ENAR achievements in May-June 2016

Check out ENAR’s and ENAR members’ main achievements and impact during the months of May and June 2016.

On 26th May, ENAR launched its European Report Forgotten Women, the Impact of Islamophobia on Muslim Women, as well as 8 country-specific factsheets and a video. There were about 90 participants including mainstream feminist organisations and European Commission representatives from the Gender Equality Unit. The symposium explored legal strategies and commonalities of the feminists and anti-racism struggles. In May and June, ENAR presented findings of its Forgotten Women Reports to the Brussels Council for Equality between Men and Women, the Belgian Socialist Union and at the Council of Europe High Level meeting on supporting human rights in multicultural societies. The report received coverage in 39 media outlets, including The Independent (UK), Le Soir (Belgium) and Mediapart (France). Our hashtag #ForgottenWomen was also trending on Twitter in Belgium on the day of the symposium and was included in 1,249 tweets so far.

On 14th June, ENAR spoke during two panels at the launch of the European Commission led High level Working Group on Racism, Xenophobia and other forms of Intolerance (HLWG) in presence of representatives of Member States. This is the first time that civil society is structurally part of the HLWG. ENAR is a member of the NGO steering group on the HLWG. ENAR Chair raised issues of gaps in police investigation of hate crime and in addressing Afrophobia. ENAR also presented findings on Muslim Women in the panel on Islamophobia. ENAR will continue engaging with the HLWG and its sub-groups.

– On 12 and 13 May, ENAR hosted its first ever meeting on Jewish Muslim cooperation for social change. After two days of exchange on commonalities, challenges and lessons learned on different initiatives from Belgium, France, Sweden and the UK, participants were given a training on community mobilisation. A call for project will be open to support two pilot projects in the field.

Members’ achievements

– Following years of advocacy by the French representative Council of Black Associations (CRAN), the French President Françoise Hollande announced the establishment of a Foundation for slavery remembrance by the end of 2016. According to the CRAN, this decision is a major step towards slavery reparation.

– The UK Race and Europe Network (UKREN)’s and JUST West Yorkshire’s debate on the EU Referendum on 2nd June generated a lot of interest and positive feedback, including engaging a broader audience on Twitter. It was featured on the regional Sunday Politics Show and another TV channel.

– ENAR Ireland Director discussed ‪‎Brexit‬, ‪‎Post-Brexit Racism‬ and the emergence of far right on UTV Ireland News.‬‬‬‬

– NICEM organised a series of information sessions in Northern Ireland about Brexit and the truth and myths on the referendum