Brussels, 24/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - An overwhelming number of people are not aware of their rights when it comes to discrimination, the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) stated on Thursday 24 June with the publication of its annual report. According to a recent FRA study, only 39% of respondents from minority groups were aware that the law bans all discrimination against persons for reasons of ethnic origin when they apply for employment. In parallel, only 20% know that there is an organisation which provides support and advice to persons that are victim to discrimination. “There is an urgent need for better information. Most victims of discrimination are not aware that what is being done to them is illegal. At the same time, many do not know how or where to file a complaint. As a consequence, the dark figure of discrimination is extremely high”, deplored Morten Kjaerum, FRA Director. “Governments have an obligation to inform everyone of their rights and ensure access to justice in practice, not just on paper”, he added. The FRA also calls on member states to close gaps in legal protection. In June 2008, the European Commission published a proposal for a directive aimed at closing these gaps and extending protection against discrimination (on the basis of religion, belief, disability, age or sexual leaning), currently covering the employment sector to areas of social security, healthcare, education and access to and supply of goods and services. “I urge EU governments to adopt the European Commission's proposal to extend protection against discrimination to cover all grounds”, said Anastasia Crickley, who chairs the FRA management board. The report also points out that the lack of data collected in the EU27 continues to hamper the implementation of effective policies to combat discrimination. According to Morten Kjaerum, “many member states still have insufficient or no official criminal justice data on racist crime. This is symptomatic of a lack of political focus and resource allocation to address the problem”. On racist crime, in most EU member states (15 out of 27), there is either a total lack of official criminal justice data published, or information limited to a small number of affairs. Nine member states can be considered as having a “good” mechanism for data collection on racist crime and in just three member states these mechanisms are considered “exhaustive”. The annual FRA report may be consulted on: http: //fra.europa.eu (B.C./transl.jl)