CHALLENGING ETHNIC PROFILING IN EUROPE A Guide for Campaigners and Organizers — 1 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This guide was written by Zsolt Bobis, Rebekah Delsol, Maryam H’madoun, Lanna Hollo, A tremendous appreciation is also expressed for the countless and often invisible yet critical Susheela Math, and Rachel Neild of the Fair and Effective Policing team at the Open Society efforts and contributions of other OSF colleagues and the many local actors involved in Justice Initiative (OSJI). Open Society Foundations Communications Officer Brooke Havlik litigation, mobilizing and organizing, and advocacy and campaigning against ethnic profiling made significant contributions, and further assistance was provided by OSF Aryeh Neier in different EU countries. The work described here would not have been possible without Fellow Michèle Eken. them, and reflects the collective efforts of all. Examples and case studies were included from key organizations tackling ethnic profiling and The report was reviewed and edited by David Berry, Erika Dailey, James A. Goldston, and police abuse in Europe and the US, including StopWatch, Controle Alt Delete, Amnesty Robert O. Varenik. International Netherlands, the French platform En finir avec les contrôles au faciès, Eclore, Maison Communautaire pour un Développement Solidaire (MCDS, Paris 12), WeSignIt, Plataforma por la Gestión Policial de la Diversidad, Rights International Spain, SOS Racisme Catalunya, Hungarian Helsinki Committee, Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU), the Belgian platform Stop Ethnic Profiling, and Communities United for Police Reform. Copyright © 2021 Open Society Foundations Particular gratitude is expressed to Dionne Abdoelhafiezkhan, Alice Achache, Rami Al-khamisi, Kairé Ba Dejuan, Mpanzu Bamenga, Slim Benachour, Nesrine Benyakhlaf, Lea Bouaroua, Yassine Boubout, Magda Boutros, Sarah Chander, Tanzil Chowdhury, Anne Claeys, Issa Coulibaly, Cristina de la Serna Sandoval, Jean-Marie Fardeau, Rémy Farge, Katrina This publication is available as a PDF on the Open Society Justice Initiative website under Ffrench, Sarah Flanagan, Stanis Gallen, Merel Hendrickx, Nina Henkens, Shaban Jah, Eszter a Creative Commons license that allows copying and distributing the publication, only in Jovánovics, Eric Kind, Jelle Klaas, Gerbrig Klos, Attila Janos Lakatos, Roxy Legane, Jose Lopez, its entirety, as long as it is attributed to the Open Society Foundations and used for Esther Mamadou, Isabelle Mamadou, Omer Mas Capitolin, Nicha Mbuli, Luis Mendoza noncommercial educational or public policy purposes. Photographs may not be used Carmona, Zeshan Muhammad, Tarek Naguib, Ngoy Ngoma, Karolien Ory, Youssef Ouled, Jair separately from the publication. Schalkwijk, Michael Shiner, Kathleen Van Den Daele, Eveline Vandevelde, Lydia Vicente, Mohamed Wa Baile, Patrick Williams, Rosalind Williams, and Baki Youssoufou for their invaluable contributions to this guide in particular, and for their collaboration in the struggle ISBN: 978-1-940983-91-2 against ethnic profiling more broadly. DOI: 10.34880.7ea1-my02 Many thanks go to all participants in the convening organized by OSJI in Valencia on June Published by: For more information contact: 28-30, 2019 for their input, which helped shape and structure this guide to make it more Open Society Foundations Maryam H’madoun relevant, up to date, and accessible. 224 West 57th Street Open Society Justice Initiative New York, NY 10019, USA Maryam.Hmadoun@ www.OpenSocietyFoundations.org OpenSocietyFoundations.org Design and layout: Ellery Studio, Berlin Cover art: Brady Kuehl 2 CHALLENGING ETHNIC PROFILING IN EUROPE 3 CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: UNDERSTANDING THE ISSUE 8 CHAPTER 5: POLICY ASKS AND ADVOCACY 84 Lessons 9 Lessons 85 Defining the Problem 10 What Needs to Change? 86 Putting Police Practices to the Legal Test 12 Developing an Advocacy Strategy 88 Developing a Strategy for Change 17 Developing Advocacy Asks 92 Common Ethnic Profiling Reform Asks 94 CHAPTER 2: DOCUMENTING ETHNIC PROFILING 28 Who Needs to Be Persuaded? 99 Lessons 29 By What Means? 100 Documentation Essentials 30 Difficulties in Documenting Ethnic Profiling 31 CHAPTER 6: USING THE LAW 106 Methods and Approaches 33 Lessons 107 The Value of Using the Law 108 CHAPTER 3: COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT, CAMPAIGNING, Problems with Using the Law 108 AND COALITION-BUILDING 50 Ways to Use the Law 112 Lessons 51 Legal Strategy Checklist 120 Mapping Communities and Constituencies 52 Addressing Practical Community Concerns 53 CHAPTER 7: ENGAGING WITH THE POLICE 132 Community Engagement around Ethnic Profiling 56 Lessons 133 Collaboration and Coalition-building 60 Pros and Cons of Police Engagement 133 Potential Obstacles to Coalition-building 64 Who Are “the Police”? 136 Challenges of Engaging with the Police 138 CHAPTER 4: STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS 68 Different Modes of Police Engagement 142 Lessons 69 Building a Communications Plan 70 CHAPTER 8: SUSTAINING ACTIVISTS AND MOVEMENTS 148 Working with the Media 73 Lessons 149 Social Media 82 Motivation, Guilt, Burnout, and Boundaries 150 Judgmentalism and Managing Internal Conflict 154 The Double Burden on the Activist of Color 156 Movement Health and Resources 158 The Pace of Change 161 ENDNOTES 166 4 CHALLENGING ETHNIC PROFILING IN EUROPE 5 THE PURPOSE OF THIS GUIDE The powers wielded by police to stop, question, and even search people they find suspicious reports, factsheets, handbooks with reform recommendations for police and policy officials, — for any reason — can be a cause of great concern for ethnic minorities in Europe.1 Police legal digests for litigators, stop form and stop data reports and resources for police, and photo stops that may appear to majority populations as innocent and brief interruptions of the daily exhibitions. However, this is the first Justice Initiative publication aimed primarily at local, routine — worth the sacrifice for the sake of more safety and security—can cause tremendous community-level activists and other (grassroots) civil society actors. It seeks to provide an fear, trauma, and humiliation to ethnic, racial, and religious minorities. Not only is being array of tools and resources for campaigners and advocates looking to counter ethnic profiling stopped by police or other security officials intrusive and intimidating, but an unjustified stop by police, including key lessons learned on the ground, strategic insights, and an international and search or “routine” ID check can also result in abuse, violence, or even death. overview of what is happening in the field. Quantitative and qualitative studies show that police stop members of racialized groups much This guide draws on OSJI’s work as well as IN THEIR OWN WORDS: Quotes more often than they stop people from the majority population. Disproportionate stops of the work of its partners in the field. We from these interviews—which have minorities are often driven by their race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin. The practice of reviewed existing materials and resources, been lightly edited for clarity—are using personal characteristics to make decisions about persons believed to be involved in and evaluated them according to their reflected in the text and anonymized criminal activity is referred to as ethnic profiling. It is discriminatory and violates human rights. impact and required investment. We also pull-quotes2 accompanied by these icons. It has also been shown to damage trust in police and reduce people’s willingness to report used interviews to gather insights from crime or cooperate with police, thereby reducing police effectiveness in solving crimes and scores of activists across Europe who work to address police violence and discrimination. By keeping communities safe. including examples and expert voices from various countries and contexts, we hope to provide resources and insights that will be useful to actors in the field. This is not intended to be an Ethnic profiling is both discriminatory and counterproductive. Because of the harms it causes, exhaustive compendium of all the campaigning and advocacy addressing ethnic profiling, as grassroots activists and civil society organizations in various countries are working to that would fill volumes. Instead, we have tried to distill key lessons from, and provide illustra- challenge and counter it, as seen throughout this guide. Over the course of a decade, the Fair tive examples of, available materials and resources. and Effective Policing team of the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) has played a signifi- cant role in collaborating with and supporting local actors and communities across the EU, and We hope this guide will serve as an inspiration to anyone interested in ending ethnic profiling to some extent the US, to counter ethnic profiling. and keeping communities safe. Although there is a range of practices and structural inequalities that arise from unfair policing that deserve attention and require political and legal challenge, OSJI’s focus has been on discriminatory stop and search practices, which are often the first encounter between police and impacted communities. The Fair and Effective Policing team has been involved in research, national and international advocacy, litigation before national and regional courts, and support of various campaigns to bring about police and policy reforms. The Justice Initiative has produced several publications on ethnic profiling in the process, including impact 6 CHALLENGING ETHNIC PROFILING IN EUROPE 7 CHAPTER 1 Communities of color face many forms of discrimination,