Press Calling Notice -"Counter-Terrorism and Ethnic Profiling" Seminar

3.46.05pm GMT Mon 5th Jun 2006

London's Liberal Democrat MEP Baroness Sarah Ludford is chairing a seminar in the European Parliament (on Tuesday June 6th) to discuss the dangers of stereotyping racial minorities as security risks.

Sarah Ludford is hosting the seminar, entitled "Counter-Terrorism and Ethnic Profiling" as vice-chair of the Anti-Racism and Diversity intergroup of MEPs, and it is co-sponsored by the European Network Against Racism which brings together 600 NGOs throughout the EU. Sarah says:

"This under-researched topic deserves greater scrutiny. It seems that law enforcement authorities throughout the world are filtering data by ethnicity, race or religion to develop terrorist "profiles". But the legality of this is dubious and the risks of stereotyping obvious."

"While ethnic monitoring is important in certain contexts to ensure that discrimination is not occurring, this must not be distorted for illegitimate purposes."

"The EU must urgently develop proper privacy safeguards so that any personal data collected on individuals can only be used by police in a responsible way respecting human rights."

"Genuine anti-terrorist efforts will only be hampered by the fears, suspicions and dangers created by ethnic profiling."

Notes

- The seminar will take place at 9.30am in Room ASP 5G-2 in the European Parliament, 60 Rue Wiertz.

- Speakers include Gijs de Vries, EU counter-terrorism co-ordinator, Jorge Bento Silva, from the European Commission Directorate of Internal Security and Criminal Justice, James Goldston, Director of Open Society Justice Initiative, and Tufyal Choudhury, lecturer in international and European human rights law.