Ethnic Monitoring and Data Protection: The European Context

An increasing concern felt about the absence of ethnic statistics concerning Roma and other minorities in most spheres of public life led to the idea of this research project. Convinced that the collection of such data would effectively help anti-discrimination litigation, in early 2000 INDOK, the Hungarian Human Rights Information and Documentation Center together with experts from the European Roma Rights Center the Constitutional and Legal Policy Institute and the Central European University launched the research project. The findings of this project served as the basis of this volume. The volume contains studies on relevant practices employed by two international bodies: the Council of Europe and the United Nations Commission for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The second section of the volume consists of country reports on related practices in the following European countries: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Latvia, Romania and Spain. The concluding comparative study points out some common characteristics and major differences in the law and practice of the examined European countries and formulates some recommendations regarding the issue discussed in the country reports.