ETHNIC PROFILING AND PROHIBITION OF DISCRIMINATION

Abstract

The paper deals with the issue of ethnic profiling in the context of the prohibition of discrimination. Ethnic profiling occurs when law enforcement officers base their decision on whom to stop, search, question etc. mainly or to decisive extent on race, color, national or ethnic origin of a targeted person. Ethnic profiling rests on generalizations and prejudices that some ethnic groups are more prone to criminal activity or to committing specific crime. Thus it stigmatizes entire communities, and perverts the principle of innocence, since the individuals targeted solely because of their race or ethnic characteristics de facto need to prove not to be guilty. Ethnic profiling violates the principle of equality, the right of human dignity, and the right of a person to be treated as an individual. However, ethnic profiling does not refer to the cases in which law enforcement officials act on the basis of a specific suspect description which can include race, color, national origin etc. as an identifying characteristic. For suspect description not to amount to ethnic profiling it is important that law enforcement decisions are based on individual behavior and accumulated intelligence, and that reasonable grounds exist to form a suspicion. Ethnic profiling is a form of racial discrimination which can be direct (e.g. immigration officer stops only „black” people assuming that they are illegal immigrants) or indirect (e.g. police stops all cars in the specific city area in the specific time of the day but this measure affects disproportionately persons belonging to certain ethnic group). One can examine if the use of individual characteristics such as race or ethnic origin amounts to ethnic profiling by assessing if the measure in question pursue a legitimate aim and if there is a reasonable relationship of proportionality between means and ends of the action. Yet proving ethnic profiling in court is not an easy task.