UNITED for Intercultural Action completed another successful edition of the European Action Week Against Racism. This year’s Action Week was held under the slogan #TimeToBeUnited with the theme of #FaceToFace meetings.
Between 16-24 March, individuals, collectives, organisations and institutions in 27 countries organised around 2,000 events to celebrate diversity and to stand firm against racism and xenophobia. The campaign proved to be a great success and had widespread outreach on social media: 300,000 people reached through Facebook alone.
Highlights from this year’s campaign included the launch of a Manual on Community Policing by the InterCultural Cities (ICC) programme of the Council of Europe, a series of anti-racism events organised by the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) and partners in Brussels, the UN Anti-Racism Day Demonstration hosted by Stand Up To Racism and Love Music Hate Racism in London, and a vast Woche gegen Rassismus in Germany, coordinated by the Stiftung für die Internationalen Wochen gegen Rassismus, among others.
We will update the Action Week Against Racism website with more information on the held activities and best practices in the coming weeks. If you would like us to share your successful campaign too, please complete the online form, informing us about the outreach of your activity and any feedback you may have about the campaign. Don’t forget to also send some pictures which we are collecting in a Facebook album! These details will be essential for selecting the Best Practices for this year, but also for improving our campaigns in the coming years.
We want to thank everyone who contributed to this year’s Action Week, by organising or joining activities, big or small, standing up against racism and for inclusive European societies! Our work now continues with a strong focus on the European Elections 2019 in the coming weeks!
Editor’s note:
Coordinated by UNITED for Intercultural Action, the pan-European network of antiracist NGOs, this annual campaign sees civil society groups, educational institutions and city governments come together to protest against racism and stand up for inclusive European societies.
Since 1992, the Action Week Against Racism has been organised around 21 March – anniversary of the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa, which was recognised by the UN as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination a few years later.
In view of the far-reaching political and societal consequences of extremist ideologies, the Action Week is taking place this year under the slogan “Time To Be UNITED”, and highlighting activities that focus on face-to-face meetings, confronting diverse backgrounds and points of view.
You can find more information about the campaign at www.weekagainstracism.eu. Planned activities include debates, games, panel discussions, interviews, workshops, food sharing, art performances, all-week programmes, best practice conferences, large-scale demonstrations, movie screenings, and much more.
