry of the Interior, and Ariel Muzicant, Vice-President of the European Jewish Congress, will speak at an event in Vienna on 30 April which addresses antisemitism in Austria.
Too many people with an ethnic or migrant background are still being held back in the job market. This is despite laws against racial discrimination and for equal opportunities in employment that have been in place for decades, the heads of three European human rights institutions said in a joint statement on today’s International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Across the EU, many Member States are improving their equality data to help policymakers combat discrimination and challenge prejudices. To inspire others, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights has just published an online compendium of nearly 40 practices from 15 countries on the collection and use of equality data.
The Romanian Presidency of the EU Council held a conference on the fight against antisemitism: a common approach to better protect Jewish communities in Europe – from policy to action.
With antisemitism once again on the rise, International Holocaust Remembrance Day on 27 January is a moment to reaffirm our commitment to human rights and remember the millions who were killed during the Second World War.
Throughout 2019, the agency will continue to work steadfastly for everyone to promote and protect human rights, in a year that marks 10 years of the European Union’s very own bill of rights, the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The agency’s Director spoke at the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting on 6 December 2018 on antisemitism.
The agency attended the 12th EU-Israel seminar on 17 December on combating racism, xenophobia and antisemitism.
The year 2018 saw many significant anniversaries in the world of human rights. It was the year that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights turned 70 and the European Convention on Human Rights 65.
On 13 December in Madrid, the agency took part in the fifth Congress of Human Rights of Spanish Lawyers, devoted to preventing and combating hate crime.
The agency delivered a keynote speech to a conference on discrimination of Muslims.
The Agency has just published a paper that looks at how European Court of Human Rights case law relating to hate crime has evolved.
Antisemitic hate speech, harassment and fear of being recognised as Jewish; these are some of the realities of being Jewish in the EU today. It appears to be getting worse, finds a major repeat survey of Jews from the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, the largest ever of its kind worldwide.
A new online tool to help free Muslims from hatred has just been released by FRA. The anti-Muslim hatred database is an easy-to-use overview of information on hate crime, hate speech and discrimination against Muslims across the EU.
Black people in the EU face unacceptable difficulties in simply finding somewhere to live or getting a decent job because of their skin colour, according to findings from a major repeat survey by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. Racist harassment also remains all too common.
The persistent problem of limited data hinders effective responses to tackle Europe’s longstanding antisemitism issues, finds the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights’ latest annual overview of antisemitism data from across the EU. Without such data, government and civil society efforts to combat antisemitism will remain general and untargeted.
Nearly 60% of Europeans consider being old a disadvantage when looking for work. Societies often view older people as burdens. Too often we overlook the basic human rights of our older people. This year, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) in its 2018 Fundamental Rights Report explores how a rights-based approach towards respect for older people is starting to happen.
Promoting equality and combating racism are essential to fortify social cohesion and democratic security, the heads of three European human rights institutions said in a joint statement on today’s International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
A major new survey investigating discrimination and hate crime against Jews living in the European Union will start in 2018, led by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA).
The vast majority of Muslims in the EU have a high sense of trust in democratic institutions despite experiencing widespread discrimination and harassment, a major survey by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) shows. The survey captures the experiences of Muslim immigrants and their EU-born children, revealing that public attitudes have changed all too little over the last decade.