campaign report 2012 european-wide action week against racism · page 2 report: european-wide...

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European-Wide Action Week Against Racism OPEN YOUR MIND, SPEAK OUT AGAINST RACISM Open your mind… Europe has entered a recessionary period, and this recession is not only economical. This is a recession of our rights, liberties, and ability to resist nationalist logics. Fear and suspicion are increasingly tearing our communities apart. All over Europe racist and xenophobic prejudices are more and more observable. Europe is at a turning point: either we keep heading in the direction of intolerance and racial hatred, or we seize our chance to resist and fight for respect, solidarity and diversity. Let us refuse to be blind, deaf and silent in the face of racism! This year’s motto expresses this urgency: “Open Your Mind - Speak out against racism”. Becoming conscious of racism, opening our minds to be able to see it is the first step in resisting racism, that is why raising public and political awareness about racist trends is still crucial. …Speak out against racism! Openly speaking out against racism is the second step. Violent and daily racism can, and do, make people voiceless. Being aware of racial discrimination and knowing the damages it does is not enough; being loud against racism is the best way to counteract it. Because resistance cannot be quiet, this year’s UNITED campaign wanted to promote and encourage those who do not stay silent, those who have the courage and strength to speak up for equality, multiculturalism and solidarity. These people share an inclusive vision of Europe, and stand up for it; they shape Europe as a land of equal rights and opportunities for all. The campaign drew attention to their voices, to their progressive views and ideas; it celebrated the European antiracist movement, more lively and loud every year. The European antiracist movement: visible and audible The European-Wide Action Week Against Racism, which took place between 17 and 25 March 2012 was joined by hundreds of grassroots organisations campaigning in favour of respect, solidarity and diversity and against the poison of intolerance, segregation and exclusion. Many were inspired by the importance of opening up and making their antiracist voices audible to everyone. A great effort of creativity and innovation has been made to find activities that explore this theme; concerts, debates, “screaming flashmobs”, theatre workshops, public readings, sharing life stories and street interviews were organised in the hope that these anti-racist voices would attract, surprise and question the audience. The European antiracist movement really seized this year’s motto as a chance to introduce antiracist initiatives to a wider public. Youth organisations, NGOs, and grassroots groups rallied and succeeded in catching attention, making their united voice stronger against racism. More than 250 organisations joined the European-Wide Action Week Against Racism, and 35.000 copies of UNITED's campaign poster were sent across Europe. To involve as many members of civil society as possible, this poster was even translated into Russian, and 15.000 of copies were widely distributed across the country. Activists as far as Grozniy were able to join in and lend their voices to create a stronger, louder call to fight racism. Why this campaign? March 21st was declared International Day for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by the General Assembly of the United Nations as a reaction to the murder of 69 anti-apartheid demonstrators in Sharpeville, South-Africa in 1960. These people died standing up against a regime that systematically enforced racial inequality and segregation. Yet both these inequities and violence do not belong to the past. According to the OSCE - Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, approximately 4,000 hate- based incidents were reported by over 80 NGOs throughout the OSCE region last year. In the face of this rise of hate crime in Europe, NGOs need to take greater initiative to fill gaps left by the absence of reaction and action from European governments. Every year since 1992, around the 21 March the UNITED network coordinates the European-Wide Action Week Against Racism in order to enhance NGOs’ capacity to deal with the threats that minority groups face in Europe. This campaign aims to highlight issues of racism from a non-governmental perspective on all levels - local, national and European. It enables UNITED to connect a broad range of antiracist efforts together, and bring greater visibility to each individual act in the ongoing struggle against racial discrimination In action UNITED This year, Barbara Lochbihler, chair of the Human Rights Subcommittee of the European Parliament, has congratulated and thanked UNITED for organising and supporting the European-Wide Action Week Against Racism, and for taking such a strong and united stance against racism. However, the European Action Week Against Racism could only have been so successful with the energy and commitment of all participating organisations. We are a diverse and dynamic network and we are much more than the sum of our parts; youth activists, expert speakers, sports personalities, educators, musicians, bloggers, UNITED volunteers and staff - each play an essential role that helps the others to play theirs. Each participating organisation ran their own activity and could depend on the UNITED secretariat to provide tools and support to help them. For each UNITED campaign, the secretariat creates and prepares material; freely distributes it throughout Europe; contacts and motivates NGOs to take part; provides contacts, resources, information and ideas; writes a press release; collects and publishes campaign information such as the “List of Activities” and shares good practice amongst the network through this report. On behalf of the whole network, we send a big thank you to all organisations that took part and made this campaign as strong and successful as it was! 48 countries joined in for a UNITED Europe! campaign report GERMANY LUXEMBOURG ALBANIA CYPRUS BULGARIA LITHUANIA FINLAND AUSTRIA MACEDONIA PORTUGAL ITALY BELGIUM GREECE ARMENIA FRANCE SLOVAKIA UZBEKISTAN GREAT-BRITAIN AZERBAIJAN NORWAY CROATIA GEORGIA RUSSIA MOLDOVA SPAIN SERBIA UKRAINE KOSOVO ROMANIA DENMARK MALTA KYRGYZSTAN CZECHIA BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA IRELAND POLAND HUNGARY NETHERLANDS SLOVENIA BELARUS SWEDEN MONTENEGRO TURKEY SWITZERLAND ICELAND LATVIA ESTONIA NORTHERN IRELAND IRELAND RUSSIA ALBANIA BELGIUM GERMANY думай шире, выскажись против расизма 2012 GREECE

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Page 1: campaign report 2012 European-Wide Action Week Against Racism · page 2 Report: European-wide Action Week Against Racism 17-25 March 2012 GREAT BRITAIN > Roads to Racial Justice The

European-Wide Action Week Against Racism

OPEN YOUR MIND, SPEAK OUT AGAINST RACISM

Open your mind…Europe has entered a recessionary period, and this recession is not only economical. This is a recession of our rights, liberties, and ability to resist nationalist logics. Fear and suspicion are increasingly tearing our communities apart. All over Europe racist and xenophobic prejudices are more and more observable. Europe is at a turning point: either we keep heading in the direction of intolerance and racial hatred, or we seize our chance to resist and fight for respect, solidarity and diversity. Let us refuse to be blind, deaf and silent in the face of racism! This year’s motto expresses this urgency: “Open Your Mind - Speak out against racism”. Becoming conscious of racism, opening our minds to be able to see it is the first step in resisting racism, that is why raising public and political awareness about racist trends is still crucial.

…Speak out against racism!Openly speaking out against racism is the second step. Violent and daily racism can, and do, make people voiceless. Being aware of racial discrimination and knowing the damages it does is not enough; being loud against racism is the best way to counteract it. Because resistance cannot be quiet, this year’s UNITED campaign wanted to promote and encourage those who do not stay silent, those who have the courage and strength to speak up for equality, multiculturalism and solidarity. These people share an inclusive vision of Europe, and stand up for it; they shape Europe as a land of equal rights and opportunities for all. The campaign drew attention to their voices, to their progressive views and ideas; it celebrated the European antiracist movement, more lively and loud every year.

The European antiracist movement: visible and audible The European-Wide Action Week Against Racism, which took place between 17 and 25 March 2012 was joined by

hundreds of grassroots organisations campaigning in favour of respect, solidarity and diversity and against the poison of intolerance, segregation and exclusion. Many were inspired by the importance of opening up and making their antiracist voices audible to everyone. A great effort of creativity and innovation has been made to find activities that explore this theme; concerts, debates, “screaming flashmobs”, theatre workshops, public readings, sharing life stories and street interviews were organised in the hope that these anti-racist voices would attract, surprise and question the audience. The European antiracist movement really seized this year’s motto as a chance to introduce antiracist initiatives to a wider public. Youth organisations, NGOs, and grassroots groups rallied and succeeded in catching attention, making their united voice stronger against racism.More than 250 organisations joined the European-Wide Action Week Against Racism, and 35.000 copies of UNITED's campaign poster were sent across Europe. To involve as many members of civil society as possible, this poster was even translated into Russian, and 15.000 of copies were widely distributed across the country. Activists as far as Grozniy were able to join in and lend their voices to create a stronger, louder call to fight racism.

Why this campaign?March 21st was declared International Day for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by the General Assembly of the United Nations as a reaction to the murder of 69 anti-apartheid demonstrators in Sharpeville, South-Africa in 1960. These people died standing up against a regime that systematically enforced racial inequality and segregation. Yet both these inequities and violence do not belong to the past. According to the OSCE - Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, approximately 4,000 hate-based incidents were reported by over 80 NGOs throughout the OSCE region last year. In the face of this rise of hate crime in Europe, NGOs need to take greater initiative to

fill gaps left by the absence of reaction and action from European governments.Every year since 1992, around the 21 March the UNITED network coordinates the European-Wide Action Week Against Racism in order to enhance NGOs’ capacity to deal with the threats that minority groups face in Europe. This campaign aims to highlight issues of racism from a non-governmental perspective on all levels - local, national and European. It enables UNITED to connect a broad range of antiracist efforts together, and bring greater visibility to each individual act in the ongoing struggle against racial discrimination

In action UNITED This year, Barbara Lochbihler, chair of the Human Rights Subcommittee of the European Parliament, has congratulated and thanked UNITED for organising and supporting the European-Wide Action Week Against Racism, and for taking such a strong and united stance against racism. However, the European Action Week Against Racism could only have been so successful with the energy and commitment of all participating organisations. We are a diverse and dynamic network and we are much more than the sum of our parts; youth activists, expert speakers, sports personalities, educators, musicians, bloggers, UNITED volunteers and staff - each play an essential role that helps the others to play theirs. Each participating organisation ran their own activity and could depend on the UNITED secretariat to provide tools and support to help them. For each UNITED campaign, the secretariat creates and prepares material; freely distributes it throughout Europe; contacts and motivates NGOs to take part; provides contacts, resources, information and ideas; writes a press release; collects and publishes campaign information such as the “List of Activities” and shares good practice amongst the network through this report. On behalf of the whole network, we send a big thank you to all organisations that took part and made this campaign as strong and successful as it was!

48 countries joined in for a UNITED Europe!

campaign report

GERMANYLUXEMBOURG

ALBANIACYPRUS

BULGARIALITHUANIA

FINLANDAUSTRIA

MACEDONIAPORTUGAL

ITALYBELGIUM

GREECE ARMENIA

FRANCE SLOVAKIA

UZBEKISTANGREAT-BRITAIN

AZERBAIJAN NORWAYCROATIAGEORGIA

RUSSIAMOLDOVA

SPAINSERBIA

UKRAINE KOSOVO

ROMANIADENMARK

MALTA KYRGYZSTAN

CZECHIA BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA

IRELAND POLAND

HUNGARY NETHERLANDS

SLOVENIABELARUSSWEDEN

MONTENEGRO TURKEY

SWITZERLANDICELAND

LATVIAESTONIA

NORTHERN IRELAND

IRELAND

RUSSIA

ALBANIA

BELGIUM

GERMANY

думай шире, выскажись против расизма

2012

GREECE

Page 2: campaign report 2012 European-Wide Action Week Against Racism · page 2 Report: European-wide Action Week Against Racism 17-25 March 2012 GREAT BRITAIN > Roads to Racial Justice The

Report: European-wide Action Week Against Racism 17-25 March 2012page 2

GREAT BRITAIN > Roads to Racial JusticeThe antiracist struggle has seen many ups and downs this year in the UK. In January, justice was finally won for the family of Stephen Lawrence, the black teenager who was racially murdered in South London in 1993, when two of his kill-ers were found guilty - a high-profile case which brought to light institutional racism within the po-lice force. This year however, renewed concerns of racism have emerged both in policing and football, two domains where determined efforts have been made to tackle it at every level. This warns us that society can never rest on its

laurels; we need to constantly challenge racial prejudice and inequality wherever it is found, and educate our communities on the damage that apathy can cause. For the Action Week, Lampoon Apathy managed this in a light-hearted way. They organised “ROFL Against Racism” a comedy night blending political conversation with comedy acts, drawing attention to the impact of austerity on so-cial democracy and the rise of nationalism, prov-ing in good humour that antiracist action comes in many faces and can be ignited with laughter.Britain has a long multicultural tradition, but hu-man rights will always unite us across our differ-ences. Using film to reflect on this, GRAMNet in Scotland marked 21 March by showing “She, a Chinese” about the migrant experience in England, and Foyle Film Festival Anti-Racism and Inter-cultural Programme promoted inclusion, toler-ance and diversity through 9 days of screenings. Their additional educational programme brought different landscapes, beliefs, languages and cul-tures into the classroom and raised awareness of issues closer to home, such as racist bullying. The programme was launched by Doreen Lawrence, mother of Stephen, who continues to campaign for victims of racist violence, which connected art and educational concepts to undeniable reality.Concerned that most hate crime occurs within the 16-30 age group, Race Equality Council for Gloucestershire took a practical approach to help-ing victims through “Being Different is Not a Crime, Victimisation is...”. The seminar brought together different actors such as the local police and council whose role it is to respond to such crimes, with civil society groups with the hope of addressing the roots of hate among youth at an early stage.It is tough but valuable work making every cor-ner of our societies a racism-free zone. Whether it is through underlining the antiracist commit-ment of football clubs that Show Racism the Red Card visited up and down the country, or at Lon-don Occupy, where Jewish Socialist Group chal-lenged emerging antisemitic attitudes in relation to the global financial crisis, activists sent a clear sign that wherever racism dares to creep, we will reach too.

SWITZERLAND > No Place for Racism!

Through movie screenings, many organisations encouraged reflection and human rights education

Roma are the group most vulnerable to racism and discrimination in the Czech Republic, according to the ENAR shadow report, which was presented by the Czech Helsinki Committee at a press conference on 21 March. A sociological survey, carried out in 2010 by the Ministry of Interior, found that 83% of respondents see Roma as inadaptable, 90% see them as a “source of criminal acts” and believe they “destroy and litter the environment”. Only 20% perceived Roma as victims of discrimination.To highlight the massive discrimination that minority communities face, during the “Lucerna Against Racism” event, designed by OPONA, an “Exhibition against Racism” was held, linking past and present through the history of Jewish and Romani minorities on Czech territory, and investigating the media image of Romani people in detail. The day ended with a concert against racism followed by a live show by Jam Sound System. “You will not be able to avoid the topic of racism at the Lucerna on Wednesday” said one of the organisers. The Museum of Romani, dedicated to preserving Romani cultural history, organised a varied programme, ranging from lectures to workshops. The many activities included an exposition about the rich and diverse culture of the Roma at different historical moments.

CZECH REPUBLIC > You Will Not Be Able to Avoid Us

ROMANIA > Don't Mind the Gap, Please!Instead take it as a challenge to discover ways to bridge them: finding routes through the urban landscape that are normally not taken because the distances between one point and another are considered too dangerous to jump over, the walls too high to surmount… this is the attraction of the urban sport parkour. This joy of breaking through borders was used in D’Avent Association’s first time participating in the Action Week Against Racism. On 24 March D’Avent Association together with the Romanian parkour community Traceurs.RO organised a special parkour workshop on the topic of racism and discrimination in Romanian society. While the 45 participants were practic-ing parkour, they experienced the feeling of get-ting weird looks from passers-by or having their actions forbidden by police. Given this situation, the members of D’Avent Association were able to make a connection between the feelings of being discriminated when doing something different from others and the discrimination that minori-ties face on a daily basis in Romania. As a second step of this workshop, participants, marked with a badge saying “Diferiti Dar Egali” (Different But Equal) approached passers-by, attracted by their parkour movements and talked with them about the impact of discrimination and racism and what we can do about it.This workshop raised awareness regarding the negative effects of racism and discrimination in Romanian society. Anti-Romanism in particular, considered as something normal in the daily life of many people living in Romania, can be coun-teracted by breaking through old borders that were taken for granted for much too long.Although the workshop focused on a very sensi-tive subject, participants were very open to the discussion thanks the positive approach of the project. Raising awareness among youth while having fun - this is what D’Avent Association gave a very motivating example of!

Engaging many is the best way to tackle racism in a sustainable way

It is our duty to tackle racism and xenophobia: Atlas organised various events in many cities of Portugal

“When you experience racism, you feel alone” Miss Switzerland stated in support of the Action Week Against Racism in Bern. Her statement did not end with those words: “We are many and we can and have to resist” she added. Alongside other celebrities, she raised her voice against rac-ism. Leading up to 28 March, a huge variety of activities took place, coordinated by the city of Bern and project GGGFON - Together Against Violence and Racism as part of the European City Coalition Against Racism. The city walls were covered with posters depict-ing people with scars on their faces. The scars had the shape of words like “club”, “college” or “park”, naming different places in which racism can and does take place. These injuries on the surface make visible the harm racism causes to people, which often stays unseen. Part of the program was also African Mirror who conducted video interviews with passers-by, ask-

ing the question “what is your position towards the Others?” Chinderchübu organised a free work-shop for kids on how to make their own antiracist buttons. Secondos Plus initiated a discussion with pupils on the question of how fair the school sys-tem really is. To what extent does a migrant back-ground – even if this is sometimes only a label given to someone, rather than a chosen identity – decrease someone’s chances at reaching higher education from an early stage?NCBI held a workshop to counteract fairy tales about Muslims spread by the media. In a safe space, Muslims and non-Muslims could pose questions and talk openly about fears and preju-dices. The action week aimed to provide a plat-form for everybody to stand up against exclusion and xenophobia - not only during that week but also for the rest of the year. Another activity was initiated by Kidswest: youngsters approached people on their way through the city asking questions about their ex-perience of racism. Some told their story of being affected by racism themselves, others remem-bered watching racist behaviour or actions, too often without interfering. The young interviewers made notes about the stories, placed their written summaries as traces on different places in the city and then inscribed them on a big map. With this very simple action they showed that we all have something to say about racism. Racism can only be counteracted after we begin to speak about it, stop covering our eyes and ears and acknowledg-ing together that this is an existing problem. Such broad recognition is the foundation we need to develop joint strategies of counteraction!

"Racism Leaves Marks" was the motto of the Action Week Against Racism in Bern

"Free to be Ourself" was the motto of Useful to Albanian Women: with the help of passerby, messages against racism were attached on balloons and set free.

Their campaign "Different Appearance, Heart Alike" showed that we are different but have the same rights

In Nicosia (CY) Association of Recognized Refugees engaged students to get active in & outside university

Art was used as a mean to spread antiracist values by Centre for Intercultural Dialogue (Macedonia)

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Report: European-wide Action Week Against Racism 17-25 March 2012 page 3

RUSSIA > We Call Upon You!We call upon you - those who may be scared, but who are willing to look deeper and think along the following questions: • Can you see prejudice and racism within

yourselves? • How to be able to control it? • How to help and teach other people to manage

their internal hatred?… and other equally difficult questions come to us during the campaign

This year’s campaign “Stop Racism” took place just after the Russian presidential elections so the tense political situation formed the backdrop to the campaign. Away from the political stage but looking straight at it, protest movements occupied both the streets and people’s minds. The Russian extreme right tried to form their own parties and involve sympathising young people. Strong populist nationalistic rhetoric was also a tool for many politicians to appeal to them. Conservative attitudes continue to rise among youth as political propaganda has successfully incorporated unrelated topics such as healthy lifestyles, religion and persecution of those who oppose religious practices into its rhetoric.These developments indicate two key growing tendencies in the Russian social arena, cultivating xenophobic and totalitarian attitudes. One distinguishes “a real patriot and nationalist” from the rest of the society, and is characterised by a healthy lifestyle, migrant-phobia and discriminatory attitudes towards people from the Caucasus region. The other develops totalitarian ideas – it oversimplifies complex problems and finds a common enemy.Against this, there have been a number of positive changes. Firstly, those candidates holding extreme right views gained little support in the presidential and municipal elections. Moreover democratic protest movements proactively distanced themselves from nationalists and their more radical supporters. Street activists and NGOs have been engaging and cooperating with each other more; many antifascists have started supporting NGOs, at times even becoming coordinators of their projects. An important government initiative developing educational programmes on tolerance also inspired optimism, most of these will be launched this year. The 2012 “Stop Racism” campaign, coordinated by the Youth Human Rights Movement (YHRM) was the biggest campaign of its kind: 48 events took place and more than 32 local groups added a loud voice to the thousands of others active against racism all over Europe. This was possible thanks to the many active organisations and their cooperation with other civil society actors such as schools and libraries that gave their support to local ideas and projects on tolerance.

One of the most important and positive outcomes is that antifascists, human rights activists and public figures encouraged social debate, openly discussing what it means to be a “non-nationalist” and what values should form the base of our society. Such discussions in particular can help us unite and fight hate together.

FACE YOUR PREJUDICESSeveral “Human Libraries” were organised all over the country, thanks to their simplicity and positive approach in promoting dialogue, reducing prejudice and encouraging understanding.In Voronezh, the “Human Library” was organised by YHRM in cooperation with the Central Library System and Youth Network Against Racism and Intolerance; “nevertheless there are many open-minded people in Russia who are not afraid of facing their own stereotypes and talking to them. Everyone made such a positive contribution considering the diversity and differences between “Readers” and “Books”. Some participants asked for advice as we discussed problems that are concealed in the society”, said one of the organisers. Another “Human Library” took place in Yekaterinburg, also organised by a partnership between the Central Library and the Initiative Group of Russian Project “Human Library”. The action made a profound effect on participants as the “Readers” could finally face their prejudices without fear of being labelled “prejudiced”.

AN OPEN DIALOGUEMany activities aimed to create a platform for open dialogue and understanding of diversity. The American Councils for International Education held a workshop on tolerance in Barnaul, where students from Nigeria, China, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Switzerland, Mexico and USA talked about their cultural background and their experiences in Russia. In St. Petersburg, the need to draw the attention of youth to inter-ethnic conflicts led the Turan - newspaper for Central Asian Migrants to run the festival “You are not alone”. The festival included a youth contest for the best tolerance symbol and an exhibition of the competition entries. Participants and visitors alike felt part of a more inclusive, diverse and tolerant society.

CARTOONS AGAINST HATEThe language of comics is perfect for discussing complex problems with young people. It is especially among youth that social tensions most often erupt in violence; but it is also this group who are most likely to hear our voice: this is what the authors of the project “Respect - International comics for respect and against intolerance” believe. In the frame of the Action Week they planned

a series of lessons on respect at a school in the capital of Russia, Moscow. These were not lessons in a traditional sense but rather masterclasses followed by discussions. Respect project also held an exhibition in the city of Tyumen in Siberia. Visitors could see the comics of 19 artists from different countries and participate in discussions on tolerance, xenophobia, respect and disrespect.Inspired by the power of art, German-Russian Exchange together with Smolny Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences held cartoon screenings for school students in St. Petersburg. The cartoons opened space for students to think about diversity in our society and respect for minorities. “Colours can live together. If the world was painted only one colour it would not be as exciting. It is fun to realise there are a myriad of colours that make our world so interesting. And the same is with diversity in our communities”, said one of the students.Art can also be a medium (mis)used by those who want to spread hate, and it is our task to keep our eyes open and take action. In the city of Sochi, YHRM together with local activists organised a “wipe out hate” action and searched for “hate graffiti” in the streets. The aim was not only to clean the walls of the city that will host 2014 Winter Olympics, but also to draw the attention of the local authorities to this problem and ask for their intervention.

GET EDUCATEDEducational events in schools took place in many cities. In Voronezh, the City Library organised a lesson for high school children. It was a great way to create cohesion among young people and promote antiracist values. “We try to make these lessons more interactive. It is interesting for us to know what school students think about racism and tolerance, whether they are aware of antiracist actions and whether they take part in them”, the organisers commented on the activity. A number of activities were organised in Samara where the Youth Centre of Intercultural Cooperation prepared “Tolerance in multicultural society” training for medical students. At the end of the training they watched and discussed the film “Sophie Scholl: The Final Days” about a 21 year old member of the anti-nazi non-violent student resistance group in the nazi Germany. ARTEFACT- Samara Society for Cultural Studies organised a panel discussion with students from Samara Business School. The friendly and informal atmosphere encouraged participants to share their opinions and talk about minority rights and civic diplomacy. UNITED materials inspired participants and helped them think of how they can get active at local level. Also in Samara, Federation of Youth Organisations organised a round table

“Different-Equal” for high school students with representatives of ethnic minorities, the Russian Orthodox Church and Muslim community. Young people expressed their views on youth right-wing extremism, discussed the importance of respecting other people’s traditions and way of living. On 21 March activists of Federation of Youth Organisations prepared a game “Racism is the Dead End” for secondary school students. Children learnt in an interactive way about terms such as racism, fascism, antisemitism and what these phenomena can lead to.

REACHING OUTThanks to the translation of UNITED campaign materials into the Russian language, it was very easy to organise low budget activities. Stavropol Volunteers’ Movement planned a large-scale action placing UNITED posters and stickers on bus stops and bulletin boards; in doing so, they spread the message in busy streets and shopping centres. They also used the “chain letter” strategy: by sending a UNITED poster via email to their family and friends and asking them to pass it to their own relatives and friends, the campaign message could eventually reach a large number of people. YHRM together with the Institute of Social Education launched a discussion board for young people in Saratov. The activists spread campaign material among students and talked about racism in football stadiums and institutional racism. The organisers together with the participants tried to find ways to address discrimination and injustice that may occur in our society.The southernmost parts of Russia also joined the Action Week. YHRM together with Women’s Dignity organisation prepared a workshop for school students in Chechnya. They discussed issues such as women’s rights, discrimination and intolerance in society. “Only when students are aware of the discrimination around them can they learn from it”, said one of the organisers.The sheer number of people who joined the action this year in Russia; the scale of the action across Russia from Tyumen to Sochi is an indicator of how significant the problem of intolerance is for Russian activists. We hope that such actions help people from different countries join together and speak out against racism.Results of the campaign are available at:www.unitedagainstracism.org &www.stopracism.yhrm.org

The European Action Week Against Racism took place in a very specific context this year in France. Firstly, the campaign for the presidential elections during the past months saw an escalation in racist discourse from politicians reaching out to far-right voters. Secondly, a series of racially motivated murders in Toulouse and Montauban in March put racial and religious tensions in the foreground. Condemning both the racist drift of the govern-ment and the racist murders, many organisations rallied for the Action Week. Two marches were

organised in Paris, for example. The march “No Spring for Racism” took place on March 21, in Montreuil. It was organised by the Trade Union Confédération Générale du Travail and SOS Rac-isme. On March 25, MRAP, SOS Racisme, UEJF, LICRA, and AFVT organised a silent march to express their disgust at racial hatred and their commitment to the values of the Republic, which include respect for the dignity of everyone. Their motto was “A United Republic Against Racism, Antisemitism and Terrorism!”.

FRANCE > Walking Silent to Be LoudFrom 18 to 21 March the Youth Council of Ko-vacica organised a workshop for human rights in an elementary school in the town Kovacica. Under the title "Move Forward", strategies for fighting racism, fascism and antisemitism were discussed by the young workshop participants. Also initiated by the Youth Council of Kovacica was a painting workshop and multicultural literary competition called "Love People". Using creativity and cultur-al activities, the initiators introduced participants to the topic of antiracism – showing them that coming together to engage against discrimination and suppression can be a very motivating activity. Facing racism always involves confronting frus-trating issues, which is one reason that so many people choose not to deal with it. That is why the question of how we can "recharge" our energies and stay motivated is as important for activists as remaining alert to the atrocities that may be hap-pening around us.To reach out to more people than just the 80 par-

ticipants of the workshop and their friends, the European-wide Action Week Against Racism was also promoted via television and radio. As a result, according to the initiators, practically all residents of the Kovacica region have somehow heard about the campaign and the struggle against racism during March!

SERBIA > Move Forward - Love People

Turan-Newspaper for Central Asian Migrants: When the conditions are bad outside, we need to stick together...

In St. Petersburg the results of a drawing contest against discrimination became a colourful exhibition

Educational events took place in schools encouraging cohesion among students and a culture of respect

"Different-Equal": In Samara young people discussed what to do against youth right-wing extremism

© Posters M

us-e-Kosova, Kosovo

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Report: European-wide Action Week Against Racism 17-25 March 2012page 4

Tradition is never free from racism. This fact is still hard for some people to acknowledge. For those activists that are fighting against the use of racist names which are justified “because it’s always been like that,” this is nothing new. SOS Mitmensch launched a series of online articles to trigger broader discussion about the traditional Viennese chocolate cake with whipped cream and chocolate sauce, which is still widely sold and consumed as “Mo** im Hemd” (“Mo** in Shirt”). The name of the cake references an old racist name for Black people, mostly used in the German speaking context. It reproduces stere-otypes by linking Black people to chocolate and to nudeness suggesting an opposition to the white whipped cream, the “shirt”, a symbol of “civilisa-tion”. But some restaurants have already changed the name: the owner of the “Hawidere”, for ex-ample, realised already in 2007 that the chocolate cake is even tastier without such a racist name!Dealing with this topic is not only important for those who have “nothing better to do” - as if anti-racism is a luxury not a necessity - and SOS Mit-mensch proved this, in cooperation with M-Me-dia, by publishing a list of questions and answers on colonial history, racist narratives and possibili-ties of resistance. In one of their articles SOS Mit-mensch stated that fighting racism means first un-derstanding it. Hence they continue the history of resistance, in which the Research Group for Black Austrian History is one other important example.Collecting knowledge on racism and thereby helping to counteract it more effectively in the future was also the goal of ZARA’s racism report, traditionally launched on 21 March. Every year ZARA collects information about racist incidents in Austria, making a clear sign about why it is so important and urgent to get active against racism!On the same day as the report launch in Vienna, Action Critical Pupils Carinthia/Koroška’s ac-tivists lay in the old square of Klagenfurt while screaming and carrying signs like “No Tolerance for Intolerance” or “International Day Against Racism”. The flashmob was supported by more than 50 young people and very effectively inter-rupted the afternoon strolls of people taking a walk through the city that day. The action was followed by a workshop to discuss practical argu-ments against racism, and then a concert. If we

have problems with understanding each other via spoken language, we can still try out by dancing together! “Protiv Rasizma-ırkçılığa karşı-Gegen Rassis-mus” was written on the central banner at the march of the transnational migrant strike in Vi-enna on beginning of March, declaring “Against Racism!” in three different languages. This year’s strike focused on acknowledging that people with different mother tongues are all liv-ing together in Vienna. Participants were strik-ing against unfair working conditions but also striking against the “racist normality” in Aus-tria. A samba band and several freight bikes with loudspeakers joined the rally to further motivate participants and draw people’s attention away from their daily tasks and encourage them to join the march. Banners were installed before-hand all over the city, with slogans such as “No One is Illegal!”. Also in Innsbruck a migrants’ strike was initiated under the motto “Without us, nothing works”, where people from different backgrounds demanded an end to the separation between “migrants” and “natives”. “We all breathe the same air!” is one of the slo-gans of Afrique-Europe-Interact, a network of refugee and migrant rights organisations in Af-rica and Europe. With the statement “Oury Jal-loh - This was Murder” the network initiated a manifestation in front of the German embassy in Vienna commemorating the killing of the Sierra Leonean refugee Oury Jalloh and raising aware-ness about the ongoing trial against the police officers responsible. Jalloh died in a German prison cell with his hand tied to a burning mat-tress. The demonstration in Vienna also aimed to keep alive the memory of racist incidents in Austria which had deadly consequences: Mar-cus Omufuma † 1999, Richard Ibekwe † 2000, Seibane Wague † 2003, Yankuba Ceesay † 2005 and Gagenpret Singh † 2009.

AUSTRIA > No, We Don't Have Anything Better to Do!

A low level of human rights awareness exists among civil society in Lithuania, and so the legal framework to protect human rights is insufficient. The law protecting national minorities in Lithuania was recently abolished, making them even more vulnerable, and a number of discriminative initiatives restricting LGBTQ rights have appeared.It is against this backdrop that several NGOs in Lithuania have taken the step to tackle these concerning developments head on, using different strategies to take a stand in support of racial equality and diversity. Human Rights Monitoring Institute, in response to a nationalist march scheduled on the same day in Vilnius, mobilised over 800 people onto the streets to combat their racist message under the slogan “We Celebrate the Freedom”.The newly brought in Education Act endangers the rights of national minorities, potentially leading to the closure of their schools. In an unmistakable act of solidarity, over 7000 people marched in support of their right to education, led by the Strike Committees of the Polish Schools of Lithuania and European Foundation of Human Rights (EFHR).EFHR also organised the lecture “Does the Law Allow Discrimination?” using examples such as the Łukasz and Malgožata Runevič-Vardyn case, involving a refused request to change their differently spelled surnames on the marriage certificate; one was spelled in the Lithuanian alphabet and the other Polish. Participants were given a chance to speak with lawyers and get to grip with the complex legal system. This NGO also made a symbolic move to engage with the wider public by translating the UNITED campaign poster into Lithuanian, Polish and Russian distributing the poster at all of their events. As the campaign aims for our shared message to reach as many as possible, this simple act is in fact of great importance to our mission.

National Institute for Social Integration put inclusion and integration at the heart of their activities, with the inspirational message “Positive Alarm for Action”, stimulating intercultural dialogue through human libraries, workshops, flashmobs and film screenings across the country. When discrimination comes from the top down, these energetic NGOs knew that the only option is to fortify the grassroots, look up and push right back!

LITHUANIA > We Are in All This Together

GEORGIA > Racism is WrongThe question of securing rights to minority lan-guage groups still remains deeply divisive in Geor-gia. The government fears that awarding a formal status to languages and dialects might promote separatist tendencies in the country. This year Union of Kurdish Youth of Georgia organised the first festival of minority languages. This fascinat-ing open-air event took place on 24 March at the beautiful Deda Ena Gardens in Tbilisi. Over 20 languages were presented at the festival and par-ticipants were able to study often-used phrases in different languages, participate in competitions, interesting performances and games. This event helped guests to consider the linguistic diversity of our world, and Georgia in particular, as a cultural asset and promoted the idea that there should be no “major” or “minor” languages. Analytical Centre Interethnic Cooperation and Consultations launched a successful Facebook campaign named “Racism is Wrong”. Social me-dia is indeed a powerful tool to spread the word against racism and promote the antiracist initia-tive. Activists from Analytical Center Interethnic Cooperation and Consultations were able to raise awareness of the dangers of racism among the on-line community and get their family, colleagues, friends and friends of friends to join the campaign.Another action was planned by Youth Association DRONI. They organised an “International Pub-lic Reading of Poems against Discrimination” in Tbilisi. Anyone could bring a poem in their native language and read it aloud in a cosy atmosphere, accompanied by music. During the event 4 school-children received a diploma as winners of a Poem Contest about Discrimination organised by DRONI at Tbilisi Sea School.

How can we help children to understand antira-cism in an easy and fun way? This was the question that led Omlandinska Organizacija Svitac - Firefly Bosnia to choose a face-painting workshop as their activity for the Action Week, to show that a super-ficial look is never enough: instead, we all have to look deeper to get to know the real person. As children from diverse backgrounds come regularly to their centre – Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks and Ro-mas all together – it was the perfect place to hold a workshop fostering interaction and exchange de-spite - or in appreciation of! - the many differences between us. The volunteers from Svitac organised the paint and coloured the children according to their chosen “identity”: zombies, fantasy charac-ters, flowers, butterflies, ghosts and angels were suddenly appearing between the UNITED posters that decorated the centre’s garden. Then volunteers joined the crowd and in the end everyone began working together on a collage entitled “I can see something you can’t see…”On 23 March Svitac held another workshop: in the Youth Centre in Brčko Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian, Dutch, French and German people aged from 14 to 35 came together to discuss the definition of “racism” and “fascism”. Afterwards the German short film “Schwarzfahrer” was screened. The ti-tle literally means “Black Rider”, but also “fare dodger” (someone using public transport with-out paying). Even with the title, the movie points out that “black” is still understood as something bad, stressing the necessity for critical reflection on certain expressions and images that have been around for decades or centuries. The plot is about a woman who insults a black passenger on the tram while nobody intervenes. Workshop participants discussed their experiences of racism in daily life, talking about in which situations they did and did not intervene. In the end they created a big poster with prints of their hands next to which everybody wrote a personal message against racism. The Youth Group of the Helsinki Committee for

Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina also made use of the UNITED campaign material. With the slogan of this year’s campaign, volun-teers went into the streets of Bugojno and Sarajevo to make people uncover their eyes and ears. When we experience racism in public or private life, it is obvious that we must show clear and strong disa-greement with what is too often seen as normal or “not-meant-like-that”. Even when an insult or attack is not directed to-wards us, we should “take it personally”, over-come our first hesitation and intervene! For the person actually suffering from the aggression, performing counteraction can be more difficult!

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA > Racism is Not Normal!

What is the best way to get your message across if not by spreading the UNITED material in your city? The

walls of Bugojno & Sarajevo were useful means

"We Celebrate the Freedom" represented a strong reaction of civil society to the anuual nationalistic march - people gave the clear message that there is no space

for hate in their town

How can we use the exisiting laws to protect human rights? And does the law allow discrimination? Those

questions were discussed during the event launched by European Foundation of Human Rights

In Vienna various decentral actions took place on the occasion of the Transnational Migrant Strike. In Kla-

genfurts pedestrian zone, pupils caught the attention of passersby by lying on the ground and screaming loud

against racism.

Minority Language Festival in Tbilsi: there should be no “major” or “minor” languages

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GREECE > We Want Equal Rights For All…The situation of asylum seekers, refugees and immi-grants living in Greece has been a burning issue ever since the Minister of Citizen Protection decided to build 30 Immigrant Detention Centres, designed to “clean Athens of all illegal immigrants, who repre-sent a major threat to the public health”. To raise public awareness against these political develop-ments, the Greek Council for Refugees, decided to organise a web buzz. Limited financial resources inspired them to make use of creativity and already existing tools: their website, social media (Face-book, Twitter), and UNITED material. Thanks to the help of many volunteers, they released a press release on many different media channels in a syn-chronized way, creating a “butterfly effect”. In this way, they reached out to a broad audience and ex-posed the asylum situation in Greece. Migrants are also among the most frequent targets of racist attacks in Greece. A press conference or-ganised by the Racist Violence Recording Network on 21 March presented the results of their pilot pro-gramme for monitoring and recording racially mo-tivated acts of violence. The Network was set up as an initiative of the National Commission for Human Rights and UNHCR in Greece, with the participa-tion of 18 NGOs and other bodies. 63 incidents of racist violence were recorded between 1.10.2011 and 31.12.2011. Of these victims, 27 were undocu-mented migrants, 23 asylum seekers.The Racist Violence Recording Network’s monitor-ing results are extremely worrying, especially con-sidering that these incidents are only the tip of the iceberg; they reveal that racist violence is spread-ing at a terrifying speed and threatening an already strained social cohesion.The topic of discrimination and racism was also at the heart of the actions organised by the Youth Cent-er Corinthia in Kiato. Among the activities were free hugs, questionnaires and graffiti. The organisers faced some scepticism as they approached passers-by and soon discovered that, beyond the common rejection of racism, many Greek citizens manifest fears and concern about living together with people from a different background. It is for this reason that this year’s campaign slogan, “Open Your Mind” was particularly relevant: We must recognize dif-ferent forms of racism and the many ways they can poison our minds and societies.

Kyrgyzstan is a multi-ethnic country and home to Russians, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Uyghur, Korean, Dun-gan and many other minorities. Kyrgyzstan con-tinues to grapple with the consequences of the June 2010 violence that erupted between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in the country’s south, killing more than 400 people. A number of initiatives were taken in this year’s Action Week Against Racism to prevent a recurrence of this tragic conflict and promote multicultural values and respect of mi-nority rights. Golos Svobody - Voice of Freedom prepared a range of activities for youth, starting with a conference for law students and professors of the Kyrgyz National University. The conference served as a social learning platform where under-standing and knowledge of human rights and anti-racist practices were developed. Some of the stu-dents were so interested in the events; they decided to set up a programme for the campaign next year. The activists of Golos Svobody also organised an open-air benefit concert under the name of “Kyr-gyz youth against racism, nationalism and inter-regional division: United We Are” in the capital, Bishkek. The organisers made 40 posters and in-vited university stand-up comedy clubs and music bands to take part in the concert to promote their antiracist message. The concert united people from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds was a living testimony to the fact that cultures can and do mix. Another action took place at a secondary school in Bishkek. Children shared stories of their lives when they witnessed incidents of nationalism, rac-ism or any kind of inter-ethnic division. It turned out that very often their parents would not let them

play with the children belonging to a different eth-nic group. One of the secondary school students said “You can imagine the society in the form of concrete. Concrete is not made from a single thing. There was also water, sand and other things added to it. Just like that, the society can’t consist of a single group. And racism is a crack in the concrete as well as in the society”.

KYRGYZSTAN > United We Are“Racism is seen and felt by many people. Unfortunately, hurtful name-calling, apparently innocent jokes and ostracism are everyday occurrences for a large number of people, even though

most of us disapprove of such behaviour. The Finn-ish Red Cross Week Against Racism, March 19-25, reminds us that there are situations where speaking out is better than staying silent.” This was the call for action that the Finish Red Cross sent out.In a rap contest Red Cross and 15 young musicians from all over the country substantiated the idea of speaking out against racism. All of the perform-ances showed how words can be used as a tool to combat racism. During a final battle in Joensuu on 21 March the winner was found out of the three best songs.The Red Cross Finland organised much more than just the rap contest; their programme for the Action Week was colourful and creative, characterised by many activities for, with and from young people. Young Red Cross Volunteers organised flash mobs and street actions like a bin for prejudices, where passers-by were encouraged to write their preju-dices down on paper and literally throw them away.Red Cross Finland activities were part of the nation-wide campaign in Finland coordinated by Rasmus Network Against Racism and Xenophobia. All over the country organisations held discus-sions, lectures, living libraries, concerts, exhibi-tions and much more.Also the final conference of the two year project “Creating a Level Playing Field” was held in Hel-

sinki during the Action Week. Both conference and project were organised by European Non-Govern-mental Sports Organisation ENGSO. The project aimed to encourage social inclusion of migrants and ethnic minorities in sports. More than 40 par-ticipants from European, national, regional and lo-cal levels discussed the findings of the project dur-ing this final event.

FINLAND > Speak Out

In the Netherlands there is growing bigotry against Muslim and other minority groups, fuelled by Parliament member Geert Wilder and his party PVV. Undocumented migrants are also a target of discriminatory policies, since increasing criminalisation, as introduced in a proposed law, makes it difficult for them to realise their rights. Once the law is implemented, a quota has been set to arrest 4.800 “sans papiers”. Such criminalisation means that undocumented migrants are now afraid to ask organisations and institutions for help. Notwithstanding this growing intolerance, many activities were organised during the Action Week. In seven cities, for example, activists focused on rising awareness about the rights of migrants and asylum seekers in The Netherlands. In Amsterdam Het Wereldhuis, Info Centre for Undocumented Migrants and ASKV/ Solidarity Committee for Asylum-Seekers presented “The Passport of Am-sterdam” to the mayor of the city. In this manual, the rights of people without a residence permit (right to health, education, legal assistance, hous-ing and work) are laid out. The presentation of the passport took place at City Hall, where the mayor spoke out against the above-mentioned quota. As well as in Amsterdam, in The Hague, Utrecht, Rot-terdam and elsewhere, similar activities took place simultaneously.

Platform Stop Racism and Exclusion organised a torch light manifestation in Amsterdam, to draw at-tention to the growing numbers of victims of racist violence in Europe. Participants read aloud a list of all the victims of hate crimes. In Tilburg, Het Huis van de Wereld organised a per-formance called “As I left My Fathers House”. This performance tells three heart-wrenching stories of refugees from different cultural and religious back-grounds. A Jew, a Christian and a Muslim speak about their world: a world of people forced to live in hostility, violence and extremism. After the per-formance, there was an opportunity to discuss and listen to each other’s experiences and life stories.

NETHERLANDS > No One is Illegal

This slogan captures the aim of the project organ-ised by Mus-e Kosova and Twelve in Prishtine on the 21 March. They organised a meeting in the European Information and Cultural Centre with civil society representatives and young people in-terested in intercultural dialogue, human rights and the struggle against racism and discrimination. As this was their first time taking part in the Action Week, they prepared a PowerPoint presentation about UNITED. Then a psychologist and a sociolo-gist made short contributions on the topics of dis-crimination, prejudices, stereotypes and racism to trigger discussions among the approximately 100 participants. Many people voiced the need for joint action and expressed their motivation to launch future seminars and conferences on the topic of networking in Prishtine. One outcome of the de-bates was the idea to start a research project about the level of discrimination and racism in Kosovo, with the focus on young people aged from 12 to 30. The research would be the starting-point for future projects aiming to deal with specific local problems and engage young people.The national coordinator of Mus-e Kosova was a guest on the national TV station, discussing this

year’s antiracist activities on both the morning and evening shows. Twelve and Mus-e Kosova pro-duced fun, colourful posters boasting slogans such as “We All Fit Together” or “Holding Together Against Racism”. A Facebook page was launched to guarantee that people would know about the initiative in advance (and not only by reading this report ;-)). All the efforts made by those involved from Twelve and Mus-e Kosova resulted in stimu-lating great motivation in Kosovo, both among people already active in antiracist work and, through the television broadcast, also people who had never before taken a strong interest.

KOSOVO > Holding Together Against Racism

21 MarchEuropean Action Week Against Racism

UNITED for intercultural Action, European network against racism, fascism and in support of migrants and refugees — www.unitedagainstracism.org

21 MARCH

EUROPEAN ACTIONWEEK AGAINST

RAC

ISM

open your mind

speak out against racism

In Kyrgyzstan, activities at schools and university and a charity concert in the centre of Bishkek united people

from various backgrounds, showing how it is possible to live together peacefully...

Students of the University of Eastern Finland put their creativity & forces together to hold up their antiracist values: education is central to the cause of respect

© Zwarte Piet is Racisme - Siri

Each year UNITED prepares campaign material, like posters and postcards, for the European-wide Action

Week Against Racism. The material was distributed for free to hundreds of organisations all over Europe

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Almost every person from a minority in Ireland, whether they are a minority by background or be-lief, experiences racism almost on a daily basis. Following the release of the ENAR report against racism, on 21 March the coordinator of the Irish Network Against Racism (INAR) points out that “only one in six people report racist incidents to the police, often due to fear or the fact they feel that nothing can be done (…). There is some ac-ceptance in Ireland that racism is serious issue across Europe, but many consider it less of an issue here”. Against this background, politicians, activists, models, designers and people from all walks of life spoke out against racism.Normally the fashion industry is not seen as a champion of social inclusion, interculturalism or a celebrator of differences. There are people though, who understand that the fashion industry’s influ-ence can be used for good. Fashion Against Rac-ism for example, is a social awareness initiative by ordinary people with a simple message: Together we can tackle Racism. It is for that reason that Fashion Against Racism created a platform for lo-cal and national fashion designers, models, hair & make-up artists, photographers and media to use their unique talents and celebrate the rich cultural diversity that exists in Ireland’s social and fash-ion scene. Several extraordinary and multicultural

fashion designers showed their collections and the proceeds of a silent auction & raffle draw were donated to two charities: The National Breast Cancer Research Institute (since cancer does not discriminate; it does not look at age, colour, reli-gion or beliefs) and Show Racism the Red Card.Show Racism the Red Card itself, a campaign that uses top footballers to educate against racism, organised a football event where members of the Irish parliament from all political parties put aside their differences and worked together with staff members of several embassies to mark 21 March. The Centre for Global Education, a non-govern-mental development organisation that aims to raise awareness of global issues and encourage action towards social change, organised a one-day workshop exploring the Roma community. This workshop, called "The Roma: Between Myth and Reality" enabled participants to recognise and challenge general and individual assumptions about the Roma they have, and also raise aware-ness of Roma culture, history and traditions. The workshop also aimed to establish links between Roma and other members of society.All Irish events were coordinated by INAR, a national network of antiracist NGOs that aims to work collectively to address racism in Ireland through antiracist initiatives.

IRELAND > Something Must be Done ITALY > A Chain to Be FreeA kaleidoscopic community occupied streets and squares of 35 cities creating human chains to say “No to any form of racism”. The National Office Against Racial Discrimination called on civil society to go on the streets on 21 March 2012 at 10:30 and reclaim strong antiracist values. This call was necessary after the racist attacks of De-cember 2011 in Florence, at the hand of a right-wing extremist who killed two Senegalese street vendors and injured another three. New cooperation between NGOs, bookshops, mu-sicians and schools helped to spread the message to various groups. APS-YARD with the bookshop Don Durito held together a theatrical performance based on ironic readings of poetry “Leghisti, Fas-cists, Racists ... A laugh will bury you”. What is the best way to show how ridiculous racism is if not by laughing at it? Irony can be a powerful tool to open up deeper discussions such as how racist propaganda is sadly becoming an accepted part of Italian politics.A.Ra.Xè Agency Against Racism & Xenophobia and APS-YARD worked with 15 classes of primary and secondary schools in Milan. The activities used non-formal education to show how differ-ences are a precious quality in our communities. Starting from presentations of images, videos, sto-ries and games coming from different parts of the world, students were encouraged to deepen their understanding of diversity and discuss antiracism and xenophobia. As a conclusion of these “alterna-tive school lessons” students realised video-mes-sages, collages and a radio-spot against racism.Our commitment against racism is serious work, but it can also be enjoyable and great fun; it is for this reason that parties, concerts and music con-tests were organised in several cities: the annual concert with Fast and Furious, NoMama Hip-Hop projects, Reggae parties and many more. Italy needs to wake up and open its eyes to the worrying spread of intolerance and xenophobia, and luckily many courageous activists are work-ing hard to this aim.

Poland and Ukraine will be hosts of one of the big-gest football events: the Euro2012. Unfortunately football, the most famous sport in the world, is af-fected by incidents of racism and discrimination. Be it from fans, players, clubs or other football bodies.Against this background, Polish NGOs got active under the UNITED campaign to support the prepa-ration of Euro2012 with antidiscrimination activi-ties. “Racism in Soccer” was the topic of the exhi-bition organised by Never Again (NA), and Edith Stein House in Wroclaw. It took place in the cellar of the Edith Stein House and depicted the history of ethnic minorities, both local and national, in foot-ball, as well as pointing out the problem of racism in the stadiums. During the opening, the president of Fundacja Centrum Tolerancjj and a member of NA gave a lecture about the problem of racism in football. They started with a short introduction into racist symbols used in sports and described the “Let’s Kick Racism out of the Stadiums” campaign. The opening speech was followed by a drum con-cert and workshop, aiming to make together music against racism. Inspired by traditional African and Indian methods participants experienced rhythm through singing, dancing and drumming. The city of Wrocław was also the theatre of many more activities; EVS volunteers of the Edith Stein House organised a flashmob to set a symbolic sign for their motto “Together Against Racism”. Their call for action travelled via Facebook and wall post-ings and as a result, a “country exchange market” was organised, where each would bring something from their home country and exchange it at a pub-lic space at a defined time. Further the EVS vol-unteers made also use of the “good old” UNITED campaign material, spreading it to advertise their upcoming event.In other Polish cities, NA used the symbolic date of 21 March to kick off the campaign “Say Stop to Racism”. Students prepared a broadcast about the campaign, transmitted through their school speak-ers. They also spread UNITED’s antiracist posters, in and outside school property, as well as issuing pamphlets and stickers informing about NA’s ac-tivities. Also in prevision of the Euro2012, NA presented the activities organised in the frame of the FARE “Re-spect Diversity” project to a group of 20 Ukrain-ian school head teachers and principals from Kiev and Kharkiv. The project’s objective is to promote diversity and the power of football to unite across differences, while monitoring and addressing the social and political undercurrents of discrimination, racism and intolerance. This meeting also roused great interest in spreading the concept of the “Inclu-sive Zone” in Ukraine. This idea aims to contribute to the creation of a friendly multicultural atmos-phere at Euro2012. Schools, NGOs, local authori-ties, cultural institutions, community centres, sports clubs as well as businesses, shops and pubs have all been invited to join the initiative. The principle that underpins the “Inclusive Zone” idea is simple - the creation of hundreds of public buildings and spaces that are designated as being open, accessible and welcoming to people regardless of their ethnic or national background, gender, disability or sexual orientation. The “Inclusive Zones” are visible and marked through posters and stickers.

POLAND > Together Against Racism

As diverse as the European-wide Action Week in general is, so diverse are activities during the Ger-man International Week Against Racism coor-dinated by the Interkultureller Rat. With more than 1200 events in over 300 cities and municipalities, the Interkulturelle Rat said the Action Week 2012 was the most extensive and diverse campaign in history.Civil society institutions in particular such as schools, sport clubs, trade unions, firms and local initiatives contributed to the Action Week’s success with their engagement and creativity. Many events were organised dealing with everyday racism, rac-ism in mainstream society, refugee rights, migra-tion and integration. One of those events was a city tour through the Berlin district Neukölln. Neukölln is the Turkish neighbourhood of Berlin with high migrant population. The tour showed interested participants places significant to Turkish life.As part of the Action Week some cities devel-

oped their own programmes, such as Hamburg, Erlangen, Munich and Leipzig. The initiative Laut gegen Nazis coordinated the Action Week in Hamburg, where lectures, concerts, workshops, exhibitions and much more took place under the slogan “Hamburg Stands Up”. Supported by fa-mous musicians like Jan Delay or Udo Linden-berg and Bundesliga football clubs FC St. Pauli and Hamburger Sportverein (HSV) Laut gegen Nazis delivered a varied and creative campaign.The Stadt Leipzig - Referat für Migration und Inte-gration coordinated the campaign for the 9th time, this year with more than 60 events and special ac-tivities for children and youngsters. The programme was an expression of diversity and a multicultural society, with many events dealing with topics like migration, inclusion or interculturalism. Alongside the huge campaign were also smaller events organised by local NGOs. One of them is

the STUBE Berlin-Brandenburg, who offered in-ternational students a breakfast. With a lot of time for chatting, young people got to know different cultures in a relaxed atmosphere. There were not only events done by grassroots or-ganisations but also for them. The Fraport Skylin-ers invited migrant support organisations to take part in “Cup Without Borders” a multicultural basketball tournament and professional training with Fraport Skyline, followed by a match be-tween Fraport Skyliners and Ratiopharm Ulm. One reason for such strong participation in the Action Week was the widespread shock over the recently uncovered Nationalsozialistischer Unter-grund (National Socialist Underground), a right-wing extremist terror group responsible for sev-eral racist murders during 2000 and 2007, and the resulting will to combat right-wing tendencies, concluded the Interkultureller Rat.

GERMANY > Multiculturalism is Everywhere More than 1200 events all over Germany

ARMENIA > Sharing Personal StoriesIn the framework of the Action Week, the NGO Youth for Exchange and Cooperation organised a street action in Yerevan. About 30 young people gathered in the city centre, holding UNITED ma-terial and interviewed passers-by about what they think about racism and what can be done to elimi-nate it. The activity was a success as it stimulated critical thought about how to counteract racism among people who might not normally consider the issue, motivating them to take part in future ac-tions. The activity received good media coverage and some activists were interviewed on the radio. The article “Young People Against Racism” was published on the website of Public Radio of Ar-menia, reaching out to those who were not present on the day, and informing them about the action of Youth for Exchange and Cooperation. Because, as the article says, education is one of the most important elements for getting rid of racist ideas!The Youth Centre for Democratic Initiatives also knew this: under the motto “Raise your voice against Racism”, they organised a seminar and movie screening of the film “Racism: A His-tory”. The documentary depicts the development of racism and its connection to western philoso-phy and to the dark history of slavery. Through-out the event, UNITED campaign posters, leaflets and postcards were available, so that participants

could also take material home to continue discus-sions outside the youth centre. Participants discussed the topics illustrated in the documentary as well as other forms of discrimi-nation. They also shared their personal stories of being affected by racism themselves or witnessing others being exposed to racism. Many said that this helped a lot in reflecting on their own stere-otypes and that this event allowed them to recon-sider their ideas about races and racism in general. Antiracist education means confronting the long and infamous tradition of racism, but it also means learning about racism by just listening to each other and sharing different life stories.

Loud into the streets - Loud inside schools. People from all over the Italian peninsula were mobilised to say "No to any form of racism" and ask for equality

inside our communities

Also this year people from various backgrounds, ethni-city and faith enjoyed the inclusive atmosphere, nice

food and workhops at the Islamic Cultural Centre Ireland

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Report: European-wide Action Week Against Racism 17-25 March 2012 page 7

BELGIUM > You are Not Alone! Racism is a daily reality for many ethnic and re-ligious minorities in the EU. However, the extent and manifestations of this reality are often un-known and undocumented, especially in official data sources, meaning that it can be difficult to analyse the situation and to establish solutions. To fill those gaps, the European Network against Racism in Brussels (ENAR) launched the key find-ings of their annual shadow report on racism in Europe and organised a round table on the rise of the far right. The discussions were about the chal-lenges that right-wing parties bring to European society and the role of NGOs in addressing the rise of populism, as well as the role of the European Commission and the European Parliament.According to the Flemish Service for Employment a quarter of unemployed job seekers are of immi-grant origin. They are also four times less likely to find a job. And if finally they do find an occupation, the work is almost often their level of education. Discrimination and prejudices play an important role in this phenomenon. So, on 21 March, Hand in Hand Tegen Racisme started a campaign called “Discrimination does not work in our company”. Hand in Hand and other cooperating organisations asked the authorities to make a plan that would lead to a more effective policy for putting an end to the exclusion of ethnic and cultural minorities in the employment sector. To achieve this goal,

Belgian citizens were called upon to contact their local political parties. In Gent, people of more than 150 different na-tionalities give the city a multicultural flavour. Although this is a time of economic difficulties, it is too easy to blame others. The city council therefore decided to show that there is no place for racism and discrimination in Gent, by organis-ing a mega photo shoot in a large public square, where anyone who chose to spread the message of diversity could take part.Another major event took place in Gent where Meldpunt Discriminatie Genk, dance group Brand New Style and some trade unions also grew tired of being passive, and therefore organised a flash-mob called “Dance Against Discrimination”.

While the President of Belarus who has been rul-ing the country with an iron fist for almost 18 years made a homophobic statement that it is “better to be a dictator than gay” when responding to Euro-pean criticism of the country’s democratic record, Human Rights Project Gay Belarus organised a public campaign starting from 17 March in the city of Minsk. Activists of the LGBTQ movement dis-tributed posters and postcards to encourage people to condemn racism and other forms of irrational intolerance. “The purpose of the event is to demon-strate and promote tolerant attitude to minorities. It has no political overtones”, said the chairman of Human Rights Project Gay Belarus. In fact, activists of Project Gay Belarus organ-ised a range of activities in the frame of the Ac-tion Week Against Racism. Movie screenings were used as another powerful medium to raise aware-ness. Films open our eyes to the world around us, touch and inspire audiences. Project Gay Belarus activists also showed short clips and feature films on human rights and diversity issues. By present-ing documentaries on various topics they encour-aged public debate and created a free space for top-ics and discussions. Belarus is Europe’s only country to have the death penalty. Activists claim that around 400 people have been executed in Belarus since the 1991 Soviet collapse. At the end of the campaign Gay Belarus activists left toys in the streets with stick-ers against the death penalty and racism, attracting attention from passers-by and offering a new posi-tive view about what the future would be like if there was no violation to the right to life.

BELARUS > We Can't Stay Silent

Both in Budapest and the provinces, more and more young people identify with the extreme right-wing party Jobbik, worrying about “Israeli Banks” taking over Hungarians economy, about “Roma criminality” or about “too many people becoming gay”. In order to create different points of reference, this year the Federation of Resistance Fighters and Antifascists awarded the antiracist Miklós Radnóti prize, named after a Jewish poet murdered by the Nazis in 1944. This year the head of the Founda-tion of Subjective Values (FSV) won the award, recognising the great work done by the Budapest-based NGO. On the same day, the FSV initiated a concert of Romano Trajo and Dresch Quartet and a poetry slam, especially aimed at reaching younger people. Under the motto “Zene a Rasszizmus El-len” (Music Against Racism) an enthusiastic at-mosphere was created and many people expressed their interest in the campaign and the ongoing fight against racism.Human Rights Students’ Initiative at the Central European University also took 21 March as an opportunity to spread their message. They started the day with an info table providing UNITED and other campaign material for curious passers-by to have a look at. Aiming to make people more aware of what it means to be discriminated against, the initiative published written stories by Roma talking about their experiences of racism. To give the read-

ers an opportunity to express their feelings about the text, there was also a comments book. Under the title “Right to Exist: Hungarian Muslim Com-munity in XXI Century” the new Hungarian law on religious “freedom”, abolishing all mosques, was discussed by an Imam from the Islamic Cultural Foundation. At the end of this very active day, the book “Muslims in Poland and Eastern Europe Widening the European Discourse on Islam” was presented, strengthening the ties between Hungar-ian and Polish authors. Despite the growing strength of right-wing ideas in Hungary, an impressive number of people took action on 21 March to suggest alternatives to the viewpoint of groups such as the Jobbik party. Their activities give hope that in the future more people will identify with fairness, equality and freedom and as a consequence take a clear stance against anti-Roma attitude, antisemitism, homophobia, Is-lamophobia and nationalism.

HUNGARY > Alternative Points of Reference

Recent surveys show that xenophobic attitudes have risen in Spanish society by a significant percentage since the economic crisis developed. Racist argu-ments feed off the public discourses of many poli-ticians and the current financial cuts, encouraging, for example, discriminatory policies considering foreigners as second-class people with fewer rights than citizens. In this context racism finds many ways to pollute Spanish minds and society. However, scores of organisations organised lots of activities in the frame of the UNITED campaign in different cit-ies across the country to speak out against discrimi-nation and cleanse minds of racial prejudice. One of the most active regions was Andalusia where the Human Rights Association of Andalusia (APD-HA), supported by dozens of organisations, prepared a range of different events aimed at raising aware-ness about the “International Day Against Racism and Xenophobia” and denounced the increase of racist actions and behaviour against the migrant population, such as continuous police raids and ID controls. From a TV programme to a press confer-ence, from street actions and public manifestations to musical performances and leaflet distribution, hundreds of people of Huelva, Cádiz, Córdoba, Se-villa, Granada and more were mobilised and stood together for a plural and open province. APHDA also looked for creative ways to involve civil soci-ety, for instance, by distributing a “Discrimination Calendar” that encouraged people to participate in an antidiscrimination event every month, or ingen-ious leaflets that imitate CD´s, to raise awareness of the vulnerability of undocumented migrants work-

ing as CD salesmen on the streets.In Catalonia, many organisations prepared events showing the many faces of racism. The Pan Afri-can Movement (Federation of Black Communities) held an international congress in Barcelona about victims of racism and the General Union of Work-ers sent out a press release plus extensive research explaining the dangerous impact the last labour re-form has for migrant workers. The Human Rights Institute of Catalonia advocated for the defence of human rights in their annual training course while spreading UNITED material. The Network Acoge and the Catalonian Commission for Refugees also distributed our shared campaign material during their meetings.In other regions, SOS Racism initiated a well thought-out and original antiracist campaign involv-ing youth to spread the message; students of a design school planned the whole campaign, including post-ers, the slogan and videos distributed in street action and among mass media. “Sound the alarm against Racism”, supported by 54 organisations, gathered hundreds of people on the street making noise with cans and sirens. “Noise is like a drink that we drink every day, it spreads like a virus, infecting the popu-lation” to stop the racist “noise” or propaganda that makes people “deaf” and isolates them, participants went out with loud flashmobs to be even more audi-ble with their messages.An important action took place in Madrid by Mov-imiento contra la Intolerancia. Conscious of the in-crease in xenophobic attacks, the international con-ference “Stop Hate Crimes” brought experts from

different parts of Spain along with international ones to discuss the recognition of hate crimes and their victims at European level. At the same time, three youngsters suffered a nazi attack during an antiracist concert in Manresa. Quickly, antifascist committees organised demonstrations all over the country to ex-press solidarity and continue the fight against hate. There is still so much to do and the situation is get-ting difficult but Spanish organisations work active-ly to clean up polluted minds of racial prejudices.

SPAIN > Clean Up Your Mind From Prejudices

When a nationalist politician made a racist remark about the singer who will represent Ukraine at this year’s Eurovision song contest just because of her skin colour, European Choice started a campaign and collected 500 signatures in support of the pop star. The European Choice activists not only stood up for the singer’s rights, but also raised awareness about the importance of human dignity and respect in our society. From 21 till 30 March, Congress of National Mi-norities of Ukraine organised an exhibition about the rights and history of refugees and ethnic minori-ties in Ukraine. Young people from different ethnic backgrounds had the chance to speak about how eth-nic minorities can claim their rights in Ukraine, their identity, reactions from the society they live in and how they cope with it. Over 600 visitors attended

the exhibition, which will travel to other cities in Ukraine, making use of the concept of peer-educa-tion pioneered by the Anne Frank exhibition.Another series of activities was prepared by the Council of National Societies of the Mykolaiv Re-gion. On 20 March they organised a round table with regional authorities, representatives of NGOs and institutions of culture. One of the outcomes of the meeting was the establishment of a working group that will develop a round table resolution on the pro-tection of rights and interests of ethnic minorities in the Mykolaiv region. On the following day, activists from Council of National Societies organised a “Human Library”, while another “Human Library” was organised by Source of Hope on 23 March in the city of Vinnitsa. Both activities succeeded in challenging common

attitudes and stereotypes, thus helping the region’s local communities become more inclusive and cohesive. The “Human Books” shared personal stories about times when they were subject to discrimination, and told visitors about their cultural background. Another Ukrainian city, Artemovsk, joined the Eu-ropean Action Week Against Racism, as volunteers from SVIT-Ukraine and Wake Up initiative group organised an interactive workshop, “We Say No to Racism” for school students. A movie screening followed by discussion and games aimed to draw young people’s attention to the social challenges around them. Students had a chance to put them-selves in the shoes of a refugee, foreigner, pensioner and other social roles and share their feelings with participants of the game.

UKRAINE > We Say No to Racism

Human Rights Project Gay Belarus took it to the streets! By standing tall against racism and in

solidarity with minorities, they received wide media coverage reaching out to thousands of people, publicly

condemning racism and any form of intolerance

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INTERNATIONAL21.3.12 “Racism & Conflict” Theme of the UN International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination 2012 • 21.3.12 “International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination” Declaration by the High Representative, Catherine Ashton, on behalf of the European Union • 21.3.12 “International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination”Online message from Director-General of UNESCO.

ALBANIA16.3.12 “I See in Colour” Workshop & competition in Tirana, 19.3.12 “Free to be Ourselves” Writing whishes & let them fly with balloons in Durres, 19.3.12 in Elbasan, 21.3.12 in Burrel, 27.3.12 in Tirana “Different in Appearance - Similar in the Heart” Art sessions, organised by Useful to Albanian Women & others.

ARMENIAMarch 2012 “Stand Up Against Racism!” Movie & discussion in Vanadzor, organised by Youth Center for Democratic Initiatives • 17.3.12 “Let Us Promote Diversity! Stop Racism!” Street & media action & interviews in Yerevan, organised by Youth for Exchange & Cooperation.

AUSTRIAMarch 2012 “Migrant Rights are Women Rights” Distribution of UNITED campaign material in the office in Vienna organised by LEFÖ • 1.3.12 “Transnational Migrant Strike” Demo, campaign & decentralized actions in Vienna & beyond, organised by open coordination group 1.März • 1.3.12 “Without Us Nothing Works” Transnational Migrants Strike in Innsbruck, organised by 1.März • 6.3.12-14.3.12 “Racist Dessert Names” Web articles in Vienna, organised by SOS Mitmensch • 13.3.12 “Oury Jalloh - This Was Murder!” Rally in Vienna, organised by Afrique Europe Interact • 13.3.12 “Abolish the Defence of the Constitution!” newspaper article against state repression & deportation in Vienna • 14.3.12 “Future Forms of Action” plenum in Vienna, organised by 1.März • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “International Week Against Racism” Awareness raising workshops all over Austria, organised by AKS Bund • 20.3.12 “‘Black Book Human Rights & Torture’” Presentations in Vienna, organised by Residenzverlag & Bookshop Morowa •20.3.12 “War. Imagine It Would Be Here” Theater in Vienna, organised by Dschungel Wien • 20.3.12 “Antisemitism in Fraternities” Penal discussion in Vienna, organised by Israelitische Kultusgemeinde • 21.3.12 “11th Publication of the Racism Report” Press conference & publication in Vienna, organised by ZARA • 21.3.12 “Right Wing Extremism” Workshop in Vienna, organised by Gedenkdienst • 21, 24, 31.3.12 “Screaming, Debating & Dancing Against Racism” Flashmob, workshop, concert in Klagenfurt, organised by AKS Kärnten/Koroska • 22.3.12 “Together Against Racism, Sexism & Antisemitism” Demo against right wing FPÖ event in Innsbruck, organised by Plattform Bleiberecht • 23.3.12 “Disappointing Living Spaces” Workshop in Vienna, organised by FIBEL • 27.3.12 “The Integration Lie - Answers in a Hysteric Debate” Book presentation in Vienna, organised by Hanser Literaturverlag & more • 29.3.12 “Monitoring Racism. Data Collecting & Monitoring as Central Instruments to Combat Racism” Penal discussion in Vienna, organised by Diplomatischen Akademie.

AZERBAIJANMarch 2012 “Open Your Mind” Spreading UNITED material in Baku, organised by Volunteers Public Union • March 2012 “Multicultural Understanding” Round table in Baku, organised by SHR • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Antiracism” Seminar, UNITED campaign material distribution in schools & event in Baku, organised by AEGEE • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Speak Out Against Racism” Distribution of UNITED campaign material, 18.3.12-20.3.12 “Stand Up Against Racism” Youth conference in Baku, organised by NAYORA • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Teaching Antidiscrimination” Series of seminars in Baku, organised by AYLU • 17.3.12-25.3.12, “Universities without Racism” Meetings at Baku Universities & distribution of UNITED campaign material, organised by Centre Women & Modern World.

BELARUS17.3.12 “Speak Out Against Racism!” Action & spreading campaign materials, 24.3.12 “Movies Against Discrimination” Movie in Minsk, organised by Gay Belarus.

BELGIUM17.3.12 “Holebi’s & Transgenders Against Racisme” Online declaration, organised by Cavaria Organisation for Homosexuals, Lesbians, bi-sexuals & Transgenders • 21.3.12 “Rights for Sans-Papiers” Solidarity action in Brussels, organised by Collectif Sans-Papiers • 21.3.12 “Discrimination Does Not Work in Our Company!” Campaign start in Belgium, organised by Hand in Hand Tegen Racisme • 21.3.12 “Wake Up!” Photo session of by-passers & music in Gent, organised by City Council of Gent & many more • 21.3.12 “Dance Against Discrimination” Flashmob in Genk, 21.3.12 “In Mechelen is No Place for Racism & Discrimination!” Campaign in Mechelen, organised by Meldpunt Discriminatie • 22.3.12 “Launching ENAR Annual Shadow Report on Racism in Europe 2010-2011” in Brussels, organised by ENAR • 28.3.12 “How Subtle tt Could be - Racism is Not Normal!” Conference & theatre in Mechelen, organised by Kerkwerk Multicultureel Samenleven.

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA 16.3.12-18.3.12 “Exchange Visit” Meetings in Srebrenica & Zvornik in Bosnian, Croatian & Serbian language, 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Speak Out Against Racism!” Distribution of UNITED campaign material in Sarajevo, organised by Nansen Dialogue Centre • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Open Your Mind!” Spreading UNITED campaign material in Tuzla, organised by Peace Flame House • 21.3.12, 23.3.12 “Stop Racism & Nationalism” Streetaction, UNITED campaign poster pasting & flyer distribution in Bugojno, organised by Youth Group BH-HCHR • 23.3.12 “Hands Together Against Racism” Discussion & workshop, “I Can See Something You Can’t See” Face-painting & photo workshop in Brcko District, organised by Svitac.

BULGARIA2012 “No More Impunity for Hate Speech” campaign in Sofia, organised by Inter Ethnic Initiative for Human Rights Foundation • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Stop Racism” Discussions, cleaning of hate symbols, training & spreading of UNITED campaign material, organised by School #22 Gabrovo.

CROATIAMarch 2012 “Speak Out Against Racism” Spreading UNITED campaign material in Zagreb, organised by Croatian Youth Network • March 2012 “Teachers for Europe” Round tables in Zagreb, organised by JEF • March 2012 “Open Your Mind - Speak Out Against Racism!’ UNITED campaign material distribution, 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Anti Discrimination Info Point” in Zagreb, organised by Human Rights Centre.

CYPRUS March 2012 “Be Loud Against Racism!” Spreading UNITED campaign material in Nicosia, organised by Red Cross Society • March 2012 “European-wide Action Week Against Racism” UNITED campaign material distribution in Nicosia, organised by NGO Support Centre • 20.3.12-24.3.12 “Open Your Mind-Speak Out Against Ra-cism” Hanging leaflets in Nicosia, organised by Association of Recognised Refugees.

CZECHIA19.3.12 “Multicultural Evening - Focus Cuba” Lectures & multicultural evening in Praha, organised by Association for Integration & Migration • 19.3.12-21.3.12 “Against Racism!” Movie & exhibition in Prague, organised by UN Information Centre • 19.3.12 “Open Your Mind & Speak Out Against Racism” Antiracist video, movie & concert in Prague organised by ROMEA, OPONA & CHV • 20.3.12 “The Seed of Hate - Is It In You?” Movie, discussion & awareness raising in Prague, organised by In Iustitia • 20.3.12 “Ghetto Lodge” Info event, 20.3.12 “Jewish Feast, Life Cycle & Tradition” Interactive program for students, 21.3.12 “Gender Stereotypes In Advertisements” Workshop, 21.3.12 “Violence Committed on Women (Not Only on Them)” Lecture, 22.3.12 “How Are Our Food & Cloths Produced?” Workshop, 23.3.12 “Islam” Discussion, 23.3.12 “The Story of Roma” Guided exhibition tour in Brno, organised by Museum of Romani Culture • 21.3.12 “Supporting Roma Youth” Press conference & round table in Brno, organised by IQ Roma Servis • 21.3.12 “Racism in Europe” Press conference & publication of shadow report in Prague, organised by Czech Helsinki Committee & ENAR • 21.3.12-23.3.12 “Demo's Against Neonazis 2011” Photo exhibition in Czechia, organised by Czech Helsinki Committee • 26.3.12 “Racism & Right Wing Populism at Times of Crisis” Debate in Prague organised by Duha-UNITED & SPaS - Alliance of Labour and Solidarity.

DENMARK16.3.12 “In Memory of Victims of Neonazi Bombing Attack Against International Socialists 20 Years Ago” Commemoration march in Nørrebro, organised by http://16marts.dk/ • 21.3.12 “UN’s International Day Against Racis” Meetings in Copenhagen, organised by SOS mod Racisme • 21.3.12 “The Danger of Racism at Different Levels” Lecture & debate in Skive, organized by SOS mod Racisme, WILPF & Kultur på Tvaers • 31.3.12 “Protest & Blockade Against Neofascist Meeting of DDL & EDL” Demo in Aarhus, organised by http://projektantifa.dk.

ESTONIAMarch 2012 “Antiracist Education” School event in Tallin, organised by Youth Union SiiN.

FINLAND16.3.12 “Oulu Loves Me” in Rotuaari organised by Multicultural & Equality Work • 19.3.12 “Equality Among the Cultures” Cultural event in Kuopi, organised by Student Union Eastern Finland • 19.3.12-25.3.12 “Finish Antiracism Week” Big campaign all over Finland, organised by Rasmus • 19.3.12-25.3.12 “Rap Against Racism” in Joensuu, 19.3.12-25.3.12 “The Week Against Racism” Demo's, flash mobs, seminars & Facebook campaign all over Finnland, organised by Red Cross Finland • 21.3.12 “Give Up Prejudices” Campaign in various municipalities of Finland, organised by Advisory Board for Ethnic Relations • 21.3.12-23.3.12 “Creating a Level Playing Field” Final conference of 2 year project in Helsinki, organised by ENGSO.

FRANCE6.3.12 “Adolescences in Exile” Lecture in Saint-Denis, organised by Profession Banlieue • 21.3.12 “No Spring for Racism” Meeting in Montreuil, organised by Confédération Générale du Travail & many more • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Speak Out Against Racism!” Various activities of the 60 associations of FASTI all over France

• 25.3.12 “A United Republic Against Racism, Antisemitism & Terrorism!” Silent march in Paris, organised by MRAP, SOS Racisme, UEJF, LICRA, AFVT & many more.

GEORGIA17.3.12, 21.3.12, 24.3.12 “Inconvenient Films” Movies, discussions, theatre & workshops, 21.3.12 “International Public Reading Against Discrimination” in Tbilisi, organised by DRONI • 21.3.12 “RacISm Wrong” Facebook campaign, organised by Analytical Center Interethnic Cooperation & Consultations • 24.3.12 “Festival of Minority Languages” in Tbilsi, organised by Kurdish Youth.

GERMANY12.3.12-25.3.12 “All Equal - All Different” Nation-wide campaign with more than 1200 events in 300 cities all over Germany, organised by Interkultureller Rat in cooperation with many organisations • 23.2.12 “Moment of Silence” Nationwide commemoration, organised by DGB & BDA. March-April 2012 “Speak Out Against Racism!” Distribution of UNITED campaign material in Hannover, organised by Friends Tambacounda • 1.3.12-11.3.12 “Stop Racism” International Youth Exchange in Tecklenburg, organised by Association for Peace & Democracy Development • 5.3.12-16.3.12 “Strengthening Democracy - Struggling Right-wing Extremism” Exhibition in Hannover, organised by Volkshochschule Hannover & more • 8.3.12-9.3.12 “Active Coach - Active Students” Workshop in Würzburg, organised by Schule ohne Rassismus - Schule mit Courage Bayern • 12.3.12-25.3.12 “Against Racism - Youth of the World Say Their Opinion” Exhibition in Dachau, organised by Evangelische Versöhnungskirche in KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau • 12.3.12-25.5.12 “Stop Deportation” magazine launch all over Germany, organised by various German Refugee Councils • 12.3.12-25.3.12 “Tolerance - Diversity as a Chance” Weeks against racism in Leipzig, organised by the city & Cities Against Racism • 16.3.12 “Don’t Touch my Mate! Against Racism & For Equal Rights” New media & cultural activities all over Germany, organised by Mach Meinen Kumpel Nicht An! • 16.3.12-24.3.12 “Hamburg Stands Up” Concerts, lectures, workshops, exhibitions & more in Hamburg, organised by Laut Gegen Nazis • 19.3.12 “Antisemitism in Migrant Society” Presentation in Erlangen, organised by Jüdische Kultusgemeinde Erlangen • 20.3.12 “Growing Up in 2 & More Cultures - Children With a Migration Background” Film & text writing workshop in Berlin, organised by Loesje International • 21.3.12 “Against Racism & Xenophobia” Demo in Lahnstein, organised by the city • 21.3.12 “Solidarity Concert for Resistance Against Racism” Concert in Berlin, organised by Bündnis Gegen Rassismus • 22.3.12 “Recognition & Reparation for the Genocide in German Westafrica - Now!” Press actions & online campaign in Berlin, organised AfricAvenir & many more • 22.3.12-23.3.12 “SOS for Human Rights” Theatre in Erlangen, organised by GRIPS Theatre Berlin • 23.3.12-31.3.12 “Your Engagement - Shaping Society Together” Workshops in Weimar, organised by EJB Weimar • 24.3.12 “Racism - Here too?” International students breakfast in Berlin, organised by Stube Berlin-Brandenburg • 30.3.12 “Stop Deportation! Knock Over Dublin2!” Demo's on airports in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg & München, organised by http://dublin2.info • 31.3.12 “Stop the Nazi-March!” Blockade against nazi gathering in Lübeck, 23.3.2012 “Rather Prevention Than Playing Down” Symposium in Düsseldorf, organised by DGB • 1.4.2012 “How Tolerant are We in Reality” Seminar in Grünheide, 10.3.12-18.3.12 “Say No to Racism!” Seminar in Dresden, organised by IG BCE • 1.4.2012 “Cup Without Borders 2012” Basketball tournament in Frankfurt am Main, organised by SKYLINERS.

GREAT-BRITAINMarch 2012 “Open Your Mind” Hanging UNITED campaign posters, 24.3.2012 “Being Different Is Not a Crime - Victimisation Is” Conference in Gloucester, organised by Race Equality Council for Gloucestershire • 2.3.12-3.3.12 “Unite National Black Afro Ethnic Minority Conference” Conference in Eastbourne, organised by Unite - The Union • 9.3.12, 20.3.12 “Tackling Racism & Promoting Race Equality” Training course in Glasgow, organised by Red Card Scotland • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Derby Race & Equality Commission Week Against Racism” Workshops in community centres, places of worship, schools & colleges in Derby, organised by Race & Equality Commission • 19.3.12 “ROFL Against Racism” comedy, music & discussions in London, organised by Lampoon Apathy • 19.3.12 in Durham, 21.3.12 in Wrexham, 22.3.12 in Broughton, 22.3.12 in Southampton, 22.3.12 in Leicester “Show Racism the Red Card” Club events, organised by Show Racism the Red Card • around 21 march “Jews are Not the Source of the Financial Crisis” Workshop & spreading UNITED campaign material at occupy camp in London, organised by Jewish Socialist Group • 21.3.12 “Deportation & State Violence” Seminar in Glasgow, organised by School Social & Political Sciences • 21.3.12 “She, a Chinese” Movie in Glasgow, organised by GRAMNet - Glasgow Refugee Asylum and Migration Network and BEMIS - Black and Ethnic Minorities Infrastructure in Scotland • 21.3.12-30.3.12 “Intercultural & Antiracism Festival” Movies, presentations & workshops in Derry, Belfast & Strabane, organised by Nerve Centre • 22.3.12 “Working With Asylum Seekers” Training in Glasgow, organised by Scottish Refugee Council.

GREECEMarch-April 2012 “Antiracist Education & Awareness of Cultural Diversity” Workshops and radio broadcast in Athens, organised by University of Athens • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Students Against Racism” Radio & street action in Volos, organised by Uni-versity of Thessaly • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Be Loud Against Racism” UNITED campaign material distribution in Korinthos, organised by Youth Centre Corinthia • 21.3.12 “Racist Violence Recording Network” Press conference, 25.3.12 “Stories of Refugees in Greece” Documentaries, press release & spreading of UNITED campaign material in Athens, organised by Greek Council for Refugees • 23.3.12-25.3.12 “People Beyond Borders” Movie & live session in Athens, organised by Ash In Art.

HUNGARY21.3.12 “Music Against Racism” Poetry slam, “Day Against Racism” Exhibition, documentary film, round table in Budapest, organised by Foundation of Subjective Values • 21.3.12 “Eliminating All Forms of Racial Discrimination” Campaign in Budapest, organised by Human Rights Students' Initiative - Central European University • 21.3.12 “Rádnoti Miklós Award” Antiracist prize in Budapest, organised by Hungarian Federation of Resistance Fighters & Antifascists.

ICELANDMarch 2012 “Speak Out Against Racism” Awareness rising & interviews in Reykjavík, organised by Icelandic Human Rights Centre • 23.3.12 “Antiracist Day” Youth event in Reykjavík, organised by Icelandic Human Rights Centre & Art University of Iceland.

IRELAND17.3.12-25.3.12 European Action Week Against Racism in Ireland was coordinated ENAR-Ireland • 13.3.12 “Managing Diversity in the Workplace” Network Café in Galway, organised by City Partnership & Chamber of Commerce • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Open Your Mind - Speak Out Against Racism” in Galaway, organised by City Partnership • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Including Differences” Installing in Dublin, organised by Youth Development Education • 19.3.12-30.3.12 “Speak Out Against Racism” Poster display in Co Clare, organised by Youth Council Gaelic • 21.3.12 “Unite to Show Racism the Red Card” Football game, online videoclip & awareness rising by box-champion, 21.3.12-19.4.12 “Anti Racism Creative Competition” Competition & online campaign in Dublin, organised by Show Racism the Red Card • 22.3.12 “Speaking Up about Racism” Newspaper Article, organised by Galway Refugee Support Group • 23.3.12 “Fashion Against Racism” Catwalk in Dublin, organised by Catwalk Against Racism • 23.3.12 “Roma: Between Myth & Reality” Workshop in Dublin, organised by Centre Global Education • 24.3.12 “Multicultural Day” Cultural, sport & kids event & workshop in Dublin, organised by Islamic Cultural Ce

ITALYMarch 2012 “Movies Against Racism” Movie in Gorizia, organised by ANOLF • 2.3.12 “Fascists, Racists...A Laugh Will Bury You!” Discussion & theatre, 3.3.12 “Reggae Against Racism” Party, 9.3.12 “Priscilla Party” Party & performance, 21.3.12-21.4.12 “Against Racism & Xenophobia” Activities in schools, 23.3.12 “100% Antifascist 100% Antiracist 100% Hardcore” Concert in Milan organised by APS YARD, CS Cantiere & more • 18.3.12–25.3.12 “Human Rights for Everyone? Right!” Training in Palermo, organised by Ecumenical Youth Council in Europe • 19.3.12-25.3.12 “Racism is an Ugly Story” 22nd Film festival in Milan, organised by Centro Orientamento Educativo • 21.3.12 “Spring Without Racism” Meeting with students in Reggio Emilia, organised by Mondinsieme • 21.3.12 “Say NO to Every Form of Racism” Human Chain in 35 Italian Cities, organised by National Office Against Racial Discrimination • 24.3.12 “Hip Hop Hate Speech-free” Workshop, battle & concert in Milan, organised by NoMama, CS Cantiere & APS YARD • 25.3.12 “No Place for Racism in Media” Discussion, film, presenation & international buffet in Rome, organised by No Border Line &more • 12.4.12-14.4.12 “From Discrimination to Empowerment” Conference in Trieste, organised by Mandàla Institute.

KOSOVOMarch 2012 “Speak Out Against Racism” Material Distribution in Motrovice, organised by Community Building Mitrovica • 21.3.12 “Speak Out Against Racism” Campaign, poster production, meeting & UNITED campaign material distribution in Prishtine, organised by NGO Twelve & Mus-e Kosova.

KYRGYZSTANMarch 2012 “Wipe out Hate” Sport activities, April 2012 “Ethnic Minority Rights” Conference in Bishkek, organised by Institute for Regional Studies • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Action Week Against Racism & Nationalism” Conferences, debates, lectures, trainings, concerts & more in Bishkek, organised by Voice of Freedom.

LATVIA14.3.12-20.3.12 “Combating Discrimination - Promoting Diversity” • Training & spreading UNITED campaign material in Riga, organised by European Minority Youth Network • 16.3.12 “No Place for Nazis in Riga” Conference, blockades of fascist march & media actions in Riga, organised by World without Nazism • 21.3.12-28.3.12 “Talking Hands” Photo exhibition in Riga, organised by Shelter Safe House.

LITHUANIA March 2012 “Positive Alarm for Action” Human library meetings in Vilnius, 1.3.12-26.3.12 Workshops conducted in 140 schools, 1.3.12-26.3.12 “Social Exculsion in

Our Society” Films, flash-mob & more & 21.3.12 “Get Active - Be Creative” Contest in 15 Different Lithuanian cities, organised by National Institute for Social Integration • 11.3.12 “Freedom March” Demo in Gedymina Alley, 14.3.12, 22.3.12 “Minority Rights Protection System Within the Human Rights Spectrum” Lecture in Vilnius, organised by European Foundation of Human Rights • 17.3.12 “Defense National Minority Education” Demo in Gedimino, organised by EFHR & Strike Committee of Polish Schools in Lithuania • 20.3.12 “Don‘t be Silent” Discussion in Panevezys, organised by Out of Standart

LUXEMBOURG16.3.12-18.3.12 “Migration, Culture & Citizenship” Festival & book fair joint by more than 300 associations, organised by CLAE • 24.3.12 “Night of Black Humour” Humorous performances in Luxembourg, organized by Centre Culturel de Rencontre Abbaye de Neumünster & African Dreams.

REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA10.4.12-17.4.12 “Youth Dimensions of Migrations in Europe” Training in Stip, organised by Association for Progress, Education and Lobbying • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Diversity Against Racism” Exhibition, concert, press conference & distribution of UNITED material in Kumanovo, organised by Centre for Intercultural Dialogue.

MALTA24.3.12 “Speak out Against Racism” Info stand & distributing UNITED campaign material in Valetta, organised by Moviment Graffitti.

MOLDOVAFebruar-April 2012 “Roma Children” Supporting Roma children in Transnistria, organised by Interaction– Vzaimodeistvie • March 2012 “Football Against Racism” Football match in Kishinev, organised by Afro-Asian Community of Moldova & NEVER AGAIN • March 2012 “Ethnic Minorities in Moldova” Conference in Chisinau, organised by National Institute for Women • 14.3.12-21.3.12 “Preventing Racial Discrimination in Gagauzia” Spreading UNITED campaign material & round table in Gagauzia, organised by M-Liga • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Racism & Discrimination” Seminar in Komrat, organised by Regional Development Centre Stability • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Movies Against Racism” Film festival with workshops in Kishinev, organised by AVIMD • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Speak Out Against Racism” Spreading UNITED campaign material in Chisinau, organised by GenderDoc.

MONTENEGROMarch 2012 “Open Your Mind” Lessons in schools in Podgorica, organised by Human Rights Group - Montenegro• 2012 “European Wide Action Week Against Racism” Distribution of UNITED campaign material in workshops & refugee camps in Podgorica, organised by Red Cross Montenegro.

NETHERLANDS1.3.12-21.3.12 “Purmerend Against Racism” Manifestation in Purmerend, organised by Bureau Discriminatiezaken • 18.3.12 Kerken uit de Haarlemmermeer, 25.3.12 Doopsgezinden en de Evangelische Broeder Gemeente “Suffering of Refugees” Solidarity vigils at Amsterdam airport, organised by different religious communities around Amsterdam • 21.3.12 “In Pink Through Den Haag” March in Den Haag, organised by LGBT activist Shiwally • 21.3.12 “Commemoration for European Victims of Racism” Torchlight vigil, reading & music in Amsterdam, organised by Platform Tegen Racisme • 21.3.12 “Blue Eyed” Filmworkshop in Nijmegen, organised by Ieder1gelijk • 21.3.12 “Diversity = Me” National campaign & photo shootings, organised by MOVISIE • 21.3.12 “Basic Rights for People Without a Residence Permit” Speaking out for the rights for people without a residence permit in 7 cities, organised by ASKV & many more • 21.3.12 “Passport of Amsterdam - Basic Rights for People Without a Residence Permit” Presentation of leaflet to undocumented inhabitants during common meal in Utrecht, Presentation to Major & discussion in Amsterdam, Press meeting in Rotterdam, Nijmegen, Conference in Eindhoven, Lecture in Breda, organised by Wereldhuis, Dokters van de Wereld, Stichting LOS, ASKV, Groen Links • 21.3.12 “Peace & Rights! Also for her (Undocumented) Inhabitants?” Discussion in Den Haag, organised by Justitia et Pax • 21.3.12 “International Antiracism Day - Stranger in the Neighborhood” Movies & discussion in Tilburg, organised by ARG & TAS • 21.3.12 “As I Left My Fathers House” Theatre in Tilburg, organised by Het Huis van de Wereld • 21.3.12 “Stop Racism! - Celebrate Unity” Press release, article, Facebook & discussion in Amsterdam, organised by Zwarte Piet is Racisme & more • 21.3.12 “International Day Against Racism & Discrimination” Web Statement, organised by Commissie Gelijke Behandeling • 22.3.12-28.3.12 “Movies that Matter” in Den Haag, 25.3.12 “Gypsy Sunday Afternoon” Film, debate & concert in Den Haag organised by Movies that Matter • 23.3.12 “1,5 Years Migration Politics” Roundtable discussion in Den Haag, organised by NJCM • 24.3.12 “Analyses of 20 Years Struggling Racism” Debate & meeting in Amsterdam, organised by Platform tegen Racisme.

NORTHERN IRELANDMarch 2012 “Youth Against Racism” Distribution of UNITED campaign material in Belfast, organised by Inner East Youth Project • 21.3.12-30.3.12 “Foyle Film Festival Intercultural & Antiracism Programme” Filmfestival in Derry/Londonderry, organised by Foyle Film Festival • 23.3. & “European Protection of Fundamental Rights” Conference in Belfast, organised by Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities • 30.3.12 “Love Music Hate Racism Conference” Conference in Belfast, organised by Love Music Hate Racism & more.

NORWAYMarch 2012 “Open Your Mind - Speak Out Against Racism” UNITED material distribution in Oslo, MiRA Resource Centre for Black/Immigrant & Refugee Women.

POLAND2012 “Different but Equal” Campaign in Warsaw, organised by Association for Legal Intervention • 15.3.12-16.3.12 “Antidiscrimination” Conference in Wrocław, organised by Education Against Discrimination • 16.3.12 “Music Against Racism” Concert in Warsaw, “Music Against Racism - Covan Wake Up Tour” 17.3.12 in Lodz, 22.3.12 in Poznan, 23.3.12 in Wroclaw & 25.3.12 in Krakow & 18.3.12 “Music Against Racism” Concert in Gdynia, organisd by Never Again • 21.3.12 “Together Against Racism” Campaign & action in Wroclaw, Edyta Stein • 21.3.12-25.3.12 “Days to Combat Racism” Movie, workshops, story telling an Demo in Lublin, organised by Amnesty International Lublin.

PORTUGAL17.3.12-25.3.12 “European Action Week Against Racism” Colloquy in schools in Santa Catarina & Braga, 21.3.12 “International Day Against Racism” Press Releases, organised by Atlas Cooperativa Cultural • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Against Racial Prejudice” Distribution of UNITED campaign material in Lisbon, organised by Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice.

ROMANIAMarch 2012 “Let Us Speak Out Against Racism!” Spreading UNITED campaign material in gallery in Bucharest, organised by Art Yourself • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “European Action Week” Discussions in school & refugee camp in Timisoara, organised by Generatie Tanara • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “European Actionweek Against Racism” Movie, debate & UNITED material distribution in Oradea, by Institute Promoting Democracy • 21.3.12 “Raise Awarness Through Urban Sports” Parkour Demo's in Bucharest, 24.3.12 “Act Against Discrimination” Parkour workshop & UNITED campaign material distribution in Bucharest, organised by D’AVENT Association.

RUSSIA17.3.12-27.3.12 “Stop Racism!” Huge antiracism campaign all over Russia, organised by Youth Human Rights Movement (YHRM) • End of February-March 2012 “International Media Camp” in Petrozavodsk, March-April 2012 “Barents Festival of Environmental Films” International film festival with seminars & discussios, March 2012 “Youth Human Rights School” Series of seminars in Petrozavodsk, organised by International Youth Club Solveig • 21.2.12 “Inter-religious Dialogue & Cooperation” Youth seminar in Petrozavodsk, organised by Center for Intercultural Communication & Civic Education • March 2012 “Hate Crime Victims” Seminars in Moscow & Moscow region for lawyers, organised by Civic Assistance Committee Refugees & Forced Migrants • March 2012 “Speak Out Against Racism” Seminar for refugees & hate crime victims, organised by Icumbi • 15.3.12-27.3.12 “Respect for all People” Trainings with using arts & comics in 7 schools in Moscow, 17.3.12 “Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover” Human Library in Voronezh, organised by YHRM & more • 17.3.12 & 24.3.12 “Antiracism & Resistance in History” Lectures in Saratov, organised by Institute of Social Education & YHRM • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Education for the Youth” Discussion in the streets in Kazan, organised by Centre Peacemaking & Human Rights Actions • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Wipe Out Hate” Wipe out hate speech

symbols from walls in Voronezh, organised by InterAction Club Gimnasia 6 • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Pupils Meet World War II Veterans” Meetings in Novokyibishevsk - Samara region, organised by Former Young Prisoners of Fascism • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Week of Friendship in Cheremhovo” Round table with representatives of different Diasporas, drawing, games & national cuisine in Cheremhovo, organised by Youth Initiatives Support Centre • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Friendship of People” Spreading UNITED campaign material in Samara, organised by House of Friendship of Peoples • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Open Your Mind - Speak out Against Racism” Spreading UNITED campaign material on- & offline in Samara, organised by ARTEFACT • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Spreading Tolerance” Spreading UNITED campaign material in Samara, organised by Federation of Youth Organisations • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “We all Play one Reed” Poster exhibition, in Stavropol & web, organised by Stavropol Volunteers’ Movement • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Fight Against Xenophobia” Campaign in Moscow, organised by Centre for Interethnic Cooperation • 17.3.12-27.3.12 “Get a Stand Against Racism” Informational stand in Voronezh, organised by Coltsov’s Library, YHRM & Youth Network Against Racism and Intolerance (YNRI) • 17.3.12-27.3.12 “Clean the Walls” Action for cleaning symbols in Sochi, organised by YHRM & YNRI • 19.3.12 “Different - Equal” Round table in Samara, organised by Federation of Youth • 19.3.12 “You Are Not Alone” Intercultural festival in Saint-Petersburg, organised by newspaper for migrants Tooran • 20.3.12 “Tolerance Education” Conference in Volgograd, organised by Volgograd Student Association • 21.3.12 “Cartoons Against Hate” Discussion with school children in Saint- Petersburg, organised by German-Russian Exchange, Smolny Institute Liberal Arts & Sciences • 21.3.12 “Life Without Stereotypes” Training for youngsters in Groznyi, organised by Women’s dignity, YHRM & YNRI • 21.3.12 “Intercultural Workshops” Workshops with foreign students & schoolchildren in Barnaul, organised by FLEX • 21.3.12 “Movies to Tackle Racism” Thematic cinema & discussion in Moscow, organised by Club of Jerry Rubin, YHRM & YNRI • 23.3.12-27.3.12 “Comics Festival Respect” Exhibition in Tumen, organized by Project Respect, Commission Festival, YHRM & YNRI • 23.3.12-29.3.12 “PostDialog” Conference & human rights movie week in Murmansk, organised by Humanistic Movement of Youth & more • 25.3.12 “Human Library” in Ekaterinburg, organised by Initiative Group of Russian project “Human Library” & Central Library.

SERBIA10.3.12 “Be CreA(c)tive – Let’s Hear!” Artistic workshop in Belgrade, organised by Youth Group of Serbian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights • 17.3.12-24.3.12 “Love People” Art workshop, 18.3.12-21.3.12 “Move Forward” Workshop, 21.3.12 “Love People” Literary multicultural party in District Kovacica, organised by Youth Council Kovacica • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “European Wide Action Week Against Racism 2012” Meeting with activists & distribution of UNITED info-material, 25.3.12 “Speak Out Against Racism” Statement on radio & TV stations, 25.3.12 “Future Actions Against Racism & Racial Discrimination” Discussion, 25.3.12 “Open Your Mind” Comics & art exhibition & movie in Kraljevo, organised by Association Art Workshop • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Human Rights Against Racism” Distribution of UNITED material in Belgrade, organised by Serbian Helsinki Commitee for Human Rights • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Open Your Mind - Speak Out Against Racism” Distribution of UNITED material in Belgrade, organised by Educational Center Krusevac.

SLOVAKIAMarch 2012 “7 Steps” Press conference & roundtable for members of parliament in Bratislava, March 2012 “Promoting Positive Images of Roma People in Slovakia” Media campaign In Slovakia, organised by People Against Racism.

SLOVENIA17.3.12 “Antiracist Breakfast” Free breakfast to gather youth, students, representati-ves & members of various minorities as Roma, LGBT people or asylum seekers in Kranj, organised by Student Club Kranj • 6.4.12-8.4.12 “Against All Kind of Anti-Gypsism, Racism & New Forms of Discrimination in Europe” International conference in Ljubljana, organised by Institute on Romani Studies, Ethnicity & Migration.

SPAINMarch 2012 “Online Against Racism” Awareness raising online & offline in Spain, organised by Associación Atzavara-Arrels • March 2012 “Speak Out Against Ra-cism” Distribution of UNITED campaign material in Barcelona, organised by Comissió Catalana d'Ajuda al Refugiat • March 2012 “Say No to Racism” Spreading UNITED material, organised by Red ACOGE • 5.3.12-23.3.12 “Annual Training Course” & spreading UNITED campaign material in Barcelona, organised by Human Rights Institute Catalonia • 18.3.12 “Space for Diversity” Intercultural activities in Huelva, organised by Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos de Andalucía • 19.3.12-25.3.12 “Jornadas Antirracistas” Art, music, photography & more against racism in Madrid, organised by SOS Against Racism • 21.3.12 “Victims of Racism” International con-gress in Barcelona, organised by Pan African Movement • 21.3.12 “International Day of Eliminating Racial Discrimination” Press Release in Catalunya, organised by Union General De Trabajadores • 21.3.12 “International Day Against Racism & Xenophobia” Press conference & TV program in Cadiz, 21.3.12 “Coexistence in Conil de la Frontera” Presentation & music in Conil de la Frontera, 21.3.12 “Presen-tation of 2011 Calendar of Discrimination” Press conference in Cordoba, 21.3.12 “International Day Against Racism” Street action in Granada, organised by APDHA & many more • 21.3.12 “For a Plural & Open Seville. Against Racism, Xenophobia & All Forms of Discrimination” Gathering in Sevilla, organised by Plataforma Sevilla Plural • 23.3.12-24.3.12 “Stop Hate Crimes in Europe” Conference in Madrid, oranised by Movimiento Contra la Intolerancia & many more • 31.3.12 “Antifascist Solidarity from Madrid to Manresa” Demo's in Madrid, Salamanca, Toledo, Palencia, Barcelona, Malaga & Manresa, organised by local Antifa groups.

SWEDEN21.3.12 “FN - Days Against Racism & Discrimination” Film in Malmö, organised by ABF Malmö & many more • 22.3.12 “Anti-discrimination Work in Theory & Practice” Lecture in Stockholm, organised by Anti-Discrimination Bureau • 23.3.12-29.3.12 “Get Ready!” Training in Stockholm organised by European Education Exchanges and Youth For Understanding Sweden.

SWITZERLAND21.3.12-28.3.12 “Against Racism & For Respect for All” 2nd Huge action week coordinated by the City of Bern & Projekt GGGFON In the frame of Cities Against Racism • 20.3.12 “Right Without Borders” Symposium in Bern, organised by Recht ohne Grenzen • 20.3.12 “Diversity, A Swiss Value?” Inter-cantonal campaign with theater in Geneva, organised by Bureau de l’Intégration des Étrangers • 21.3.12 “International Day Against Racism 2012” Film & presentations in Biel, organised by SOS Racisme MULTIMONDO • 21.3.12 “30 Women Against Racism” Poster exhibition, speeches & showing commitment against racism by getting photographed in the city centre of Fribourg, organised by Espace

TURKEYMarch 2012 “Volunteers Against Racism” Spreading UNITED campaign material in institutions & in centre of Istanbul, organised by Community Volunteers Foundation • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “International Week Against Racism” Campaign, radio program & conference in Silifke, organised by Arkadas • 27.3.12 “Theater Against Hate Crime” Street Action & petition in Istanbul, organised by Platform Hate Crime & DurDe!.

UKRAINEMarch 2012 “For Refugee Rights” Round table in Chernihiv, organised by Committee for Human Rights Protection • 1.3.12-24.3.12 “Antiracism Campaign” Campaign to collect signatures in support of popstar Gaitana all over Ukraine, organised by European Choice • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Speak Out Against Racism” Spreading of UNITED campaign material in Uglegorsk, organised by Rezys • 17.3.12-25.3.12 “Antiracism Week” Antiracist event & distributing of UNITED campaign material in Artemovsk, organised by SVIT-Ukraine • 17.3.12-31.3.12 “Tell Racism - NO!” Round tables, debates, interactive lessons, initiated by volunteers from jewish communities & local ethnic minority groups, organised by Kesher • 20.3.12 “Multicultural Society - Problems & Prospects” Round table in Petro Mohyla University in Mykolayiv, organised by Council of national societies of Mykolaiv region • 21.3.12 “It’s All About Us” Conference for Euro-clubs in Poltava, organised by Pedagogical Center Academia • 21.3.12-30.3.12 “Together” Youth Exhibition in Kiev,organised by Congress of National Minorities of Ukraine • 29.3.12 “European Week Against Racism & Discrimination” Open Lessons in Crimea, organised by Institution for Civil Society.

UZBEKISTANMarch “Open Your Mind - Speak out Against Racism” Info table with UNITED campaign material in the museum in Samarkand, organised by International Museum of Peace & Solidarity.

20th European-Wide Action Week Against Racismoverview of activities • 17-25 march • 2012

this publication is a supplement to Calendar of Internationalism PRINTED BY DIJKMAN OFFSET | WWW.DIJKMAN.NL

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more than 550 organisations from 48 European countries, many prominent individuals, private supporters and long-term volunteers from Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste, the European Voluntary Service-, Grundtvig and Leonardo Programme and Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service.Since 1992 financial support was received from various sponsors such as: European Commission (General Budget/Socrates/Grundtvig/Youth in Action Programme/DG Employment Social Affairs/ TACIS IBPP), Council of Europe (European Youth Foundation/European Youth Centres), OSCE-ODIHR, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, World Council of Churches, Olof Palmes MinnesFond, Cultural Council Sweden, Ministry of Education Slovenia, Green Group-, Socialist Group-, and GUE/NGL Group in the European Parliament, European Cultural Foundation, Stiftung West-Östliche Begegnung, Aktionsbündnis Gegen Gewalt, Rechtextremismus und Fremdenfeindlichkeit Brandenburg, Home Office UK, Ministry of Interior-BZK NL, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs CH, the Matra Programme of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Instituto Português da Juventude, National Integration Office Sweden, Service Nationale de la Jeunesse Luxembourg, LNU - Norwegian Youth Council, Europees Platform Grundtvig, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Federal Social Insurance Office (Dep. for Youth Affairs) CH, Swiss Coordination Office of Youth for Europe, Federal Service for Combating Racism (Fund for Projects Against Racism) CH, Migros Kulturprozent CH, Comunidad de Madrid, Ministry of Youth and Sport of Azerbaijan, The Swedish National Board of Youth Affairs, Rothschild Foundation, Local Municipality of Budapest, Open Society Institute, Youth Board of Cyprus, Jewish Humanitarian Fund, Founda-tion Remembrance Responsibility and Future, Minority Rights Group Europe, Open Society Foundation - Bratislava, OSCE - Mission to Skopje, Final Frontiers Internet, Dijkman Offset and others.This publication has been funded with support from the Council of Europe (European Youth Foundation), the European Union (Youth In Action Programme) and the Matra Programme of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the sponsors cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.UNITED's publications can be freely re-used, translated and re-distributed, provided the source - www.unitedagainstracism.org - is mentioned and a copy is send to the UNITED secretariat

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2012 is the 40th anniversary of the European Youth Foundation