2019 - Annual Report of ECRI's activity

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) is a mechanism which was established by the first Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe member states. The decision to establish ECRI is contained in the Vienna Declaration adopted by the first Summit on 9 October 1993. On 13 June 2002, the Committee of Ministers adopted an autonomous Statute for ECRI and thus consolidated its role as an independent human rights monitoring mechanism specialised in questions relating to racism and intolerance. 

ECRI’s task is to combat racism, xenophobia, antisemitism and intolerance at the level of greater Europe and from the perspective of the protection of human rights. ECRI’s action covers all necessary measures to combat violence, discrimination and prejudice faced by persons or groups of persons, on grounds of “race”, colour, language, religion, citizenship, national or ethnic origin, sexual orientation and gender identity.

ECRI elaborates General Policy Recommendations (GPR) addressed to the governments of all member States, it provides detailed guidelines which policy-makers are invited to use when drawing up national strategies and policies.

In the framework of its country monitoring work, ECRI examines the situation concerning manifestations of racism and intolerance in each of the Council of Europe member states.

ECRI’s findings, along with recommendations as to how each country might deal with the problems identified, are published in country reports. These reports are drawn up after a contact visit to the country in question and a confidential dialogue with the national authorities. ECRI's country monitoring deals with all member States on an equal footing. Monitoring cycles last some five years. ECRI's sixth monitoring cycle has begun in 2019.