Immigrants living in Greece rally against racism in central Athens on August 24, 2012.
(Milan) –
Greece’s
government should move quickly to adopt measures to combat hate crimes
and protect victims, Human Rights Watch said today. A bill on hate
speech and racist violence has yet to be submitted in parliament because
of disagreement among the three parties in the ruling coalition over
its scope.
“With people being attacked on the streets, Greece urgently needs to
beef up its criminal justice response to hate crimes,” said
Judith Sunderland,
senior Western Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch. “This draft law
contains some good provisions and should be improved in parliament
rather than delayed further.”
A version of the draft law seen by Human Rights Watch would protect
migrants who are victims of, or substantive witnesses to crime from
deportation, as well as their families, while the alleged attackers are
prosecuted. Human Rights Watch research indicates that fear of
deportation deters undocumented migrants from reporting attacks to the
police.
Human Rights Watch wrote a
letter to
the minister of justice in February 2013 outlining the legislative
steps needed to ensure an effective response to hate crimes. Parliament
should consider those recommendations when reviewing the bill.
In particular, parliament should include a provision to require a
mandatory investigation by the police with a view to prosecution for any
suspected hate crime, without the requirement for victims to pay a
€100 fee to file their complaint. Some of the victims Human Rights
Watch interviewed were told to pay the controversial fee, which is
intended to deter frivolous complaints.
The bill would toughen criminal sanctions for incitement to hatred and
racist violence, but it also problematically addresses so-called denial
of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The problematic
provisions would increase penalties for denying these crimes, which is
considered a criminal offense. Additionally, the minister of justice
would have the power to ban an association if one of its members commits
a hate crime provided for in the bill, including such a denial. While
sanctioning direct incitement to violence is legitimate, speech that
falls short of incitement to violence should not be criminalized,
however offensive it may be, Human Rights Watch said.
Likewise, the measure to ban an organization, which is hard to
reconcile with the right to freedom of association, should be reviewed
for its compatibility with relevant human rights standards. The case law
of the European Court of Human Rights indicates that an organization
does not forfeit the right to freedom of association as a result of
punishable acts committed by individual members, as long as the
organization itself is not implicated in the acts.
“There are legitimate concerns about the overbroad scope of some
provisions in this bill, but that shouldn’t be an excuse for inaction,”
Sunderland said. “Parliament should have the opportunity to debate and
improve the bill in line with Greece’s human rights obligations.”
In July 2012, Human Rights Watch published the report, “
Hate on the Streets: Xenophobic Violence in Greece,”
which documented an alarming surge in xenophobic attacks and the
failure of the Greek police and the judiciary to prevent, investigate,
and punish alarming vigilante violence targeting migrants and asylum
seekers. This violence is continuing, with 217 racist incidents between
October 2011 and December 2012, according to the most recent figures
from the national network recording racist violence.
Greece has taken some positive steps recently. In January,
specialized police units to
tackle racist violence became operational across Greece and some
arrests have been made. In November 2012, the Athens First Instance
Prosecutor’s Office appointed a specialized prosecutor on hate crimes.
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