Denmark: Government launches its first action plan to fight racism

The Danish government presented a new action plan comprising 36 new initiatives designed to reduce incidents of racism and strengthen civil society efforts to do so, as well as to promote research on the topic. This long-awaited action plan follows the action plan for ethnic equality of 2010 and the action plan against antisemitism of 2022. 

18 civil society organizations working on relevant issues, as well as the national institute for human rights, were consulted in 2022 by the former minister for justice, Mattias Tesfaye, to provide input to how the government's new action plan against racism could best combat racism in society. All contributions from the 19 civil society actors have been taken under consideration in the preparation of the action plan. The publication follows a recommendation from the EU Anti-Racism Action Plan 2020-2025.  The action plan’s aim is to protect everyone – regardless of background – from racism and discrimination. Furthermore, the action plan includes a number of initiatives targeting Greenlanders living in Denmark, as there is a particular need to address racism and discrimination against this group.

The action plan mentions the importance of civil society initiatives in combatting racism and allocates increased funding to doing so. The 36 initiatives cover the following areas:

• 12 measures concern racism against Greenlanders
• 5 promote increased research and knowledge on racism
• 4 target racism among children and young people
• 2 seek to prevent discrimination at nightclubs
• 3 focus on racism in the labour market
• 1 investigates racism in the private housing market
• 5 concern radicalism motivated by racism
• 3 are designed to monitor and reduce racism and hate speech on digital platforms
• 2 final initiatives concern the establishment of a new public fund to support civil society initiatives and continuous collaboration with international bodies to fight racism.