Denmark: Lawyers push back against plans for ‘double punishment’ in ghettoes

Human rights lawyers in Denmark have pushed back against government proposals to double criminal penalties in designated “ghettoes”.

Birgitte Arent Eiriksson, attorney and project leader at Justitia, Denmark’s first judicial think tank, said she could not see how the proposal was compatible with equality before the law.

Since 2010, Denmark has published an official list of “ghettoes” — areas measured against five criteria, including the majority of the population being “non-Western immigrants and their descendants”.

Areas are also designated on the basis of high unemployment, high rates of criminal convictions, poor education and low income.

There are currently 22 official government-designated ghettoes.

Justice Minister Søren Pape Poulsen, leader of the government’s junior Conservative People’s Party coalition partners, unveiled the proposals as part of a plan to eliminate ghettoes by 2030, and it has been backed by the opposition Social Democrats.

However, Ms Eiriksson said the proposal risked stigmatising communities and different measures could be taken instead.

She told the Jyllands-Posten: “You have to think about the police effort. There must be more patrols and more local stations.”

Stricter penalties, she said, should apply across the whole country.