The European Parliament became, on Friday 19 June, the first international institution to recognise the transatlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.
At the request of Younous Omarjee (GUE/NGL, France), this initiative was included in the resolution against racism adopted by the plenary on Friday (493 votes in favour, 104 against and 67 abstentions).
The text also acknowledges MEPs’ support for recent anti-racism demonstrations and condemns white supremacism. “Including the use of slogans that aim to undermine or detract from the Black Lives Matter movement and dilute its significance”, the text indicates.
MEPs overwhelmingly rejected an amendment from the ID Group which sought to replace the statement “Black Lives Matter” with “All Lives Matter”.
Institutional. They also reiterate the request, repeatedly addressed to the EU Council in recent weeks (see EUROPE 12508/11), to immediately conclude the negotiations on the Horizontal Directive on non-discrimination, that has been blocked since 2008.
The resolution also calls on EU leaders to rapidly organise an EU summit on combating structural discrimination in Europe.
It also urges the Commission to set up a group of independent experts to draw up a European Code of Police Ethics.
Police brutality. Finally, States are expected to end racial profiling, increase diversity within law enforcement agencies and adopt independent complaints mechanisms against them.
Condemning police violence, the MEPs recall that citizens have the right to film such violence when they witness it and that “they should never [...] be obliged to destroy evidence”.
However, the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) deplored the absence in this resolution of “a strategic vision on how to tackle structural racism” and regretted that such a response came so late (see EUROPE 12505/23). To view the text: https://bit.ly/2V9te2R (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)