European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) is the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...

's independent

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

monitoring body specialised in combating

antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

discrimination Discrimination is the process of making unfair or prejudicial distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong, such as race, gender, age, class, religion, or sex ...

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

religious intolerance Religious intolerance or religious bigotry is intolerance of another's religious beliefs, practices, faith or lack thereof. Statements which are contrary to one's religious beliefs do not constitute intolerance. Religious intolerance, rather, ...

, and

xenophobia Xenophobia (from (), 'strange, foreign, or alien', and (), 'fear') is the fear or dislike of anything that is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression that is based on the perception that a conflict exists between an in-gr ...

. It publishes periodic reports on CoE member states and general policy recommendations. The decision to found ECRI was adopted in 1993. The organization became officially active as of March 1994.

Members

ECRI consists of 46 experts, one from every CoE member state. The chair of the commission is Maria Daniella Marouda from Greece, since 2020. Each ECRI member is allowed a renewable term of five years through appointing by their respective governments. To maintain membership, they must also abide by these terms of the ECRI Statute:

The members of ECRI shall have high moral authority and recognised expertise in dealing with racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, antisemitism, and intolerance; The members of ECRI shall serve in their individual capacity, shall be independent and impartial in fulfilling their mandate. They shall not receive any instructions from their government.

The first ECRI chair was the Swedish Discrimination Ombudsman Frank Orton, who held the position until 1998. It was his idea that the commission should undertake its now well-known country-by-country studies, aimed at providing the member states with country-specific advice how to combat racism and related intolerance. Former ECRI chairs include Nikos Frangakis, Michael Head, Eva Smith Asmussen and

Nils Muižnieks Nils Muižnieks (born 31 January 1964 in the United States) is a Latvian-American human rights activist and political scientist. He had served as the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights between 2012 and 2018, succeeding Thomas ...

Actions

The main purpose of the ECRI is to provide a constructive critique, called a General Policy Report (GPR), to countries on their actions and legislature to improve the welfare of the minority groups residing within the nation. The ECRI also pens its reports itself, and not the country being examined, which differentiates it from CERD at the United Nations. Merja Pentikäinen relays the ECRI's desire for immigrants and resident non-EU citizens' full integration and participation in EU societies. In particular, the ECRI is a strong advocate of the integration of the

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnic groups * Romani people, or Roma, an ethnic group of Indo-Aryan origin ** Romani language, an Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani communities ** Romanichal, Romani subgroup in the United Kingdom * Romanians (Romanian ...

people in European society and Romani children in EU school systems. In fact, the Romani are the main objects of attention in most of the organization's calls for integration. However, while racism and discrimination have always been a large part of the ECRI agenda, integration has only started to make prominent appearances in recent GPRs.

References

External links

ECRI website
{{Authority control Council of Europe Anti-racist organizations in Europe

Members

Actions

See also

References

External links