not to use weapons and tactics that unnecessarily provoke, frighten or harm national minorities. Arbitrary arrests, illegal detentions, stop and search schemes, abusive sweep operations in minority community areas, checkpoints and vehicle inspections that target persons belonging to minorities because of their appearance or stereotypes about them (i.e. racial profiling) instead of their individual behaviour are all extremely damaging to relations between minorities and law-enforcement agencies and should be discontinued. Professional standards and operational policies grounded in the principle of equal treatment and integrating international policing standards should be developed as a matter of priority, while a rigorous complaints process should be put in place to encourage members of the public, including persons belonging to national minorities, to report violations by lawenforcement agencies. 7. Victim support services and witness protection measures should be sensitive to the needs of persons belonging to national minorities, and of minority women in particular. States need to take into account the needs of persons belonging to national minorities when providing assistance to minority victims of crime.45 The Recommendations on Policing note that “States need to establish national structures that are capable of delivering victim support services locally and services that are accessible to and appropriate for the needs of all ethnic groups.”46 This is particularly important as minority victims, and victims of hate crime in particular, may be reluctant to report crimes owing to a history of negative experience with law-enforcement agencies, a lack of trust in the judicial system or a lack of knowledge about their rights and criminal justice in general. Minority victims may also be concerned that the crimes (in particular sexual crimes) perpetrated will not be investigated and prosecuted diligently on account of their ethnic identity and gender, fear of reprisals 45 46 30 See UN General Assembly (1985) Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power (A/RES/40/34, 96th plenary meeting); Council of Europe (1985) Recommendation No. R (85) 11 on the Position of the Victim in the Framework of Criminal Law and Procedure (adopted by the Committee of Ministers at the 387th Meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies); Council of Europe (2006) Recommendation Rec (2006) 8 on Assistance to Crime Victims (Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 14 June 2006 at the 967th Meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies); Council of Europe (2011) Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and National Violence (CETS No.210); and European Union (2012) Directive 2012/29/EU Establishing Minimum Standards on the Rights, Support and Protection of Victims of Crime. HCNM (2006) Recommendations on Policing, explanatory note to Recommendation 20. The Graz Recommendations on Access to Justice and National Minorities