The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published an article about a new report by the Council of Europe's Committee on Racism, which warned of increased discrimination and hate speech directed against Muslims in Denmark.
The report by the Committee on Racism describes Rasmus Paludan as the “worst expression” of the growing trend of hate speech directed against Muslims.
According to the report, discrimination and hate speech directed at Muslims are on the rise in Denmark, and not enough is being done to combat it. This is the criticism leveled by the Council of Europe's Committee on Racism in a recently published country report on Denmark.
In the report, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) points to several “worrying” trends in recent years regarding the treatment of citizens of Muslim or non-Western backgrounds in this country.
“Regarding hate speech, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance notes with regret that Muslims in Denmark, including guest workers and asylum seekers, are increasingly being portrayed, including by politicians from various political parties, as a threat to Danish values and culture.” Among other things.
About the report
The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) was established by the Council of Europe as an independent human rights monitoring body with a particular focus on combating racism, discrimination, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and intolerance in the EU member states.
The UNHCR regularly publishes country reports that review the situation in certain countries. These reports typically cover a five-year period and are based on written, national, and international sources, as well as dialogue with national authorities.
In addition, there are contact visits to relevant groups, both from the state and from civil society, such as representatives of the Jewish community in Denmark.
The list of sources did not show any other people interviewed for the report.
Source: ECRI
“The worst expression of this trend” is the racist politician Rasmus Paludan, who ran for parliament in 2019 with the Stram Kurs party.
“With regard to concrete examples of hate speech committed during the reference period of this report (2018-2021), the leader of the far-right party, Stram Kurs, should be mentioned, who allegedly calls for ethnic cleansing against Muslims and threatens, insults and slanders Muslims and Black people in their neighborhoods while enjoying police protection under the name of freedom of expression.”.
Jyllands-Posten is trying to get a comment from Rasmus Paludan.
The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance regularly publishes country reports on racism in EU member states. The Commission has previously criticized Denmark for tightening family reunification rules and its highly controversial “jewelry law,” which allows police, for example, to confiscate valuables and large sums of cash from asylum seekers if their value exceeds 10,000 Danish kroner.
The new report contains several direct recommendations to Denmark.
workplan
One of the things for which the government was criticized was that it had not yet put in place a long-awaited national action plan to combat racism, with a particular focus on preventing racism and discrimination against Muslims.
However, the Danish government noted in a comment at the end of the report that a political majority in the Danish parliament in January had agreed to develop such an action plan, and it was expected to be ready by the end of 2022.
The government wrote in response, “The action plan is expected to combat racism in its broadest sense by exposing the prevalence and nature of racism in society.”.
According to ECRI, the action plan should include measures in several areas such as education, public awareness, and training of relevant professionals such as officers and teachers. At the same time, Denmark is encouraged to make more effort to involve people of minority origin in these jobs specifically.
The committee also recommends the possibility of cutting off public support to “racist organizations, including political parties,” and dissolving them “when going to court.”.
Criticism of the “Ghetto Law”
The report also criticizes Denmark for labeling disadvantaged housing areas “parallel communities” on its annual list, which until recently was officially called the ghetto list. The report states that these euphemisms and the categorization of residents as “Westerners” and “non-Westerners” risk stigmatizing people of immigrant origin.
At the same time, the report raises the problematic point that Danish legislation allows for the forced relocation of families from these so-called parallel communities. One of the key recommendations for Denmark is to end this practice and instead use positive incentives to create more mixed-use housing areas.
In contrast, Denmark was praised for putting in place a national action plan against anti-Semitism in January and for improving the rights of the LGBT community in legislation.
In total, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance is making 14 recommendations to Denmark to improve efforts and prevention in the field of racism.
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