Brussels, 17/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner, Nils Muiznieks, called on Greece to tackle the violence of the Golden Dawn Party, a neo-Nazi party which mainly targets migrants, describing Greek democracy as having been endangered by the emergence of hate crimes and the poor response to them from the Greek state. In his report, which was based on a visit to the country between 28 January and 1 February of this year, the commissioner noted that a whole range of attacks perpetrated against migrants had been carried out by Golden Dawn supporters and even MPs. “The authorities must firmly condemn all instances of hate speech and hate crime”, said Muiznieks in a press release. “All available means must be used to effectively sanction individuals and organisations which incite (…) hate”, he continued. Full use must be made of international law to impose proper sanctions against this kind of political organisation, the commissioner argues, calling on the Greek authorities to accelerate the adoption of the bill on racism and xenophobia, pending since 2011. Systematic, on-going training for the police, coast guard, prosecutors and judges is also needed, the commissioner states. Migrants and Roma continue to suffer ill treatment, even at at the hands of the Greek police, who disregard international human rights standards, and have been criticised for this at international level, Muiznieks continues. The authorities must, therefore, eliminate the institutional culture of impunity and respond to all suspicions of collusion between the police and Golden Dawn, the commissioner states, going on to urge Greece to continue to improve its asylum system and remedy the gaps in it which imperil migrants.
In response to this report, the Greek government states that it shares the commissioner's concerns regarding the considerable increase in racist and xenophobic attacks. But it also stresses that this phenomenon remains marginal in Greek society. As for Muiznieks' suggestion of sanctioning or even banning Golden Dawn from the Greek political landscape, the authorities stress that such an action is not so easy to implement, as the party has been duly voted into the parliament and that the best way to face the problem was to avoid responses guided by “emotion”. (SP/transl.fl)