Denmark’s supreme court is expected to rule on whether the state’s classification of residents with “non-western” backgrounds is covered by racial discrimination law.
The appeal by residents who were evicted from Nøjsomhed-Sydvej in Helsingør, a city north of Copenhagen, could have far-reaching implications for others who have been forced out of their homes by the controversial legislation previously known as the “ghetto law”. The government now refers to affected neighbourhoods as “parallel societies”.
The residents, who have been unsuccessful in other courts, argue that the evictions by the housing association were intended to cut the number of residents with a “non-western” background in order to stop the area from becoming a “ghetto” and therefore subject to the legislation. The government has previously argued the classification is unrelated to ethnicity.
