On Tuesday 15 October, the Council of Europe’s Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) published a series of reports on the implementation of its recommendations in Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia and Hungary.
ECRI appreciates the Cypriot authorities’ willingness to work on a strategy for LGBTI people, but notes that it has still not been published.
Other measures that have also been praised include those enabling migrant and asylum-seeking children to learn Greek so that they can attend primary school.
ECRI welcomes the drafting of the Danish action plan against racism, which provides for the integration of persons of Muslim origin into the police force and the teaching profession, but deplores the fact that this document has still not been adopted.
Also in Denmark, ECRI notes that its recommendation aimed at avoiding forced evictions under the so-called “parallel society” legislation (limiting the number of non-Westerners in certain neighbourhoods) has not been implemented.
Estonia has taken steps to ensure that hate speech is punished, ECRI points out, but the stigmatisation of nationality and gender identity has not been taken into account.
The requested examination of the impact on LGBTI people of the measures adopted in Hungary during the period of the “state of danger” (declared in 2022 after the outbreak of war in Ukraine) has not been carried out, notes ECRI, which also welcomes the measures taken to strengthen the capacity of law enforcement agencies to deal with racist and LGBTI-phobic offences. ECRI stresses that these measures must be developed. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)