Publications

Weekly Mail n° 213

22 January 2010

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  • ENAR messages for the 2010 European Year Against Poverty

ENAR has issued its messages for the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion. ENAR expects the Year to raise awareness on the link between discrimination and exclusion and to generate policy change addressing the needs of ethnic and religious minorities including migrants. Read more

  • MRAX seminar on Islamophobia in the media
MRAX, the Movement against racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia, member of ENAR Belgium, is organising a seminar on Islamophobia on 23 January 2010 in Brussels, in the framework of the dialogue on interculturalism initiated by the Belgian government. The theme of the seminar will be ‘Islamophobia in the media’. It will address the role of the media - real or fantasised - in terms of anti-Muslim racism. Read more
 
 
  • Kick It Out seeks European research partner

UK organisation Kick It Out is seeking to appoint a research partner with experience, and/or an understanding, of conducting research within European football for a new and groundbreaking equality and diversity initiative. Kick It Out are working with partners within European football on a project that seeks to understand and address issues of the representation of black and ethnic minority communities and women at the highest levels of football across Europe. The project will bring together major stakeholders in the game over the next year to support and encourage industry-wide progress in the identification, recruitment and retention of talented individuals in coaching, administrative and other key areas across football. The deadline for applications is 29 January 2010. Read more

  • Migrants Carers in Europe: Experts propose new model for local support agencies

A project that hopes to spearhead improved standards and services in Europe’s care sector has launched a set of recommendations for a new ‘model’ agency that could provide a range of valuable services for thousands of third-country migrants providing care for elderly and infirm Europeans. The recommendations were published in a report launched by the C.A.S.A project. The report provides guidelines to local authorities and organizations (such as municipalities, regions, social working organisations) which could be potentially interested in applying the Agency model. Read more

  • Equinet response on the 'EU 2020' Strategy
Equinet issued its response to the European Commission’s consultation on the proposed "EU 2020 Strategy" and proposed several recommendations. Amongst them, the network of equality bodies highlights the need to invest in the elimination of discrimination as part of any successful exit strategy from the current crisis.Equinet's responsepoints outthat the strategy should involve a process of equality and non-discrimination mainstreaming in relation to the final priorities established. Read more
 
 
  • Dutch filmmaker in court over anti-Islam hate speech

Dutch far-right lawmaker Geert Wilders on 20 January appeared in an Amsterdam court for the first time in connection with charges of inciting racial hatred against Muslims. Wilders, who has compared the Koran to Hitler's Mein Kampf, "has always made his statements in his capacity as a public representative," his lawyer Bram Moszkowicz argued at the start of the hearing, held amid heavy security. This hearing was to work out the modalities for Wilders' trial, for which no date has been set and which he claims is a "political process." Wilders faces five charges of religious insult and anti-Muslim incitement after a court last week dismissed his final challenge against the pending prosecution. Read more

  • Finnish ministry group seeks tougher line on hate crimes

This week a Finnish Justice Ministry panel called for tougher, more specific laws against hate crimes, while anti-racism activists held a demonstration in Helsinki. In a report handed over to Justice Minister Tuija Brax, the working group recommends adding a new criminal charge be added to the law books, which translates roughly as aggravated incitement against a societal group. It also says the current laws on hate crimes be expanded to cover acts based on victims' sexual orientation or handicaps, and to make it possible to punish groups or associations found guilty of hate crimes. The panel wants more rules against online racism, for instance making it a crime to publish a link to a racist website. Read more

  • Call for multicultural and post-racial French Republic

Lilian Thuram, François Durpaire, Rokhaya Diallo, Marc Cheb Sun and Pascal Blanchard have launched a Call for a multicultural and post-racial Republic, as well as 100 citizen proposals, in order to initiate a citizens’ movement for change. The signatories of the Call asked 100 celebrities, academics, politicians and NGO representatives or activists to draft concrete proposals for solutions to our society. The 100 proposals reflect the fact that diversity should not remain wishful thinking, a stand-alone or fashionable theme but should be seen as an issue which could reconfigure the French Republic as a whole. Read more (in French)

  • Hungary's far right launches 2010 election campaign

Hungary's right-wing party Jobbik launched its general election campaign, promising to promote local businesses over multinationals and tackle crime which it blames on the large Roma minority. "Now, at last, radical change can come," Gabor Vona, Jobbik's chairman and its candidate for prime minister told about 3000 people at a rally near Budapest. Members of the Hungarian Guard, a nationalist organisation dissolved by court order last year for fuelling ethnic tensions and disrupting public order were prominently present dressed in uniform at the rally. Jobbik’s programme could increase the ethnic tensions that have plagued Hungary in recent years, analysts say.

  • German public schools teach Islam
Public schools in Germany must offer religion classes, and pilot courses in Islam are now being offered in addition to established programs in Judaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism. Germany’s Constitution stipulates that religion be part of school curriculum. Roman Catholics and Protestants have conducted such classes (publicly funded) for decades, and Jews were given similar rights in 2003. Muslims, however, have faced roadblocks. But some observers argue such classes could help Muslims, some 6 percent of the population, better integrate their religious and German identities. Now, pilot projects that are chipping away at the barriers represent the latest evidence of Germany’s changing attitude toward its booming Muslim minority. Read more
 
 
  • Hearing of the Commissioner-designate for Home Affairs in the European Parliament
No Member State can cope on its own with the threat of organised crime and the challenge of immigration, said the Commissioner-designate for home affairs, Cecilia Malmström of Sweden, at her hearing with members of the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee this week. She stressed her determination to strike an agreement favourable to the EU on SWIFT bank data transfers and said she would propose draft legislation on migrants who are minors and a review of the Frontex agency. The Commissioner-designate also said "Throughout my career, I have worked for fundamental rights: I want to leave my mark on this area". Read more
  • Handbook on European non-discrimination case-law to be published by the Court and the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights

The European Court of Human Rights and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights will join forces to work on a year-long joint project aimed at increasing the knowledge and domestic implementation of EU law and other legal instruments in the field of non-discrimination. The joint project will resultin the publication of a case-law handbook which will analyse the key principles as developed by the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union mainly in the area of non-discrimination. The handbook and related e-learning tools will be distributed at the beginning of 2011 to judges, prosecutors, lawyers and law enforcement officials in a host of target countries.Read more

  • Call for applications: national and regional training courses in human rights education
The Directorate of youth and sport of the Council of Europe has launched a call for applications to the National Regional Training Courses on Human Rights Education for 2010. The call is addressed to non-governmental youth organisations and/or other non-governmental and governmental organisations and institutions involved in human rights education with young people. The deadline for applications is 26 January 2010. Read more
 

2010 EUROPEAN YEAR AGAINST POVERTY AND EXCLUSION

  • Social NGOs present their key demands for the 2010 European Year
On 19 January, two days before the official Opening of the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion, the EY 2010 NGO Coalition, of which ENAR is member, presented its key demands for the outcome of the 2010 European Year. For the Coalition, part of the necessary response to this crisis is the renewal of a common vision for the type of society we want to create. A commitment to building a Europe where women and men of all ages can live free of poverty and social exclusion, should be the legacy of the 2010 Year. Read more 
 

UNITED NATIONS

  • UN expert speaks out against intrusions of privacy in fight against terrorism

A United Nations independent human rights expert on 19 January countered the notion that counter-terrorism needs must always outweigh the right to privacy, calling for a new framework to ensure that infringements on privacy are necessary, proportionate and adequately regulated. In a new report, Martin Scheinin, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, assessed recent developments into the intrusions into the right to privacy with combating terrorism used as a justification. These include racial or ethnic profiling, the setting up of privacy-invading databases and the introduction of new technologies, such as body scanners, without proper assessment of their possible ramifications on human rights. Read more 

ROMA ISSUES

  • Roma begin leaving camps in Rome, Italy

Italian police began moving out Roma living in one of the largest camps in Europe. Around 50 Roma, mainly of Bosnian origin, were the first group of more than 600 living in the Casilino 900 camp in Rome. They were taken to their new homes in Rome. Italian police officers and Red Cross officials were on hand to assist them as they left the Casilino 900 camp, that has been in existence in Rome for the past 40 years. Authorities hope to completely evacuate Casilino 900 by the beginning of February. But not all of the camp residents want to leave. Read more

  • Amnesty says Czech schools still fail Roma Gypsies
Czech schools are still riddled with "systematic discrimination" that ensures Roma children get an inferior education, Amnesty International says. The human rights group has called on the Czech Republic to end what it calls racial segregation in schools. It says Roma children are often sent to schools for children with mental disabilities. Amnesty says although the Czech government in 2005 changed the name of these "special schools" to "practical elementary schools", "the system which places children in these schools and teaches a limited curriculum essentially remains the same". Read more
  • Seminar on Structural Funds: Investing in Roma inclusion at the local and regional level

The EURoma Network, a platform for exchanging information and experiences, sharing strategies and approaches and generation of knowledge, is holding a transnational seminar on "Structural Funds: Investing in Roma inclusion at the local and regional level"on 25-26 February 2010 in Rome, Italy. It aims to encourageand promote a wider and more efficient use of Structural Funds for the social inclusion of Roma at local and regional levels. Read more 

 
  •  Council of Europe book on racism on the Internet

Racism was a pressing social problem long before the emergence of the digital age. The advancement of digital communication technologies such as the Internet has, however, added a new dimension to this problem by providing individuals and organisations with modern and powerful means to propagate racism and xenophobia. The use of the Internet as an instrument for the widespread dissemination of racist content is assessed in detail by the author. The problem of racist content on the Internet has naturally prompted vigorous responses from a variety of agents, including governments, supranational and international organisations and from the private sector. This book also provides a detailed critical overview of these regulatory and non-regulatory initiatives. Read more

  • Online book on undocumented migrants

The online book "100 portraits 100 papiers", created by Edith Azam in collaboration with other artists and writers, portrays undocumented migrants through drawings, poems and prose. Read more

  • Call for abstracts: European Diversity and Autonomy Papers
The European Academy in Bolzano, Italy,seeks papers contributing to the development and exploration of various approaches to diversityin Europe for its European Diversity and Autonomy series of working papers. Diversity is hereby understood in a broad sense as encompassing the diversity of ethnic identities, of cultures, of regions, of values and identities, of institutions and structures. Abstracts should be submitted by 20 February 2010. Read more
 
 

  • World Diversity Leadership Summit Europe

The World Diversity Leadership Summit Europe is taking place on 11-12 March 2010 in Vienna, Austria. It will bring together global diversity CEOs, policy and decision makers, corporate practitioners, academics, media, etc. to share their experiences, research findings, strategies and best practices on global diversity and inclusion. Read more

  • Conference on ethnic minority media

The European excellence team MINORITYMEDIA and the research centre MIGRINTER are organising an international conference on ethnic minority media on 18-19 March 2010 in Poitiers, France. This international conference focuses on people who experience deterritorialisation and reterritorialisation and who develop or sustain distinct identities and social relations within and across nation-states, through ethnic minority media. It aims to analyse, within the framework of ethnic minority media, the perception of the feeling of belonging, the collective (re)presentation of the Self, as well as the cultural and religious practices. The deadline for registration is 28 February 2010. Read more

  • Summer School on Black Europe

The National Institute for the Study of Dutch Slavery and its Legacy (NiNsee) and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam are holding the third annual Summer School on Black Europe entitled:
“Black Europe: Exploring Dimensions of Citizenship, Race and Ethnic Relations” from 13 to 30 June 2010 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. This course will examine the multiple constructions of the term Black Europe and the social, economic and political implications within. The deadline for applications is 15 April 2010. Read more

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