2006 is a year that offers warnings of a situation that could become progressively and suddenly worse if allowed to continue. Some of these trends stand out in particular.
2006 saw a notable rise in extremist organisations and political parties expressing racist sentiments, not only on the margins of politics but increasingly within the mainstream and even within government. There is also concern that migration policy is generally becoming more restrictive and that these restrictive migration policies can have a negative impact on the integration of ethnic minorities and third country nationals.
Measures adopted by governments to counter terrorism are causing concern for the protection of human rights and are resulting in the racialisation of the security agenda. There is evidence of an association being made between terrorism and ethnic and religious minority groups, the effect of which can also be seen in migration policy.
On a more positive note, there is some improvement in relation to implementation of anti-discrimination legislation, which is increasingly providing redress to victims of discrimination. There is also an increasing recognition of multiple discrimination, though action in this area to develop tools to identify, measure and address this phenomenon is at a very early stage.
Read report at http://cms.horus.be/files/99935/MediaArchive/national/ShadowReport2006_EN_LowRes.pdf