EU Statement – UN General Assembly 3rd Committee: Elimination of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance

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Chair,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union.

The Candidate Countries, North Macedonia*, Montenegro*, Serbia*, Albania*, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, the country of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidate Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as Georgia, align themselves with this statement.

The EU rejects and condemns all forms or racism and intolerance, and remains firmly committed to combating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance, both within the EU and throughout the world.

As stated by President von der Leyen in her State of the Union address to the European Parliament in 2020: “it is the moment to make change and to build a truly anti-racist Union – that goes from condemnation to action”.

Racism and racial discrimination run counter to the principles of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights that underpin the European Union and that are common values to all EU Member States.

The EU action in this area builds on a solid legal framework which has been developed over the years to address discrimination, racism, xenophobia, hate speech and crimes in all Member States, in accordance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).

The ICERD is the bedrock of our action. The Convention is a living instrument, which is able to address both new and emerging challenges.  Our focus should remain on realising universal adherence to the Convention and encouraging its full and effective implementation.

We also want to underline once more the indivisibility, interrelatedness and interdependence of all human rights by linking concretely the ICERD with other instruments, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its articles 19 and 20 (on freedom of expression and incitement to hatred).

Another central element of our legal framework is the EU Racial Equality Directive of 2000, which forbids all direct or indirect discrimination based on racial or ethnic origin. The Directive requires EU Member States to establish bodies for the promotion of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin.

We are constantly reviewing the implementation of the Directive.  The European Commission has contracted a study on the possible gaps in protection of discrimination based on ethnic or racial origin and has consulted relevant stakeholders to obtain data and evidence of racial or ethnic discrimination experienced on the ground. The last application report stresses the need to a further strengthening of the visibility, the role and the effective and independent functioning of equality bodies.  This is why the Commission will adopt by the end of 2022 a new proposal for legislation on binding standards for equality bodies, which are essential for offering support to victims of discrimination, for ensuring that EU rules on equal treatment are properly enforced, and for promoting equality and non-discrimination. In this context, the EU calls for a strengthened role for independent National Human Rights Institutions, including Equality bodies, in accordance with the Paris Principles and for civil society for the prevention and elimination of all forms of racial discrimination.

In the last period, the EU has taken a number of important steps.

In September 2020, the European Commission adopted its first ever EU Anti-Racism Action Plan;

In May 2021, a new Anti-racism Coordinator was appointed whose task it is to bring anti-racism action to the core of the European Institutions;

In March 2021 and 2022, the European Commission organised, together with prominent partners, two sessions of the EU Summit Against Racism.

On 5 April 2022, a new Human Resources Strategy for the European institutions was adopted, aiming at ensuring that our workforce is representative of our society and that our working environment is discrimination free, inclusive and accessible will enable staff to use their full potential.

In June 2021, a reinforced and reformed EU Roma strategic framework was launched, focusing on equality, inclusion and participation.

In October 2021, the European Union presented the first-ever comprehensive EU strategy on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life. The EU is deeply concerned with the rising of hate speech and hate crime.

Since 2008, public incitement to violence or hatred on certain grounds, including race, colour, religion, descent or national or ethnic origin, has been a crime across the EU. Extensive efforts have been made also at EU level to ensure effective enforcement of the legislation, through targeted support to Member States and their law enforcement agencies.

Yet, legislation is only part of the answer and policy efforts need to complement it.

In relation to hate speech online, the 2016 voluntary Code of Conduct agreed with the major social media platforms has contributed to enhance platforms’ responsibility over illegal hate speech content they host, while preserving the users’ right to freedom of expression.

Last April, we reached an historic agreement on the new Digital Services Act, which enshrines the principle that what is illegal offline, should be illegal online as well. We acknowledge the persistence of racism and discrimination in our societies and the specific challenges related to the law enforcement agencies’ approach and the relevant legislative framework. EU agencies, such as the Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) and the Agency for Law Enforcement Training (CEPOL) contribute significant resources to enhance the capacity of Member States to ensure that fundamental rights and principles are respected by state actors, in particular in the area of non-discrimination. CEPOL offers regular training to law enforcement authorities on diversity, non-discrimination or discriminatory ethnic profiling.

The EU Anti-racism action plan 2020-2025 is the key initiative to step up action against racism in the Union.  It calls for better enforcement of EU law, elaboration of new proposals to further strengthen the legal framework (especially in areas not yet covered by the non-discrimination legislation, such as law enforcement) and for closer internal and external coordination.

Recognising that national action plans have proved to be a successful way for Member States to offer an effective response to racism and racial discrimination, the EU anti-racism action plan encourages all Member States to adopt national action plans against racism and racial discrimination by the end of 2022.

To support Member States in their efforts, on March 2021 the Commission established a group of experts, which elaborated common guiding principles required to produce effective national action plans against racism and racial discrimination. These guidelines were officially published in March 2022.

Work also continues on collecting good practices from Member States around the processes of National Action Plans against Racism – from drafting to adopting to implementation –with the aim to collect them into an online compendium of good practices as an open source available for anybody working on such policy.

The implementation of the Anti-racism Action Plan is tracked constantly and is discussed internally and with other stakeholders, as for the 2022 European Anti-Racism Summit, which focused on the preparation and adoption of the national action plans and the important role of young people and racialized youth in combating racism and discrimination.

In the EU Human Rights and Democracy Action Plan 2020-2024 a chapter is dedicated to ‘Protecting people, eliminating inequalities, discrimination and exclusion’.  Among the priorities spelled out:

• Step up action to combat all forms of discrimination on any ground, with a specific attention to multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination including on grounds of sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, property, birth, disability, age, sexual orientation and gender identity.
• Promote the exchange of best practices and lessons learnt with partner countries on strategies and policies to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
• Step up action to prevent and combat all forms of discrimination, intolerance, violence and persecution against people based on their exercise of the freedom of  thought, conscience and religion or belief

At the United Nations, the EU engages constructively in the work of the Human Rights Council in the field of combating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance worldwide and contributes to the Interactive Dialogues with the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism and the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent.

The EU follows closely deliberations on the follow up to the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action and in the negotiations on related resolutions of the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly.

We believe that a general reflection on how to better assure universal participation in global efforts to eliminate racism is needed.

We believe that, in order to be effective, the debate on DDPA should be inclusive, the relevant initiatives and decisions should be based on consensus and the available resources should be primarily devoted to support concrete measures to fight against racism and all forms of discrimination on the ground.

As mentioned, the EU believes that the normative standards, as provided by the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) and other human rights instruments, as well as the institutional set up of the UN human rights system, offer an adequate framework, including in fighting contemporary forms of racism (e.g. religious intolerance, racist and xenophobic hate speech and hate crimes).

We consistently argue for the need to avoid the proliferation of mechanisms and instruments dedicated to the elimination of racism. This includes the need to streamline the racism working groups/mechanisms.

It would be better to primarily devote the existing resources to support concrete measures to fight against racism and all forms of discrimination on the ground without undue duplication and to overcome underlying obstacles to the implementation of existing international standards.

It is our common duty as United Nations to combat the scourge of racism. We can only do so effectively by overcoming our divisions, and addressing, in a consensual way, how we can achieve genuine progress towards our common goal, which a world free of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. We look forward to sharing experiences of our own and hearing contributions from all parts of the world.

* North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.