ENAR Network achievements – November-December 2018

ENAR Network achievements

High-level EU meeting on Islamophobia. Following our June 2018 open letter calling for a meaningful coordinator on anti-Muslim hatred, the European Commission organised a high-level meeting on anti-Muslim hatred on 3 December. A coalition of civil society organisations working to combat Islamophobia handed out concrete recommendations during the meeting and the Dutch representative supported it and encouraged other Member State representatives to use them for policy improvement.

EU Guidance on Framework Decision on combating racism. The European Commission in December 2018 published its guidance document on the practical application of the Framework Decision. The document follows a consultation of ENAR, and the input of ENAR members in numerous meetings of the High Level Group on combating racism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance. The guidance document reflects calls for Member States to center the victims’ approach in recording and investigating hate crimes, and for an intersectional approach to recognition of protected grounds.

European Parliament Resolution on people of African descent. The European Parliament Civil Liberties Committee adopted a resolution drafted by ENAR detailing policy recommendations on the fundamental rights of people of African descent in Europe. This will be voted on in Plenary in 2019.

Policy progress on antigypsyism. The reference paper on antigypsyism by the Alliance against Antigypsyism, of which ENAR is a core member, was quoted in the European Commission’s Conclusions paper on Antigypsyism: increasing its recognition to better understand and address its manifestations.

Civil society coalition on democracy. A broad coalition of civil society organisations, including ENAR, joined forces to issue a wake-up call to EU leaders and governments: democracy is under attack, ahead of the EU colloquium on fundamental rights on 26-27 November. We handed the call to Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans just before the colloquium.

Members’ achievements

In Germany, the Zentralrat Deutscher Sinti und Roma’s advocacy work led to the establishment of a national expert commission on antigypsyism.

The In IUSTITIA organisation in the Czech Republic secured a first-instance verdict against a man who has been making verbal threats to his employees. It is the first time a Czech court has convicted a perpetrator of committing a hate crime because the assault was directed against a human rights defender for performing such work.

The Collective Against Islamophobia in Belgium (CCIB) collected complaints about a company refusing to hire a woman wearing the headscarf and alerted the Belgian Equality Boday UNIA. Following mediation work led by UNIA, the company adopted an inclusive neutrality policy for its employees.