Reducing Ethnic Profiling in the European Union - Open Society ...

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FRANCEPolice Stop Powers for Immigration Control PurposesAll foreigners in France must carry with them at all times proof of their legal stayin the country. 105 Foreigners are obliged to comply with identity controls by policeauthorities, which can be carried out at any time. 106French law stipulates that police must base their stop-and-search activities concerningimmigration control on “objective criteria,” that make it reasonable to assume thatthe individual is of foreign origin, including the acts of reading a newspaper or bookwritten in a foreign language, driving or riding in a car with foreign license plates,and/or playing “folk” instruments in a public space. 107Constitutional jurisprudence has further codified what criteria can and cannot betaken into account when carrying out an immigration-related identity control. A 1993judgment rendered by the Constitutional Council ruled that under no circumstancescan immigration stops by police be motivated by discriminatory indicators such asskin color, body type, or clothing style. 108 A related judgment further stipulated thatpolice officers must always tie the action taken with the particular circumstancessurrounding the identity controls. 109Immigration enforcement is particularly challenging in France and many otherEuropean settings. When conducting immigration enforcement, officers frequentlyengage in ethnic profiling when making decisions about who to stop, basing their suspicionthat someone is an undocumented migrant on “foreign”—typically non-white—appearance.Clear standards and operational guidance are important to assist officers in makingmore nuanced assessments of the likelihood that a person may be an illegal immigrant,and in guiding the kinds of powers that can and should be used in domesticimmigration enforcement as well as at borders. As the case study from France illustrates,operational guidance on identifying illegal immigrants is often unclear, leavinglaw enforcement officers too much discretion in deciding who to stop and therebyenabling ethnic profiling.Law enforcement officers must not use immigration control powers to targetthose that “look different” in assuming that they are not citizens or legal residents. Thisis not a valid assumption in today’s multi-ethnic Europe; it is offensive and insulting tomany Europeans of diverse ethnic origin. Police policies, guidance and training needto reflect the challenges of policing crime, terrorism and immigration in multi-ethnicsocieties.50 LEGAL STANDARDS AND INSTITUTIONAL POLICIES TO ADDRESS ETHNIC PROFILING
Improving law enforcement relations with communities with large numbers ofrecent migrants can be particularly challenging given language and cultural barriers,attitudes toward law enforcement shaped by repressive policing in their home countries,and the presence of undocumented migrants who avoid contact with law enforcement.(Community outreach is addressed in Chapter VIII.) Aggressive enforcement of immigrationlaw destroys trust and directly undermines community cooperation from legalresidents and citizens of minority ethnic origin as well as from persons in irregularstatus. 110General principles of good practice for reducing ethnic profiling in immigration enforcement:Passport controls and other checks should be monitored through gathering statisticaldata on the ethnicity and national origin of those stopped to ascertainwhether disproportionate and/or unjustified stops of persons of ethnic minorityand immigrant origin are taking place.Border and customs screening systems should be intelligence-based and rely onbehavioral criteria, avoiding the use of ethnicity, religion, physical appearance, orsimilar personal characteristics.Standards and guidance should provide officers with clear instructions on permissibleversus impermissible uses of ethnicity, race, and national origin in conductingof their controls.Requiring direct supervision or authorization of searches will improve officers’decision-making.Strategic Action PlansStrategic action plans, as discussed in this section, are a high-level response to anidentified problem, sometimes politically mandated but also undertaken by senior lawenforcement leadership. Strategic action plans provide a vehicle to undertake a macro-levelanalysis of problems, set out policy responses in each area, allocate responsibilitiesand resources, and sequence policy implementation. They represent a clearpolitical commitment to take steps to address a problem and can serve as a foundationand roadmap for a holistic approach to tackling ethnic profiling. While many Europeancountries have developed national action plans to combat racism, these rarely focus onethnic profiling.The case studies below present Ireland’s National Action Plan Against Racism asit relates to law enforcement, and the Garda’s Diversity Strategy and ImplementationREDUCING ETHNIC PROFILING IN THE EUROPEAN UNION 51
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Page 6 and 7: described in this report. The case
Page 9 and 10: List of Case StudiesThe case studie
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Page 16 and 17: The United Nations, the Council of
Page 19 and 20: I. Ethnic Profiling DefinedA Compre
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Page 29 and 30: of the ethnic minorities disproport
Page 31 and 32: II. A Holistic Approachto Reducing
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Page 37 and 38: Criminal and Administrative Legal R
Page 39 and 40: ImmigrationThe Equality Act covers
Page 41 and 42: FRANCEObligation of Non-Discriminat
Page 43 and 44: General principles of good practice
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Page 47 and 48: has lasted for an hour, the examini
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Page 55: IRELANDPolicing Plan 2008The Garda
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Page 78 and 79: used, such as those described below
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Page 82 and 83: UNITED KINGDOMMerseyside Police Rev
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Page 100 and 101: NORTHERN IRELANDBeyond the Margins:
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DENMARKMedia Reporting of Police St
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VI. Strategies for Reducing EthnicD
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people were stopped and valuable po
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only do so if the measure is determ
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Supervision and Oversight of Front-
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This is not to say that stop forms
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• Recording of self-defined ethni
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UNITED KINGDOM“Know Your Rights
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Prior to the ride-alongs, many Hung
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General principles of good practice
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UNITED KINGDOMMonitoring the Qualit
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GREECEProhibition of Racist Languag
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This handbook recommends that law e
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Where possible, training should inc
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SWEDENPolice and Youth Sharing Expe
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Training in the Counter-radicalizat
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VIII. Changing Institutional Cultur
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and Wales have used the package. Mo
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NORTHERN IRELANDCreating a More Bal
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Moroccan man. Another minority offi
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other characteristics or values. Co
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Take steps to ensure that all parts
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Law enforcement agencies must be se
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A large number of Polish migrants h
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variety of individuals with “life
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UNITED KINGDOMCommunity Stop and Se
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their needs, and problems, and hear
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to travel as far as Liverpool to ac
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The strategy includes multiple init
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The website provides an interactive
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Appendix A:Sample Stop Forms171
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REDUCING ETHNIC PROFILING IN THE EU
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Fuenlabrada, Spain Stop FormREDUCIN
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West Yorkshire Police Stop ReceiptR
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Covenant rights that are especially
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• Necessity: The use of ethnic pr
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The clear risk of arbitrariness in
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The Committee considers that identi
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adopted on June 29, 2007, CRI/Counc
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European Union Fundamental Rights A
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Notes1. Rebekah Delsol, Open Societ
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13. A report of MI5’s behavioral
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38. From the email text sent by Tem
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57. R. Davis and P. Mateu-Gelabert,
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88. Gillan and Quinton v. United Ki
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Ireland). Of the total number of co
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139. For example, European Commissi
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165. Open Society Justice Initiativ
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197. These can be found at: http://
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230. More information can be found
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266. To undertake this kind of anal
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279. In Rosalind Williams, Spanish
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Ethnic profiling by police in Europ
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