FundamentalRights of People of African Descent

6.3.2019

Question for oral answer O-000022/2019
to the Commission
Rule 128
Claude Moraes
on behalf of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

While ethnic and equality data collection in EU Member States is not systematic, it is however documented, notably by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights and OSCE-ODHIR, that People of African Descent are particularly subject to racism, discrimination, xenophobia, and generally unequal access to and exercise of their human and fundamental rights. They are entitled to protection from these inequities as individuals and as a group, including through positive measures for the promotion, full and equal enjoyment of their rights. Further efforts should be done at EU and national level to systematically fight ethnic discrimination, racism and hate crime and, along with relevant stakeholders, to develop effective, evidence-based legal and policy responses to these phenomena;

In this respect, the Parliament asks the European Commission which steps it could consider, and within which time-frame, in view of

– developing an EU framework for national strategies for the social inclusion and integration of People of African Descent,

– encouraging Member States to declassify colonial archives,

– including a focus on People of African Descent in its current funding programmes and for the next multiannual period,

– setting up, within its relevant structure, a specific unit dedicated to combating Afrophobia, responsible for coordinating resources and support to effectively engage communities in the response to hate speech and hate crime, and any form of violence against People of African Descent,

– closely liaising with international actors such as the OSCE, the UN, the African Union and the Council of Europe, as well as other international partners, in order to combat Afrophobia at international level.

Tabled: 6.3.2019

Forwarded: 8.3.2019

Deadline for reply: 15.3.2019