Danish Policy of the Legal Status of International Human Rights instruments

Policy Response DateFebruary 22, 2012 Country: Denmark General Type: Racist violence, Racist discourse, Discrimination, Institutional discrimination, Equality/Integration, Hate crime Racism and discrimination phenomena: Extremism - organised Racist Violence, Anti-migrant/xenophobia, Anti-semitism, Islamophobia, Afrophobia, Arabophobia, Anti-roma/zinghanophobia, Religious intolerance, Inter-ethnic, Intra-ethnic, Nationalism, Homophobia, On grounds of disability, On grounds of other belief, Anti-roma/ romaphobia, Xenophobia
Groups affected / Interested in: Migrants, Refugees, Roma & Travelers, Muslims, Ethnic minorities, Religious minorities, Linguistic minorities, Majority, Asylum seekers, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender, Persons with disability, Africans/black people, National minorities Key socio-economic/institutional areas: Political discourse -parties - orgs

The European Convention on Human Rights was incorporated into Danish domestic law in 1992.
Other Human Rights instruments are ratified but not incorporated and the Ministry of Justice thus established an Ad Hoc Committee of experts to make suggestions for any such incorporation. In the Committee's report from 2001, it was recommended that a number of United Nations Conventions be incorporated; however a newly elected centre-right Government came into power that year and stopped the process.

In 2002 the United Nations Committees started to express concern in their "Concluding Observations" on Denmark.

By way of example the Committee Against Torture stated that: "7. The Committee recommends that: (a) The State party ensure the speedy implementation of the recommendation of the Ad Hoc Committee with regard to incorporating the Convention into Danish domestic law". (See Concluding Observations CAT/C/CR/28/1, 12 June 2002. This was also repeated in CAT Concluding Observations in 2007: CAT/C/DNK/CO/5, 16 July 2007).
The same year CEDAW stated that: "320. The Committee recommends that the State party take steps to incorporate the Convention into domestic law, when considering the recommendations of the Committee on incorporation of human rights conventions into Danish legislation. The Committee requests that the State party report on progress made in this regard in its next periodic report, including whether the Convention has been invoked before domestic courts". (CEDAW Concluding Observations A/57/38 21 June 2002, See page 124).
Also the UN Committee on the Right of the Child stated that: "the Committee notes that some of the concerns and recommendations have not been sufficiently addressed, inter alia those related to the incorporation of the Convention into domestic law, the dissemination of the Convention, adolescent health and the juvenile justice system." (CRC/C/DNK/CO/3, 23 November 2005).
This was repeated by the Committee in 2011: "11. The Committee recommends that the State party promote the application of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by the courts and administrative decision-making bodies, including by taking measures to fully incorporate the Convention into its national legislation". (Concluding Observations 7 April 2011, CRC/C/DNK/CO/4).
The UN Race Equality Committee stated in 2006 that: "10. The Committee, while acknowledging the practice of national courts to directly apply the provisions of the Convention, regrets the State party's decision not to incorporate the Convention in the domestic legal order, particularly in light of the fact that the State party has incorporated other international instruments in domestic law (art. 2). The Committee encourages the State party, in order to give full effect to the provisions of the Convention, to reconsider its decision not to incorporate the Convention in the domestic legal order". (Concluding Observations CERD/C/DEN/CO/17, 19 October 2006. This was again repeated in 2010: "The Committee reiterates its position that the State party should incorporate the Convention into its legal system to ensure its direct application before Danish Courts in order to afford all individuals its full protection". CERD/C/DNK/CO/18-19, 20 September 2010).

Also the UN Human Rights Committee stated in its Concluding Observations 2008 that: "6. The Committee notes with concern the decision taken by the State party not to incorporate the Covenant into its domestic legal order, contrary to the recommendation of the Committee on Incorporation of Human Rights Conventions into Danish Law (art. 2). The State party should reconsider its decision not to incorporate the Covenant into its domestic legal order, with a view to ensuring that all rights protected under the Covenant are given full effect in domestic law."
After a decade of UN recommendations, the coalition of political parties behind the new centre-left Government taking office in the fall of 2011, have agree to reopen the process on the incorporation of UN Human Rights Conventions, as part of the Governments program of action. This is a positive first step; however, it is yet to see when and how it will be realised.