ENAR’s achievements October-December 2017

– ENAR was a prominent speaker at the EU fundamental rights colloquium on women’s rights, on how to ensure that intersectionality and discrimination against women of colour are addressed in gender equality policies. The video of the plenary speech was viewed 1,465 times and the op-ed shared 51 times on Twitter and 141 times on Facebook. First Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans directly answered the intervention by acknowledging that more needs to be done for women of colour.

– ENAR, together with a coalition of organisations met the European Parliament Rapporteur on the report on Antigypsyism in the EU and submitted amendments to the report that recognizes structural forms of racism against Roma.

– The majority of ENAR’s suggestions for the European Commission document on guiding principles for hate crime victims were included in the final version. The main suggestions were on the need for improved safeguards for undocumented migrants, improving relations between minorities and the police and addressing institutional racism and the need to focus on improved investigation of hate crimes.

– 7 ENAR members were represented at the Regional Meeting of the International Decade for People of African Descent in Geneva on 23-24 November and two ENAR members had an address in the official programme. ENAR influenced the concluding statement of the EU representative to the conference, which included an update on EU initiatives on Afrophobia and resettlement spaces for migrants.

– We took a particularly visible stand on EU bodies’ lack of racial diversity by being profiled as an expert in a series on the topic in Politico. The Politico series is the result of over a year of discussions and exchanges with the journalists. It has led to an increase in our Twitter followers and web visitors. This supports the creation of an ENAR affinity group for ethnic and religious minority EU staff.

– Thanks to ENAR’s efforts, the European Union High Level Group on combating racism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance discussed Afrophobia for the first time. This is a major step forward in recognising the prevalence of Afrophobia and acting to combat it. Two members were speakers in the panel. Our stunt to denounce racist stereotypes in the Saint Nicholas celebrations led to 86 reactions on social media and one Parliament Magazine article.

– Our practical toolkit for employers on the inclusion of refugees in the labour market was quoted by UNHCR and the EU Fundamental Rights Agency as one of the best documents providing concrete steps for the labour market integration of migrants. The toolkit was also shared on Twitter 60 times.

– Our Equal@work conference was dedicated to women of colour in employment, which has set the ground for our next year’s symposium on intersectionality. The day was also preceded by a meeting of an informal expert group of women of colour working in companies, NGOs and trade unions from different European countries.

– We launched the results of our new survey of migrants (over 5,000 respondents across 5 countries) which shows particularly bad housing conditions, low life satisfaction, high levels of discrimination at work, verbal abuse and crime on the basis of ethnicity or migration status. This is unique survey was a first for ENAR and allowed us to hear the people behind the headlines. It also got good media coverage, including in the Financial Times, Bloomberg, Politico and Belgian press, and was widely shared on social media.

Members’ achievements

– The CRAN, Council of Black Organisations in France, achieved a new victory in its campaign for reparations for slavery and colonialism and restitution of colonial treasures. French Prime Minister announced on 28 November that African heritage should be restituted to African states.

– Dutch members the New Urban Collective and Soul Rebel Movement received important media coverage of their anti-Blackface protest in Dokkum during the national arrival of Saint Nicholas.

– Members CEJI – A Jewish Contribution to an inclusive Europe and Collective Against Islamophobia in Belgium facilitated the first European Commission internal training on Islamophobia. CEJI also provided the second training for EU officials on Antisemitism.

– UNITED ‘List of Refugee Deaths’ including 33,293 documented refugee deaths was printed on 48 pages and distributed in copies of the Berlin Tagesspiegel newspaper. making the 9 November International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism.