Denmark’s ‘ghetto law’ targeting ‘parallel societies’ may be unlawful, EU court rules | Denmark

Residents of the Copenhagen neighborhood that has become an international symbol of what is known as “ghetto law” in Denmark said they were confident they could overturn the law in Danish courts after the EU’s top court ruled it may be illegal.

The controversial law, dating from 2018, allows the state to demolish apartment blocks in areas labeled by the government as “parallel societies” where at least half of the residents are from a “non-western” background. In the past, the government called these neighborhoods “ghettos”.

The law states that if these areas also have adverse socioeconomic conditions (e.g. high levels of unemployment or crime), authorities must reduce social housing by 40% by 2030, including selling or demolishing properties or terminating tenants’ leases.

In its long-awaited ruling on Thursday on whether laws targeting these “transformation areas” are racially discriminatory, the European Court of Justice said the law in question could be illegal under the EU’s racial equality directive.

In its preliminary ruling, the CJEU stated that the law could lead to an increased risk of early termination of leases and eviction for residents of these areas compared to neighborhoods with similar socioeconomic conditions but lower levels of immigration.

The report stated that it would be up to the Danish courts to consider “whether there is a difference in treatment based on the ethnic origin of the majority of residents in these areas, resulting in less favorable treatment of residents in these areas.”

They will also need to determine whether the law, although worded in a “neutral manner”, actually results in “persons of certain ethnic groups being placed at a particular disadvantage”.

The decision is less emphatic than the previous statement by European Court of Justice Chief Prosecutor Tamara Ćapeta, who said in February that tenants whose leases were terminated were “subject to direct discrimination on the basis of ethnic criteria”.

Despite this, lawyers, human rights groups and residents said the EU ruling marked a legal victory for the campaign and they were confident they could win in local courts next year.

Residents of Mjølnerparken public housing in central Copenhagen filed a lawsuit against the law in Denmark in 2020, arguing that using their ethnicity to decide where to live was discriminatory and illegal. Due to the “parallel society” law, more than 1,000 people were forced to move and rental costs increased rapidly.

Muhammad Aslam, president of the Mjølnerparken residents’ association, said he was pleased with the ECJ’s decision and believed they were now well positioned to win in the high court.

He said the “parallel society” law was “inhumane”. “He kicked families out of our homes even though we did nothing wrong.”

He said minority communities in Denmark had for more than a decade been subjected to “a competition between politicians and political parties who would say the worst things against foreigners, refugees and Muslims. Whoever does this will win more seats in parliament.”

Aslam, who has lived in Denmark since the age of seven and has four children born in Mjølnerparken who have now become successful professionals, said that this discourse has a great impact on daily life. “We try to tell ourselves that we are part of Denmark and part of Danish society,” he said. “But the fact that politicians are always talking about us, having these contests and trying to alienate us from society, it affects you, your heart and your mind.”

The Danish Institute for Human Rights said the ECJ decision “provided several justifications” for why the law constituted discrimination based on ethnicity, but did not “definitively put an end” to the case.

Susheela Math, head of law at Systemic Justice, said the decision was “a day of reckoning for the Danish state”, adding that “segregation is not integration”.

“This ghetto package can really be seen as one phase in a long history of political discourse, laws and practices targeting minorities,” he said. “What today’s decision makes clear is that the political rhetoric and legal context that problematises and stereotypes those from ‘non-western backgrounds’ can be taken into account in terms of whether this amounts to racial discrimination.”

The Danish Ministry of Social Affairs and Housing said that the case will now return to Denmark’s eastern high court and that the ministry will carefully read the European court’s decision.