Racial profiling still rife across the EU, Council of Europe says

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Racial profiling still rife across the EU, Council of Europe says  New technologies such as facial recognition could worsen the problem, experts have suggested.   READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/05/28/racial-profiling-still-rife-across-the-eu-council-of-europe-says  Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages

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00:00Being singled out from the queue at border controls or subjected to a random police stop

00:07and search are among the negative events experienced by some people because of their

00:11background, skin colour, religion or citizenship. This phenomenon, called racial profiling,

00:17was highlighted in Wednesday's report by the Council of Europe's human rights monitoring

00:22body. Its experts argued the issue remains rife in Europe, but tackling it is a difficult

00:27balancing act. We've noticed that no member state of the Council of Europe is really immune

00:33from racial profiling. And we think that it's also a very delicate issue in the sense that

00:43we don't want to counter the police forces. We know exactly that we need them and we want to trust

00:52them. So that's why it's sometimes very difficult to make them aware of this issue.

00:58Black people, migrants, Roma and Muslims are most often victims of racial profiling. Repeated

01:03subjection to such practices leads to distrust in authorities, while lack of investigation

01:08makes victims reluctant to report leading to a lack of data and an underestimation of the problem.

01:15In recent years, a new concern has appeared, namely facial recognition technology. Experts fear this

01:21will enhance the problem, but steps are being taken to mitigate risks.

01:25Very recently, the Council of Europe adopted a framework convention on AI and human rights.

01:36And there is a specific paragraph dealing with discrimination issues. And one committee of the

01:41Council of Europe dealing with anti-discrimination issues is preparing a specific recommendation on the

01:50the field of AI and discrimination. But no, no, it's an area of concern, of course.

01:57While initiatives are being taken in some countries, progress in others remains stalled.

02:02France fails to implement long-standing recommendations to effectively monitor police

02:06stop-and-searches, while Italy has ignored recommendations to assess racial profiling within

02:11its police forces. The Council calls on all member states to take the issue seriously,

02:16prohibit these practices by law, better train police officers, and hold people accountable.

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