Organisation

European Jewish Information Centre (CEJI)
Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities (NICEM)

Project description

The project is being carried out by two specialist organisations, the European Jewish Information Centre (CEJI) and the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities (NICEM). They are working with local authorities in Spain, Northern Ireland and Germany to develop training programmes for local officials in education and health services. The programmes address different forms of unequal treatment and focus on tackling multiple discrimination. The training is intended to emphasise the importance of taking account of cultural and ethnic diversity in policy design, working practices, recruitment and promotion and of establishing better community relations.

A parallel aim is to produce a training manual which can be used by local authorities across Europe to develop their own programmes adapted to the local situation and needs.

We are trying to create a model for training that is transferable across national borders’, says Patrick Yu, European project coordinator for NICEM.

Local communities suffering discrimination are encouraged to become involved in the project. These, together with NGOs, are seen as being of key importance in helping to identify issues as well as participating in focus groups and training. A collaborative partnership has also been established between the local authorities and the NGOs. This is a cornerstone of this project’, says Pascale Charhon, European project coordinator for CEJI, ‘and will help ensure what we have initiated will be sustained over time’.

Contact:

Pascale Charhon
E-mail: ceji@ceji.org
Tel.: (32 2) 344 34 44.
www: http://www.ceji.org (in English) or http://www.nicem.org.uk (in English)

Project description

For national policy against discrimination to have a real impact on people’s lives, it needs to be implemented locally. The objective of the JOIN project is to develop policies and working practices in cities and local neighbourhoods for combating discrimination in education, healthcare and policing.

This is done through local sub-projects in Finland, Germany and Ireland, which bring together the different authorities concerned in order to encourage them to coordinate policy and the way they work. At the same time, it involves organisations representing people vulnerable to discrimination — in this case ethnic minorities, including of ‘Roma’ origin (known as gypsies, Travellers or Cinti in different parts of Europe), religious minorities and people with disabilities — so that they can make the authorities aware of their needs and concerns.

One of the aims of the project is also to initiate a process under which different parts of the administration can learn from each other. As Katriina Teittinen, project coordinator, says, Instead of the ‘‘one ground and one authority’’ approach, we need joint effort between the various authorities, with full involvement and consultation of the different groups vulnerable to discrimination’.

Moreover, according to the participants, the fact that they come from different countries and have differing experiences adds to the value of the exercise by bringing home to them the common nature of problems and by enabling them to swap ideas about how to tackle them.

Contact

Ms Katriina Teittinen
E-mail: katriina.teittinen@kuntaliitto.fi
Tel.: (358 40) 719 73 70

Project description

This project brings together a Swedish public body (the National Institute for Working Life), a Greek non-governmental organisation, a Dutch consultancy, a specialist police centre in the Netherlands and the Stockholm County Police. Its long-term aim is to increase the representation of minority groups in the police by introducing anti-discrimination policies in recruitment and promotion as well as by changing internal working practices. The groups specifically targeted are ethnic minorities and the gay community. ‘These groups are under-represented in police forces throughout Europe, not so much because of their lack of suitability for police work, as is often claimed, but’, says Maritta Soininen, project coordinator, ‘at least in part because of direct and indirect discrimination practices by police forces themselves’.

Contact

Maritta Soininen
Project Coordinator
E-mail: Maritta.soininen@statsvet.su.se.

Project description

This project aims to bring ‘age into focus’, and is using this expression as a working title for its website and other publications. Journalists and programme-makers often reinforce negative or stereotypical images of older people through habit rather than because of prejudice. This project involves leading public service broadcasting companies from Italy, the Netherlands and Austria working together to produce training material which can be used by programme-makers across Europe. The kit will consist of two videos and CDs. ‘Because of the wide range of cultural differences across Europe’, says Katrina Webster, project coordinator, ‘we want to produce a practical training kit which can be used in the most flexible way possible, since what works in one country may not work in another’. The kit will, therefore, be a resource which trainers can ‘dip into’ as they need, selecting issues and modules which are relevant at the time, and choosing the best way of using them for their own broadcasts.

The draft material will be presented to elderly people and NGOs at a series of specially organised focus group meetings in the UK, the Netherlands and Austria, in order to get feedback from them and to try to make sure that the issues of most concern to older people are addressed.

Contact

ageintofocus@npoe.nl

Katrina Webster
E-mail: skwebster@yahoo.co.uk  

Tatiana van Lier
tvanlier@npoe.nl

Project description

The project is being undertaken by NGOs from Denmark, Ireland, Portugal and the UK and by Inclusion Europe, an organisation representing people with learning disabilities across Europe. The aim is to increase the opportunities for people with learning disabilities to participate in politics. ‘With very few exceptions, the participation of people with learning disabilities in political or social life, even within the disability movement, is very limited’, says project manager Dan Schimmell, ‘and with our project we want to achieve both political and practical goals’.

The project is developing a comprehensive training programme, which will be tested on 40 young people with a learning disability to acquire confidence and know-how to represent their peers in the political arena at European, national and local level. It involves workshops and placements so that the people concerned can get practical experience of political life. And it includes producing a range of information, both on the Internet and in printed form, for people with learning disabilities across Europe. In the final stages of the project, a hearing will be held in Brussels where those who have undergone training will have a chance to meet politicians and policy advisers, to discuss what they have learned and to draw lessons for the future.

Contact

Dan Schimmell
Project Leader
E-mail: drs@lev.dk  
Tel.: (45) 36 35 96 96.

Project description

The project involves equal treatment bodies in six Member States (Austria, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK,) and the Migration Policy Group (Brussels). The objective in the short term is twofold: to try to ensure a uniform interpretation of EU anti-discrimination legislation by equal treatment bodies and to explore the benefits of national provisions that go further in providing protection against discrimination than required by the directives. ‘In an increasingly integrated Europe, it is in the interest of all in society, not least the victims of discrimination, that these objectives are realised. It is equally important that the protection offered is the same regardless of the ground of discrimination’, says Jenny Goldschmidt, Chair of the Dutch Equal Treatment Commission. In the longer term, the project aims to establish an information system on equal treatment legislation and a means of exchanging information on legal concepts, enforcement, remedies, policy advice and so on. While initially confined to the present participants in the project, the intention is to make it available in the future to the new specialised bodies which will be established in the present and future Member States.

Contact

Jenny Goldschmidt
E-mail: info@migpolgroup.com