UK Race & Europe Network
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1st UKREN Council Meeting - 13 March 2008, London
UKREN held its first Council Meeting on 13 March 2008. Bringing together 30 members of the Council and a wide range of speakers, all participants spent the day discussing the future work programme of activities of UKREN. The topics for discussion included social inclusion, mutiple discrimination and migration policy. A panel of speakers contributed to each of these topics, which were then discussed by Council members, who suggested ways in which these issues could be taken forward by UKREN.
Anastasia Crickley, Chair of the Fundamental Rights Agency and Special Representative on the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, highlighted the crucial role of networks such as UKREN in not just responding but also shaping policy at European level. She spoke of the OSCE as a good space for NGOs to engage, contribute and have a constructive dialogue amongst themselves as well as with policy makers.
Nazek Ramadan, from the Migrants Resource Centre and the European Anti-Poverty Network England, stressed the importance of engaging in the National Action Plans on Social Inclusion 2008, drafted by the UK government. She explained that migrants voices had featured in the last round of NAPs drafted in 2006, through consultations and seminars, and that the same should be done for 2008, with the help of UKREN. She said that the reason why the Migrants Resource Centre and EAPN were interested in working with networks such as UKREN is because racism and discrimination is an inextricably linked with poverty and social exclusion, especially when listening to migrants and refugees' experiences.
Giampi Alhadeff, Secretary General of the European Parliamentary Labour Group, talked about the need for UKREN to work on the upcoming European elections 2009 and ensure that the BNP does not gain some seats. On the social inclusion agenda, Giampi stressed the importance of monitoring and data collection, which remains a challenge in some European countries. Stressing that current EU approaches on social inclusion were rather "soft" and not that high enough on the agenda of EU policy makers, he suggested that UKREN should aim to influence the NAPs at national level, but more importantly, should contribute to push for stronger policy instruments at EU level to tackle social exclusion and poverty.
Kate Roberts, from Kalayaan, spoke of the vulnerable situation of migrant domestic workers, and called on networks such as UKREN as well as individual organisations to support a Kalayaan campaign that aims to challenge proposals for a change in the immigration legislation that would make migrant domestic workers even more vulnerable to exploitation that before. The need for such rights was made all the more urgent when Kate invited one of Kalayaan's service users to speak of her plight as a migrant domestic worker, with very limited rights and recourse, when abused and made to work in conditions similar to bonded labour.
Don Flynn, UKREN Chair, summed up the discussion on migration by framing it in the context of EU developments. He explained that migration was one area where there was widespread recognition that it would constitute a major issue on the European agenda of the next decade and that there was therefore a case for UKREN to keep making the link between policy being developed in the EU on migration, and its grassroots network members, working at local level. This will be all the more important in the coming years, with the UK Proposals for further immigration and integration restrictions and the upcoming French Presidency's agenda on migration.
A panel discussion was also held on the importance for race equality organisations of considering multiple discrimination. Chaired by Michelynn Laflèche, Runnymede Director, the panel included:
- Rob Berkeley, Black Gay Men's Advisory Group
- Anastasia Crickley, FRA & OSCE
- Maleiha Malik, King's College, London
- Zohra Moosa, Fawcett Society
- Naina Patel, PRIAE & UCLAN
The discussion from the panel and participants brought out the following issues:
- The importance of not oversimplifying identities and problems face by people and understanding the multiple dimensions of experiences.
- The need to consider intersectionality as a political issue, and not only a legal one, to ensure that people who are suffering from intersectional discrimination have a way of articulating their situation.
- The crucial importance of bringing human rights in the discussion, as a useful tool to deal with multiple discrimination.
- The struggle of getting the issue of multiple discrimination recognised, which has not been the case for some groups, such as black and minority ethnic elders.
- The struggle of determining who speaks on behalf of whom and accepting the diversity within groups or "strands"
- The need to look at "conflicting rights" and social debates that arise from them (and not look only at the legal debates)
ENAR's Memorandum to the Slovenian Presidency
At the start of the Slovenian Presidency of the EU, ENAR calls on the Presidency to put the fight against racism at the heart of its commitments. ENAR has issued a Memorandum putting forward a seven-point call for action for the Slovenian Presidency to act upon when implementing its priorities in the fields of anti-discrimination and anti-racism.
Recent ENAR Press Releases
ENAR Opinion Piece
On the occasion of the International Day Against Racism on 21 March, ENAR has published an opinion piece arguing for a strong commitment from the European Commission to higher standards of protection against religious discrimination.
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