Non-Governmental Organizations address the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on the implementation of the Convention in Ireland, Norway, Serbia and Spain

21 February 2011

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination this morning heard statements from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on the situation of racism, racial discrimination, and related intolerance in Ireland, Norway, Serbia and Spain.

The representatives of NGOs in Norway particularly highlighted the stringent requirement for foreign migrants to learn and master the Norwegian language as a prerequisite for employment and other social status. They decried the complacency of State authorities regarding public statements by certain officials and opinion leaders which were largely discriminatory and particularly stigmatized Islam.

The main concern of Spanish civil society groups was the practice of the current Spanish government to indiscriminately detain large numbers of foreigners who had not committed any crimes. Speakers expressed regret that the government had adopted these immigration laws following recommendations of the European Union which sought to criminalize undocumented migrants.

The speaker from a Serbian NGO focused their intervention on the blatant acts of discrimination against the Roma and especially Roma children.

Representatives from Irish NGOs underlined the government’s unwillingness to recognize the Irish travelers’ community as an ethnic minority and requested that the definition of the Roma be expanded in order to cover travelers in Ireland. They stressed the presence of several studies on the travelers’ community and expressed the desire to see the government implement tailored measures to improve their plight and foster greater tolerance in the mainstream Irish population.

Representatives of the following NGOs took part in the interactive dialogue: Norwegian Centre Against Racism, OMOD; the Institution against Public Discrimination; the Norwegian Tenant Association; the Resource centre for Minority Women; the Spanish Society for International Human Rights Law; the Regional Centre for Minorities; the Immigrant Council of Ireland; the European Network Against Racism - Ireland; the Irish Traveler Movement; the National Traveler Centre; the Coordination Point for NGO Alliance Against Racism; and the Mercy Justice Office.

The next meeting of the Committee will be this afternoon at 3 p.m. when it will begin consideration of the combined nineteenth and twentieth periodic reports of Norway (CERD/C/NOR/19-20). The Committee is scheduled to consider the report of Norway for the next two meetings, concluding on Tuesday, 22 February at 1 p.m.

STATEMENTS AND INTERACTIVE DIALOGUES

Norway
Concerning the situation in Norway, a speaker commended the committee for making funding available to enable them complete their report. Norwegian non-governmental organizations were worried that provisions for language instruction were not included in Norwegian legislation to facilitate the integration of foreigners in the country. The speaker underlined the need to listen to and understand the mechanisms of discrimination in order to examine the cases of victims before seeking legal redress.

Monitoring was needed on how minority students were treated and more lawyers specialized on issues of racial discrimination had to be trained. Racial profiling by the police represented a huge worry and there was a lack of monitoring. The speaker said that female genital mutilation in Norway was as rampant as in African countries but there were no official statistics to demonstrate the actual situation. One speaker was concerned about islamophobia in the country and expressed the need for the minority to receive more protection. Another speaker raised the issue of racial discrimination against Africans and Asians in the private sector because of their origin. The NGO representative underlined the need for a broad survey of migrant workers’ housing situation in Norway in order to improve rental housing, with a particular focus on eliminating sporadic fires. Someone else reiterated the concern about islamophobia and stressed that there appeared to be no barriers as to what could be said against Muslims.

There was a serious problem regarding the health and medical situation of undocumented migrants in Norway, some of whom had been living in the country for ten or more years without regularization. The government had not followed up on the Committee’s recommendation in this regard, but was instead facilitating the procedure of indiscriminately imprisoning asylum seekers. Another speaker highlighted the vulnerability of women and black migrants in Norway. There were several restrictions on women and ethnic minority children with regards to movement, rights to marriage, and other gender-based discrimination. Issues of forced marriage and genital mutilation had stigmatized black and ethnic minority women and exposed them to discriminatory language and marginalization from nationals. There were also imbalances in the allocation of economic resources to migrant and ethnic minority women.

Interactive Dialogue

An Expert requested more information about the public discourse surrounding Muslims in the country and the state response to such discourse.

In response, a speaker said that Islam had become a major focus in public debate in recent times. For instance, when the government warned about the hidden islamisation of Norway by the Muslims (who account for 4% of the population), the Progress party leader reacted by calling it an open islamisation. There existed other clear examples of fairly racist statements made by the leader of the Progress Party which were surprisingly not challenged by the Prime Minister.

A committee member asked about inter-sectionality in the realm of gender discrimination, genital mutilation and other issues and how these issues could be addressed in order to find a lasting solution. They also wanted to know more about targeted data collection in order to solve the concerns raised.

An NGO representative responded by saying that unfortunately racism manifested itself in gender issues as women were used as tools to seek solutions. Many resources had been allocated to solve women’s issues but the situation of racism against women was not addressed directly by the government. Another speaker addressed the lack of targeted data collection and said that in the data collected in the labour market there was no description for “status” and the NGOs had requested that the government take steps to address this concern.

A Committee expert thanked the NGOs for their reports and asked for more information on the stringent measure regarding the requirement for immigrants to learn the Norwegian language. Also, how were non-accompanied migrant children treated? What improvements had been brought about concerning the Sami? Were there beneficial measures put in place to make for further improvements? They also requested more information about the role of the Ombudsman and the Norwegian Institute.

Regarding the healthcare system, a speaker said there was a need for qualified interpreters and there was a lot to be done to improve the situation. Another speaker said there was no information about the Sami because they could not mobilize the Sami population to take part in the deliberations, but hoped to do so in subsequent consultations. The speaker expressed doubts about the effectiveness of language training measures for immigrants because the slated courses were very expensive and the immigrants could not afford to pay for them. Also, the initial course did not last long enough to enable a proper understanding of Norwegian.

A Committee Member asked for clarification about perpetrators of female genital mutilation in Norway; was it practiced by Norwegians within the territory or was it principally carried out by the migrants who came from countries where the practice was widespread?

An NGO representative underlined that female genital mutilation was forbidden by law but the issue lay with the fact that 100 per cent of the migrants who came from the countries where it was practiced had undergone female genital mutilation. However, there was no information as to whether the victims of female genital mutilation had undergone genital mutilation before setting foot in Norway.

Spain

An NGO representative referred to the preventive detention of foreigners, noting that Spanish law allowed such detention for a period of up to 60 days and the objective was to make sure that the detained foreigner would appear in court or show up during the asylum procedure. Detention of foreigners with the threat of expulsion was unjustified given that only a small number were eventually expelled. The Ombudsman had seen the lack of privacy of detainees in the dormitories and the toilets in the centers; families were being separated and hygiene and sanitary conditions were not and there were no health personnel present in the detention centers. Also, access to lawyers remained limited and in some cases inexistent for detained asylum seekers. The speaker concluded that preventive detention and systematic detention of persons who had not committed any crimes ran contrary to the various UN conventions, including the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination. Laws regarding asylum seekers had been repeatedly violated, especially those regarding detention conditions and there had been violent acts committed by guards against detainees.

It was further noted that social alarm and increases in xenophobia as well as frail co-existence within the State were facilitated by certain systematic practices and inaction by the Spanish government. Spain ought to investigate all acts of discrimination against foreigners and take measures to punish the perpetrators.

Interactive Dialogue

A Committee Member asked about the motives behind the massive detention of foreigners, especially Latin Americans and North Africans, who were thought to be depriving Spanish citizens of their privileges.

Responding to the question, an NGO representative said that civil society in Spain as such did not reject the immigrants living and working in Spain. Immigrants were highly respected in Spain given the country’s own immigration history. What had been a problem in recent times was the law regulating foreign immigrants in Spain. The discrimination was caused by the lack of proportion in the detention of foreigners who were not guilty of any crimes at all. The present Spanish government was applying this discriminatory measure following recommendations from the European Union in order to limit the number of foreigners migrating to Europe.

Another Committee Member asked for more information about detainees who had not yet been expelled given that only 8,900 had been deported. He also asked how the Spanish society would respond to the influx of people from North Africa (Tunisia, Egypt, etc.) who sought jobs and a better respect of their human dignities.

The representative responded that there was no official information from the Ministry of Interior, who had avoided such requests, as to the plight of the 8,000 former detainees.

Another Committee Expert requested that a member of the European Union be invited in order to respond regarding these immigration laws.

Serbia

An NGO representative focused on the issue of segregation of Roma children in education, where they were often placed in special schools without any measures to eliminate possibilities for discrimination. Roma children were placed in these schools on the grounds that they were mentally disabled, a wrong and disturbing issue. Another discriminatory measure was the use of Roma-only schools. When Roma children started attending a nearby school in great numbers, parents of Serbian children began withdrawing their children until only Roma children were left in the school. There was also the issue of hate crimes, to which there was an insufficient State response via legislation. There were indiscriminate arrests of Roma, Bosnian and Albanian citizens and the government did not provide any measures or data in that regard. Motives of perpetrators of hate crimes were also not identified by the police. Members of the Roma community often lived in informal makeshift settlements with no basic amenities such as potable water or heating system and they faced rampant indiscriminate expulsions on the grounds that they lacked documentation. There was huge opposition to the adoption of a draft law to regulate the Roma in Serbia and this was rather disturbing.

Interactive Dialogue

A Committee Member wanted to know if the reported improvement in the attitude towards the Roma was genuine.

The NGO representative answered that society’s attitude had not improved at all; Serbia had not confronted its past crimes against humanity and was using the European Union accession process to justify the creation of discriminatory legislation. At the end of the day, the legislation only served the purpose for which it was designed, which was to facilitate Serbia’s admission into the European Union.

A Committee Member wanted to know more about the legally invisible people and asked why there still was not a single solution of the issue.

The representative said that the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights viewed the non-governmental organizations as their adversary. However, it was hoped that the Ministry would be split and that the dialogue with civil society might be re-established. Regarding legally invisible people, one needed simply two witnesses in order to get officially registered. The problem could be solved, but there was a general lack of political will because the government worried that too many Roma would become regulated and thus gain access to social security and other state services.

Responding to a concern about discrimination against Bosnians, it was noted that the members of the Bosnian community were victims of war crimes committed by Serbia during the war. The region of Sandzak, with a predominant Bosnian population in Serbia, did not receive any attention from the Serbian government and it was not economically integrated in the country.

Ireland

An NGO representative expressed regret that the Convention had still not been incorporated into Irish legislation. At the national level there were still very few successful trials with regards to incitements to ethnic hatred given the various requirements needed for such allegations to be valid for trial. There was also no efficient tackling of racism online.

There was a huge concern about racial profiling whereby the police and immigration officers had the right to stop persons and ask them to prove their Irish nationality or their right to be in Ireland. The immigration officials even went as far as determining if a person was Irish from his or her looks, and several persons had been detained for long periods until a family member showed up with identification documents.

Another speaker said that Ireland had shifted from a booming economy to a crisis-plagued country. The current situation underpinned the evolution of racial discrimination in the country. Mental health and segregation were the most pressing issues facing foreigners in Ireland and there was the need for an independent complaints institution. The speaker went on to underline that there were many migrant women working in private Irish homes who experienced excessive discrimination and abuse. It was necessary for the government to provide data, legislation and recognition and greater commitment and support of mechanisms to monitor and resolve racial discrimination in the country. Extreme examples of racism especially that driven by far right political leaders in Europe, could have an impact in Ireland and there was a need for the Irish government to remain vigilant against such occurrences.

Another NGO representative focused on the Irish traveler community. There was a need to identify them as a minority within Ireland even though the State stubbornly and repeatedly denied this fact. Education was another concern given that the Irish travelers had been suffering from a lack of resources and access to education. The situation had changed during the last ten years, but the State still did not guarantee and recognize the right of traveler children to an education. There needed to be a broader definition of the Roma community in order to include and recognize the Irish traveler community under that definition.

The unemployment rate of this community was also much higher than the national rate and little had been done to address the situation. Children needed to be fully integrated into the national system in order to facilitate their access to jobs and other social services. The Irish government ought to take advantage of the various studies on different aspects or discrimination regarding the traveler community and come up with tailored solutions to better their plight.

Interactive Dialogue

A Committee Member said that the presentation today confirmed issues already underlined in the report and promised to take them up in subsequent discussions.

Another Committee Member asked for further information on the elements that would define the Irish traveler community as an ethnic minority. The NGO representatives were asked what the actual population of this community was.

Representatives said that the official census carried out five years ago identified approximately 24,000 people as travelers and other unofficial estimates taken 18 months ago put this number at 44,000. The next official census would be conducted this year. The mainstream Irish population saw travelers as different from them in various negative terms. The traveler community was not a kind of club where membership was granted, you were either born a traveler or not. They were always victims of exclusion simply because were travelers.

A Committee Expert expressed interest in the effect of the economic crisis on the incidence of racism in Ireland and asked what the material consequences for the minority groups were.

A NGO representative underlined that there was some evidence which showed that most of the people who had lost their jobs were migrants and this was a deliberate act on the part of employers. What made this dramatic was that those who lost their jobs had not been resident in Ireland long enough to benefit from the available social services. There was also the limitation of the right to family reunion and citizenship applications were impeded by the economic downturn as well because applicants had to prove their financial independence in order to apply and qualify for citizenship and naturalization.

In addition, another speaker said many migrants had lost their jobs and many others had returned to their countries of origin because they had undergone huge and unexplained salary cuts. Those who experienced racist attacks were terrified of reporting cases of discrimination because they were legally invisible and were scared of victimization and the potential loss of their asylum application.

Concluding Remarks

The chairman thanked all the non-governmental organizations for a very informative presentation and committee members for the helpful comments and questions.

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For use of information media; not an official record