Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union: hate crime

Hate crime is the

‘violence and crime motivated by racism, xenophobia, religious intolerance or by a person’s disability, sexual orientation or gender identity’.

These types of crimes are reported to be ‘a daily reality throughout the European Union’. However, the victims and the witnesses of hate crimes are not always willing to report them, as shown in the 2012 report, ‘Making hate crime visible in the European Union: acknowledging victims’ rights’. The report concludes

that the ‘EU and its Member States can combat hate crime and address the related fundamental rights violation by making them both more visible and holding perpetrators accountable. This entails encouraging victims and witnesses to report crimes and incidents, while increasing their confidence in the ability of the criminal justice system to deal with this type of criminality decisively and effectively.’

There are several organizations in the UK and the EU that specifically focus on combating hate crimes linked to religious or other beliefs. For instance, the British non-governmental project ‘Tell MAMA’ (‘MAMA’ an acronym of ‘Measuring Anti-Muslim Attack’), launched in 2012, ‘provide a means for such incidents to be reported, recorded and analysed, working to ensure this data is accurate and reliable and the victims and witnesses affected receive support. This project also works with police forces across England, Wales and Scotland in order to ensure access to justice for victims through the prosecution of perpetrators.’

Context: The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (CFREU) was solemnly proclaimed in December 2000 at the Intergovernmental Conference held in Nice, France – the formal procedure of negotiating amendments to the founding treaties of the EU. The rights proclaimed by the CFREU were drawn from various international and national sources, as well as from the European Community’s own 1989 Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers. The CFREU was further recognised by the European Parliament, the Council of Ministers and the European Commission as a major step forward in the human rights field. The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights is an EU body created in 2007 with a mission of monitoring, collecting and analysing data related to the CFREU.

For more information on this and other peace treaties, see

Henning P. Jürgens, Patrick Pasture, Bram De Ridder, Christophe Schellekens, Naum Trajanovski. Reports on historical peace treaties and agreements. Retopea Deliverable 2.3. (November 2022).

Title

Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union: hate crime

content

Hate crime is the ‘violence and crime motivated by racism, xenophobia, religious intolerance or by a person’s disability, sexual orientation or gender identity’. These types of crimes are reported to be ‘a daily reality throughout the European Union’. However, the victims and the witnesses of hate crimes are not always willing to report them, as shown in the 2012 report, ‘Making hate crime visible in the European Union: acknowledging victims’ rights’. The report concludes that the ‘EU and its Member States can combat hate crime and address the related fundamental rights violation by making them both more visible and holding perpetrators accountable. This entails encouraging victims and witnesses to report crimes and incidents, while increasing their confidence in the ability of the criminal justice system to deal with this type of criminality decisively and effectively.’ There are several organizations in the UK and the EU that specifically focus on combating hate crimes linked to religious or other beliefs. For instance, the British non-governmental project ‘Tell MAMA’ (‘MAMA’ an acronym of ‘Measuring Anti-Muslim Attack’), launched in 2012, ‘provide a means for such incidents to be reported, recorded and analysed, working to ensure this data is accurate and reliable and the victims and witnesses affected receive support. This project also works with police forces across England, Wales and Scotland in order to ensure access to justice for victims through the prosecution of perpetrators.’

Context

The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (CFREU) was solemnly proclaimed in December 2000 at the Intergovernmental Conference held in Nice, France – the formal procedure of negotiating amendments to the founding treaties of the EU. The rights proclaimed by the CFREU were drawn from various international and national sources, as well as from the European Community’s own 1989 Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers. The CFREU was further recognised by the European Parliament, the Council of Ministers and the European Commission as a major step forward in the human rights field. The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights is an EU body created in 2007 with a mission of monitoring, collecting and analysing data related to the CFREU.

Questions

How to you understand EU's strategy to fight hate crime?

Temporal Coverage

20th century
21st century

Spatial Coverage

Europe

Relation

Religious practice

Subject

EU Charter of Fundmental Rights

Is Referenced By

Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union: religious diversity
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union – cultural diversity
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union: challenging religious discrimination
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union: non-discrimination
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union: the internet and extremism (#1)
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union: the internet and extremism (#2)
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union: freedom of thought, conscience and religion
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union: religious freedoms
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union: diversity in schools
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union

transcript of

European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, Making hate crime visible in the European Union: acknowledging victims’ rights (Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2012), p.9.

Audience

Yes

Creator

Naum Trajanovski

Collection

Discrimination and being different