The UN’s Elimination of Racial Discrimination Committee has concluded in a report that Poland needs to take more steps to combat hate crimes.
The report’s publication follows a committee meeting in Geneva attended by representatives of the Ministry of Justice on 5-6 February, during which emphasis was placed on anti-Semitic incidents, hate speech in the public sphere, and the protection of minority groups.
One of the recommendations of the final report was for an independent watchdog organisation to be set up that would monitor the police’s handling of cases with a racial dimension. The report also called for the criminal code to be amended so that racial motivation could be classed as “an aggravating circumstance” in certain crimes, thus allowing for harsher sentences, which could potentially serve as a deterrent.
During the initial discussions, concepts such as raising awareness about hate crimes through training sessions for police officers, prosecutors and judges, were debated. Avenues of support for national and ethnic minorities were also raised, as well as the combating of racism in sport (the Warsaw-based Eastern European Monitoring Centre published a study in 2011 chronicling over one hundred racist incidents in Polish football between 2009 and 2011). the Warsaw-based Eastern European Monitoring Centre published a study in 2011 chronicling over one hundred racist incidents in Polish football between 2009 and 2011.
The UN body also highlighted the need for social inclusion of the Roma community in Poland, which currently lacks full access to the country’s economic and welfare rights. A programme for the Roma community scheduled to be carried out from 2014 to 2020 is currently awaiting governmental approval, the Helsinki Human Rights Foundation in Warsaw has noted in connection with the report. Poland originally signed the UN’s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in 1965. Another meeting concerning the Polish government’s progress in implementing the convention is due in four years’ time.
Source: Polskie Radio ab/nh -IAR
http://www.thenews.pl/1/9/Artykul/163292,UN-Poland-must-push-to-eradicate-racial-hate-crimes