Promising Practice

Multi-agency report on discrimination incidents and complaints in 2017

Discriminatiecijfers in 2017

Since 2016, the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, the National Police and the National Association of Municipal Anti-discrimination Services have been publishing figures on discrimination incidents registered by the police and complaints received by equality bodies in one online report. This brings together, presents and contextualises the data from several institutions dealing with discrimination complaints in different contexts. It also explains the relations and differences between the relevant datasets.

Kraj

Netherlands

Guidelines

Institutional and structural guidelines

Facilitate effective use

Operational guidelines

Ensure comprehensiveness

Ensure regular and timely data collection

Improve comparability

Ground of discrimination

Age

Disability

Gender identity or expression

Racial or ethnic origin

Religion or belief

Sex

Sexual orientation

All grounds / Cross-cutting

Promising practice :

Discriminatiecijfers in 2017

In this page:

Why was the practice needed?
How was it implemented?
Outputs
Key success factors
Technical information
Contacts

Why was the practice needed?

In the Netherlands, victims of discrimination have different options where to report the incident. They include the Municipal Anti-discrimination Services (the regional equality bodies), the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights (the national, centralised, equality body), or the police. In the past, every organisation published data separately on discrimination incidents and complaints in their annual report.

A national overview across different institutions was lacking. Furthermore, as data from the various institutions are not strictly comparable and can display different patterns and trends, this was recognised as a potential cause for confusion.

In 2013, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, in cooperation with the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, first commissioned regional pilot reports wherein data on discrimination complaints from different organisations were brought together in a new format. The main aim was to present data from different organisations in one comprehensive report and to provide more information regarding the comparability and interpretation of these figures.

The different legal frameworks and mandates, with which public and private institutions processing discrimination complaints or registered incidents operate, posed a challenge for meaningful data analysis. The report compiles and presents data from various institutions, but also explains the context and purpose of the different datasets.

This method of multi-agency reporting was first adopted in several regions with geographical boundaries identical to those of the Police units. In 2016, as a result of collaboration between the National Police, the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, and the National Association of Municipal Antidiscrimination Services, a national multi-agency report on discrimination complaints was published for the first time. The decision to formally introduce and enhance this practice was part of the National Action Programme against Discrimination, which was presented in January 2016.

The first national multi-agency report – published in 2016 - contained figures on registered incidents and discrimination complaints received in 2015 by the police, the equality bodies (the Municipal Antidiscrimination Services and the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights) and some other institutions that receive reports of discrimination. In 2018, the third annual multi-agency report on discrimination complaints was published, presenting the figures of 2017.

How was it implemented?

The data are compiled in an annual report. The report offers a detailed overview of incidents registered by the police and complaints that were issued to Municipal Antidiscrimination Services. In addition, the report includes figures from the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights, the Complaints Desk Internet Discrimination, and other institutions that receive reports on discrimination. The multi-agency report incorporates the following types of discrimination data from involved institutions:

The police registers all statements, reports, as well as their own observations regarding incidents in an information system. Police experts in the field of discrimination use queries to search within the system for discriminatory incidents. These are incidents perceived to be possibly discriminatory by police experts, or allegations of discriminatory treatment reported by victims, in addition to discriminatory elements of incidents that were not necessarily experienced as being discriminatory by the victim. For example, racist name-calling might not be reported as discrimination by the victim, but it will nevertheless be recorded as a discriminatory incident by the police.
Municipal Antidiscrimination Services register complaints and reports of discrimination by individuals; both are incorporated in the report. Making a complaint implies the intention to pursue remedies through complaints procedures; making a report means that the individual merely seeks to make the incident known, without seeking remedies.
The Complaints Desk Internet Discrimination (Meldpunt Internetdiscriminatie MiND) registers allegations of discriminatory remarks on social media, blogs and other online outlets. The Complaints Desk Internet Discrimination investigates these remarks and if they are considered possibly punishable, it will try to have these remarks taken offline.
The National Institute for Human Rights registers applications for a ruling regarding allegations of discrimination prohibited by anti-discrimination law. The data used for the purpose of compiling the multi-agency report encompass all received applications for a ruling, not merely those which constitute legal discrimination pursuant to a complaints procedure.

The report presents the data in order to provide not only an overview of the number of registered discrimination incidents and complaints, but also insights into the discrimination grounds, the type of discriminatory behaviour and the location of the incident.

The report shows how registered incidents and discrimination complaints vary across time, region, area of life and agency. It tries to cautiously offer explanations for the patterns and developments, but also makes clear that incidents registered by the police and complaints received by different bodies cannot be aggregated due to differences in, for example, the goals of the bodies and their legal framework.

Furthermore, a limited but unknown number of incidents are reported to equality bodies as well as to the police.

Outputs

The annual report published on a dedicated website. It presents detailed data on incidents registered by the police and discrimination complaints received by Municipal Anti-discrimination Services, supplemented with data from the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights and the Complaints Desk Internet Discrimination. The first report was published 2016.
Taken together with the surveys on experiences of discrimination carried out by the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (see the related information in this compendium) this multi-agency report on discrimination complaints allows for a comprehensive perspective of discrimination in the Netherlands.
The report mainly covers discrimination grounds in national criminal law. The police registers the discrimination grounds in the criminal code: race, gender, religion, personal convictions, sexual orientation and disability.
Furthermore anti-Semitic incidents (such as graffiti) are registered separately by the police, as these may be either on grounds of religion or on grounds of race, a distinction which is often hard to make.
The Municipal Anti-discrimination Services cover all of these grounds in addition to nationality, political opinion, civil status, age, as well as a separate registration of all grounds not covered in criminal law or anti-discrimination legislation.
The Dutch Parliament is now presented with an integrated report, which offers more clarity about these data as well as other available data regarding discrimination incidents and complaints.

Key success factors

The initiative and support from the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations to enhance collaboration between the agencies involved. The annual national multi-agency report on discrimination data replaced three existing reports: one on police data and two on data from the Municipal Anti-discrimination services.
One of the main strengths of the report is that the data from each agency are presented in a comprehensive overview, illustrated by examples of complaints. The report also addresses how to interpret the data of each agency; the context in which they were collected; and discusses patterns and developments, which all add to the value and utility of the report.
It is also imperative that the author of the report has expertise on the very specific nature of the data from each organisation.
As became clear during the cooperation, another important success factor in realising and maintaining the multi-agency report on discrimination is that the main partners - the Ministry, the police and the Municipal Antidiscrimination Services (represented by their national association) – acknowledge and respect their different perspectives and goals for the report.
The establishment of a committee supervising the production of the report and the adoption of a join communication strategy helped achieve this.

Technical information

Data sources covered: Complaints data.
Areas of life covered: Employment; Education; Social Protection; Housing and living conditions; Access to good and services; Hate crime.
Target audience: Public administrations, parliament, equality bodies, civil society organisations, media, and the general population
Duration: 2016 – ongoing
Geographical scope: National; regional reports are also available
Leading institution: Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations in cooperation with the National Police and Municipal Anti-discrimination Services
Other organisations involved/consulted: Art. 1./RADAR (editor), the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights, Complaints Desk Internet Discrimination and the Public Prosecutor’s Office
Financial & human resources: Budget: No information provided; Source of the budget: Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations and the National Police; Staff: No information provided