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Plassnik: “EU must vigorously promote comprehensive protection against discrimination”

Foreign Minister on the 40th International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

“The worldwide fight against racism is far from over. Even within the EU, there is no room for complacency”, warned the EU Council President and Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik on the 40th International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

“With the adoption of the two Equal Opportunities Directives in 2000, the European Union set important milestones on the path towards comprehensive protection against discrimination. Our next step must now be to give the law courts and police within the EU more effective tools with which to outlaw inhumane, racist and intolerant behaviour”, stated Minister Plassnik. “In addition, the Austrian Presidency is seeking to relaunch the discussions on a Council framework decision on combating racism and xenophobia”, she added. The draft for such a decision provides for measures to ensure equality for all EU citizens, irrespective of the religious, ethnic or other groups to which they belong.

With the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, which has its headquarters in Vienna, the European Union has set up an institution to objectively pinpoint the shortcomings in this area and prepare the grounds for decisions to be taken on measures to eradicate them. At the same time, the EU has broadened and intensified its cooperation with European and global players in the fight against racial discrimination. There is close liaison with the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance of the Council of Europe (ECRI), with the OSCE and the United Nations, particularly with the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

Plassnik also acknowledged the importance of support for civil-society, local and national initiatives to counter exclusion and xenophobia: “Particularly local initiatives, which actively seek to promote tolerance and co-existence, deserve our support.”

The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1966 to commemorate the Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa six years earlier: on 21 March 1960, the police opened fire on peaceful demonstrators, killing 69 people.