Best Practices – Examples of Successful and Creative Action
Every year, people organise all kinds of activities during the European Action Week against Racism. Are you looking for inspiration? Then you have come to the right place!
2018
organized by Stand Up to Racism
On March 17, Stand Up to Racism, together with partner organisation coordinated marches around Europe to protest against racism and all other forms of discrimination as well as against international policies on migration.
Demonstrations were organized in Greece, UK, Ireland, Turkey, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, France, Germany, Austria and Denmark.
organized by Tirana Art Center
On 21 of March Tirana Art Center marked the International Day Against Racism with the screening of ’12 years a slave’ movie followed by an Antiracist Party and a Diversity Art Gallery.
This activity was attended by representatives of the following minorities:
– Vlach Minority
– Roma Minority
– The Egyptian Minority
– LGBT community
Representatives of each community participated in the opening speech. Each of them raised the problems concerning their communities.
A total of 50 posters were printed, which were not placed only in the premises where the activity was organized, but were also distributed in the streets of the city of Tirana.
The whole activity was filmed and photographed. Many of these materials are presented in various portals and social sites, as we can mention Tirana Art. Everyone who attended the event decided for continuity, for further cooperation.
organized by Balkan Spot and United Societies of Balkans
On March 17th, Balkan Hotspot volunteers organised an antiracist picnic to say ‘stop’ to all racist approaches around the world and to get united through good food and fun games.
organized by Adolescenta Foundation and the Romanian Institute for Human Rights
On 20th, 22nd, 23rd and 26th of March the Adolescenta Foundation together with the Romanian Institute for Human Rights organized a series of dialogues with students on the topic of antidiscrimination in several schools in Ploiesti, Romania. An educational Campaign to say no to racial discrimination and to encourage students to embrace tolerance and promote equality.
The campaign started by launching an appeal to join the Caravan to schools in Prahova county by e-mail, through the website and Facebook page of “Adolescenţa” Foundation.
Five colleges and schools from Ploiesti town, Prahova county responded to the call and hosted the Caravan by mobilizing 250 students and their coordinating teachers (Economic College „V. Madgearu”, „Spiru Haret” College, „Sf. Vineri” Secondary School, „Radu Stanian” Secondary School). The event was disseminated through the press coverage in Adolescenţa Journal, reaching up to 3500 people aged between 14 and 65. During the Caravan, a series of meetings and dialogues have taken place along with media presentations and workshops dedicated to debates on tolerance, cultural and human diversity, social inclusion and non discrimination, equality of rights and freedoms, respect for human rights, and understanding and love for others. The key message of the Caravan has been that each and every one of us can combat racial prejudices and discrimination, intolerant or aggressive behaviour, and abide by the principles of respect for human rights.
A group of youth together with their teacher Brindusa Vasile organized interviews in the street about ways of combating discrimination when we witness it. Watch 9th grade student Fabian Manole speaking about these issues here. The Caravan awarded the participants with diplomas of participation and publications related to human rights.
The Caravan’s messages will be carried over in the future beyond this event, including through other programes dedicated to promoting tolerant behaviour and the understanding of diversity.
In the period of 17-26 of March, Human Constanta initiated the Week against racism, discrimination, and hatred. Ten different organizations joined and held their activities. Movie screenings, interactive games, lectures, human libraries and seminars, were all part of the program.
In total, 13 events have been organized in 6 different cities in Belarus. More than 396 people have taken part in the activities, and more than 4000 people were reached through live streams.
2015
organised by Icelandic Human Rights Centre
At 11:00 on 17th March, children in primary schools all over Iceland formed human chains around their school buildings in a display of solidarity against discrimination.
The activity was organised by the Icelandic Human Rights Centre as part of its programme for the 2015 European Action Week Against Racism. The organisation sent a group email to the headteachers of all primary schools in the country, as well as phoning as many of them, as they had time for. Many of the headteachers emailed sent replies, and all of those that were phoned reacted positively. Attached to the email were educational materials about diversity, discrimination and racism for teachers to use in class, with the human chain as a fun activity to get the children engaged with the subject. Overall 30 schools took part, with 6500 children standing hand in hand for diversity. This represents around 15% of all primary school pupils in Iceland. The police were happy for the activity to go ahead without any supervision, after organisers contacted them to check if any safeguarding measures were necessary.
The human chain activity itself was highly successful, generating a lot of attention and awareness throughout the country, and creating a number of striking images of children standing hand in hand around their schools. Some of the schools involved were very small, and didn’t have enough children to make a full ring around the building; in these cases, teachers made the activity into a game, with the children linking hands to form hearts and other symbols in the schools’ playing fields.
The activity was covered widely in the Icelandic media: http://tinyurl.com/ottauaz, http://tinyurl.com/mete9vv, http://tinyurl.com/n9o8th8 and was featured on the front page of Frettabladid, the most popular newspaper in Iceland. It also proved a hit on social media: a UNITED Facebook post about the activity received over 200 likes.
Reflecting on the activity, Fríða Rós Valdimarsdóttir of the Icelandic Human Rights Centre said that it had been a huge success, and that the organisation would repeat the activity next year. She highlighted the fact that it required low levels of funding and easy to organise, yet made a big impact in the media because so many children were involved. In future, she said, the organisation would like to involve even more schools and nurseries, as well as high profile figures such as mayors and other politicians.
ORBIT / Netwerk Racisme Keren decided to mark the Action Week Against Racism in a unique way: by filling a gap in the market for guided tours of Brussels. “Discover Diverse Brussels” was a competition for tour operators to come up with a tour of the Belgian capital that focused on the city’s ethnic diversity – as well as the racism and discrimination suffered by minorities.
The organisers started preparing for this activity by constituting a 4-member jury, made up of two established Brussels-based tour guides with a background in multiculturalism, a member of the national equality body and a person with a migrant background. The jury helped to finalise the rules of the competition, which included the criteria to be used for evaluating the tours.
Next, the competition was promoted, mainly focusing on tour operators in Brussels and organisations active in the field of intercultural action. The organisers set a deadline of 15th November for submissions, which had to include a title, a short description of the tour, a map of the tour, and a transcription of the text that the guide would say to the participants.
From these submissions, the three best tours were chosen for a shortlist, and in February the jury sampled each of these three tours. The jury used the evaluation criteria to select a winner. On the 25th March, the prize ceremony was held. Firstly, all three shortlisted tours were given to a larger audience. This was followed by a performance by the stand-up comedian Arbi El Ayachi, and finally the announcement of the winner and a reception.
All three tours were rewarded with prizes – the first prize was a free training for guides, while the runners-up were given books on the subject of multiculturalism. All three tours will also be promoted online and in tourist information centres in Brussels.
The organisers hope that by encouraging operators to offer such tours, an anti-racist message will be spread to a large number of people who might not otherwise think to participate in such activities. They believe that in the long term, such tours will be able to play an active part in the fight against racism by engaging school groups and tourist organisations.
14th March is the anniversary of the foundation of the First Slovak Republic, the Nazi puppet state in Slovakia during the Second World War. Every year, Slovakian neonazis gather in Bratislava to march in celebration of the state and its leader Jozef Tiso. Luckily the group Bratislava bez náckov (Bratislava Without Nazis) was there this year to protest against the march.
In the days before the neonazi rally, the group organised a positive campaign to engage the public in the fight against racism and fascism. The activities organised included the screening of the documentary film about the horrors of Nazism Night Will Fall, which was followed by a discussion on the question of “hatred as folklore”. Participants in the discussion included Slovakian artist and filmmaker Tomáš Rafa, whose work deals with racism, nationalism and a host of other political and social themes, as well as Sergej Danilov, a former journalist dealing with the issue of extremism and co-founder of the campaign Sport Connects. Together they talked about the trend of rising nationalism, racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and other manifestations of hatred in our society, asking whether hatred has become part of Slovakia’s folklore.
There was also the opportunity for participants to create satirical collages with a humorous antiracist and anti-nazi message, which were then publically displayed under a bridge in Bratislava city centre. The choice of location was symbolic, as the bridge is named after the Slovakian National Uprising, which resulted in the end of Nazi rule in the country. There was also a reception at the exhibition with drinks and music.
On 14th March, far-right groups rallied and marched through Bratislava. Bratislava bez náckov coordinated a street blockade to counter the march. Antifascist protesters stood arm-in-arm across the street, holding banners with slogans such as “together against hate”, “no pasarán” and “stop fascism!” According to the group’s blog, the neonazis were protected by a police escort, while antifascist demonstrators were harassed and even arrested by police. However, the blockade was successful in forcing the neonazi rally to deviate from its planned course through the city’s historic centre.
An event in the town of Mikkeli brought migrants together with native Finns for a series of activities on the themes of migration, antiracism and diversity.
As significant parliamentary elections are coming up in Finland on the 19th April, the main event was a panel discussion between representatives of the main Finnish political parties to discuss public policy in relation to migration and integration. In the interest of hearing a wide range of views on the subject, even a representative of the right-wing populist Finns Party was present.
Alongside this, there was also an exhibition of photographs documenting the life of migrant in Finland, as well as a talk about the human rights implications of mass incarceration of people in the United States.
The day’s activities concluded with an Ice Disco, where all participants were invited to take to the ice rink, accompanied by music. This gave the participants the opportunity to relax and get to know each other in a less formal setting – and also allowed some of the migrants present to have their first experience of ice-skating – an important part of Finish culture.
The antiracist media campaign, part of the Roma Matrix project, was created by six partners in five European countries.
The Czech partner was the Brno-based NGO IQ Roma servis, with its “We Are Working” (“My pracujeme “) campaign. The Europe-wide campaign had “See the Person” as its main slogan and was supported by a series of more than 70 public photographic exhibitions all over Europe.
“Together with our other partners from 10 European countries we immediately agreed at the beginning of the project to attempt to create an antiracist Romani campaign in an unusual way for us,” explains Šárka Pólová, who coordinated the campaign in the Czech Republic. “The Romani people who participated right from the start in the planning meetings emphasized that it is necessary to begin presenting them differently than just through traditional images of Romani people dancing or singing, as those have already become cliché.”
Pólová believes the constant depiction of a handful of extraordinary Romani figures tends to enhance majority-society convictions that such positive examples are merely exceptions to the rule. “Everyone agreed that this time we would focus on creating ‘surprisingly positive’ images of Romani people to break down and confront the negative opinions of Romani people we experience here, images that would even be shocking. We want our main campaign and the local ones to be amusing and fresh – not to prompt a feeling of guilt in others, but to offer the belief that it is possible to live together, to offer solutions,” she said.
That is why, for example, a set of posters on display in the northern Italian city of Bologna is attempting to convince the majority population that even though there is no doubt that there are differences between people with different traditions, in everyday life we are all very similar. The Romani people are depicted along with testimonies about their everyday habits that are essentially identical to those of the rest of the Italian population; the posters urge others “not to look for differences where they don’t exist”.
The creative concept of the campaign in Hungary was based on video spots in which the main characters are wearing unusual masks and looking forward to being treated equally and normally in various life situations (at school, in a shop, at work). The video spots end with the actors removing their masks and revealing to the viewer that they are Romani.
The clips were designed to support the main message of the campaign, which is that there really should be no barriers to social inclusion of people irrespective of their ethnicity. As for the Bulgarian version of the campaign, it uses the strong slogan “We Are No Exception” to demonstrate that the positive examples of successful, working Romani people are not isolated cases, but that there are many such Romani people.
The idea for that campaign came directly from a group of health mediators who decided to combat the racist insults that they regularly are subjected to despite their undeniable professional abilities and qualifications. A series of billboards in the south Bulgarian city of Varna reminds the public that “We All Have Our Dreams”.
The Romani children depicted on those billboards are dressed up in the uniforms of the professions they dream of becoming. In the Czech Republic, the campaign “We Are Working” focuses more closely on the negative prejudices and stereotypes that prevent Romani people from finding employment.
Through six public service announcements on television, special websites, radio spots and programs and a billboard and poster campaign, the Czech campaign presented the positive experiences of employers with their Romani employees and endeavoured to demonstrate, to other employers and the general public, that employers do exist in the Czech Republic who are willing to publicly announce that they employ Romani people and that they have no concerns about accepting them. Six clients of IQ Roma servis found new jobs thanks to the job boards at www.mypracujeme.cz, where Romani job-seekers are able to directly post their profiles.
On 22nd March, the Informal education centre Diversity, Tolerance Club in Chisinau organised the 8th edition of its Festival Of Languages.
This was a great opportunity to learn something new about languages, both those spoken within the borders of Moldova and abroad. Eighteen representatives of different cultures introduced their native languages for the festival guests. Lectors did not follow any strict academic teaching plan. In a friendly atmosphere, lectors presented the uniqueness of their respective cultures through the language in a free mode (dance, songs, and poetry), exposing visitors to the linguistic and cultural diversity of Moldova as well as Europe and Asia. Those representatives of 18 different countries, speaking 18 languages, gave the audience a series of language classes. The event also aimed to give the floor to foreigners to present their languages and culture in an interesting way.
The ComiX4= Comics for Equality project aims to foster intercultural dialogue in order to combat racism, xenophobia and discrimination in Europe, with a particular focus on Italy, Bulgaria, Estonia, Romania and Latvia. In order to achieve this aim, the project seeks to involve migrants and second-generation immigrants – often the subjects of discrimination – in the creation of artistic resources – namely comic strips – to be used in combating racism and xenophobia.
The main activities include the ComiX4= Comics for Equality Award (a competition to award the best unpublished comics by authors with migrant backgrounds); the interactive website www.comix4equality.eu ; an eighty-page catalogue containing the best comics submitted within the award; a “Comics Handbook” for use in conducting informal creative workshops; a travelling exhibition of the comics; and comic strip workshops to be held across Europe.
The ComiX4= Comics for Equality project is based on the need to promote the development of a European society based on respect for fundamental human rights, and to fight against racism, xenophobia and other related forms of intolerance. This is more important than ever due to ongoing European enlargement, and to European countries’ key roles as destinations for migrants from both outside and within other European states. The most effective way of achieving this goal is to promote mutual understanding and dialogue.
The project ComiX4= Comics for Equality is led by Africa e Mediterraneo (Italy), in partnership with NGO Mondo (Estonia), the Workshop for Civic Initiatives Foundation (Bulgaria), ARCA (Romania) and Grafiskie stasti (Latvia).
This is an excellent example of how to engage the general public with the issues of racism and discrimination.
2014
Golos Svobody (Voice of Freedom) organised a football tournament among amateurs and professionals during Action Week Against Racism. 
People from different ethnic backgrounds gathered to express their view using the slogan: ”We are different, but we are equal!” Five teams were competing on the field. The championship lasted for five sunny spring days. These games gathered a large number of enthusiastic football fans, who got a clear message that there should be no space for racism among football players and football fans. The games were played at the stadium of the Football Association of the Kyrgyz Republic in Bishkes. While the games were being played, Golos Svobody volunteers handed out leaflets and informed the audience more about racism and ways of combatting it. 
During the event, a social media campaign was going on and a video was made which later on was shared through different social media as well as local media.
Keeping racism out of schools is a dream that we all share. “DimitrieLeonida” Technical High School in Petrosani, Romania organised a set of interactive workshops under the name “Together Against Discrimination” in which pupils played an active part. The workshops had a very simple and easily understood concept which didn’t need much preparation work.
In the beginning, the organisers asked the participants to start from some given words that represented different types of discrimination. After reading the words, they had to write on a piece of paper what they knew about it and what they thought about that form of discrimination. In these workshops the discussion focused on discrimination in general, and about how Romanian people are perceived abroad in particular, and what different types of prejudices that they have to face.
Different articles in local newspapers went viral and the message of antiracism was spread through the whole city
Youth Centre Jajce organised a street event in the City Centre of Jajce on the 21st March. For this occasion they gathered and involved the volunteers from the youth centre to take an action and organise a simple but highly visible activity: they took different colours and a canvas on which they wrote this year’s Campaign message: “Mi se slažemo!” which means “We fit together!”
At 1 pm, a time when a lot of people can be found on the city square, they took the canvas into the city centre. Members of the public were invited to make a mark with their hand on the canvas using different coloured paints.
The action enjoyed great popularity and the banner created was presented in public spaces throughout the city. Pictures of the event were shared through social media and got a lot of attention, reaching lots of people and motivating them to join such actions.
Around 18 participants aged 15-29 participated in an antiracism workshop in Bosnia. The event lasted around 2 hours in which Firefly provided a variety of activates with the intention of enabling the participants to explore the concept of racism and why it prevails in our world. It started with a simple but fun icebreaker: participants got the chance to interact with one another and move around in a circle. This helped to focus the group and provide a fun start to a serious topic.
After the icebreaker activity the first task was met with focus: in small groups they were asked to write on a big sheet of paper what comes into their minds when they hear the word “racism”. Each group did this task and had the chance to hear each other’s opinion of racism, allowing them to learn from one another. It also helped the organisers to see where the gaps in their perception of racism were: the aim of the event was to fill in these gaps.
The next activity was another interactive task, where the group was told a series of “racist scenarios” and were asked if they believed them to be racist or not. They stood on different sides of the room to signify yes, no or maybe. This was a great activity with lots of discussion of the statements. Some of the statements were controversial and others more clear-cut. This helped the group to see the different layers of racism, and that it’s not just black and white. They were able to debate amongst themselves. Being a varied group, there was a mix of diverse opinions.
The final activity was a short play that had been put together by five participants before the event. This was a short play about how racism causes separation amongst humankind, and the ending is left open so that the audience can discuss possible solutions to the issues of separation and prejudice. This discussion was not as bright as the previous: maybe the play did not ask enough questions to the audience or they were not in the mood for more discussion. The event ended with filling in a heart-shaped puzzle with notes, drawing and intentions. This idea was to allow each participant to express their personal position against racism (a simple action they will take to stand up against racism). Each participant made a comment and identified an action they would take, this was a really nice ending to the event as it left the participants and organisers with a feeling of hope and strength: we can make changes to this world – even small steps can make a difference. It was great to see the participants so eager to write their actions in the heart of togetherness.
Organisers were really pleased with how the event went, as a good number of participants came and it was full of discussion and learning. The organisers also learnt a lot themselves about how they perceive racism and how to respond to it. For such events in the future, they would make the event longer and allow for longer breaks in between activates to give the group time to reflect more and help their energy to last longer. They would also like to use more role-play activities, as well as games that bring the group together to create something as a whole.
Praxis student-volunteers interviewed various groups of citizens on a daily basis, specifically other students, buyers of Liceulice magazines, Praxis’ clients, employees in various institutions, etc. The interviewees were asked for their perspective on racism. 
The messages collected in this way were written on campaign postcards and were distributed to various relevant institutions, specifically to mainstream printed media, sport associations, the Commissioner for Protection of Equality, the Office for Human and Minority Rights and the Ombudsperson.
Furthermore, Praxis and Liceulice posted the photos and messages against racism on their social media pages. In addition they were regularly informing followers about the activities. The collected messages were posted on various social media pages in order to spread the message. Later on in the evening of 21st March, in cooperation with the IPAK Centre, a graffiti action was organised.
The campaign contributed to raising awareness among the public about the necessity of prevention of racial discrimination. It turned out that some of the interviewees were not even familiar with the very meaning of the term. In that sense, the campaign was very helpful in terms of raising their awareness of the necessity to stop racism against the minority population.
Public transportation, which in Malta means the national bus system, is an obvious place for discriminatory behaviour in Malta. Refugees complain often about their treatment as bus riders, both by drivers and their fellow passengers. This ranges from drivers simply passing bus stops when they see refugees waiting, to passengers avoiding the seats beside refugees, to verbal abuse. Taking this case as a situation on how to see and prevent racism, pupils at a local school in Malta participated in a workshop. The workshop began with a discussion between the teacher and her pupils, followed by a roleplaying activity, as well as a writing exercise in which the students were asked to explore the discriminatory behaviour from the perspective of either the refugee, the driver, or a passenger. This led students to think critically about the discrimination various groups face in Maltase society.
For 21 March, youngsters from KRIK Youth Centre made a flashmob in the city centre of Skopje with an antiracist theme. The flashmob needed a few days of preparation. Volunteers chose this year’s campaign theme “We fit together” and decided to share the message through body language with a few simple moves. The flashmob took place at the time of day when most people were present in the city centre, so that it would have the maximum impact. A video was made of the activity and in the evening of 21st March in a local pub, a party with an antiracist message was organised. The gathering of activists after the action at the party was of significant importance: there was an appreciation of their work and effort, and they also invited more people to see the video, so that even more people got involved.
A group of volunteers from INEX attended a workshop on how to do street campaigning. Later on they went around Bratislava with campaign posters in their hands and invited members of the public to join the campaign, promoting the importance of the Anti Racism Week. 
People were approached in the street, information was provided and photographs were taken. The pictures were shared through social media, and lots of comments and questions followed about what the action was about. Volunteers also promoted the Action Week Against Racism in their daily activities by organising dedicated sessions about the campaign. During the evaluation of the action, volunteers highlighted that for organisations that want to do this activity, the most difficult aspect is approaching people and sharing the message with them.
A networking day on 21st March brought people from different socio-cultural organisations together. Research was conducted among the organisations on the topics of migration and stereotypes of migrants and their representation online. 120 organisations (whose websites were screened) were contacted either via phone or mail. The researchers posed questions such as: to what extent and how people from a migration background are portrayed on the homepage? Are they were shown in a (non)stereotypical way? What topics were the images illustrating? Were the people depicted also interviewed? etc. Organisations were encouraged to share their experience and best practices where created.
During the networking day, there was also a visit to an exhibition about the image of the “other” in religious art. This exhibition showed that in the past, the other – Muslims, atheists, Jews, black people, heretics… – were often portrayed in sculpture, painting, etc. as a way of propagating negative stereotypes of those groups.
Later on, the results of the research on the homepages were presented. At the same time, during three workshops, the participants could exchange good practices about inclusive narratives and ask suggestions about how they can diversify the images they put on their products or websites, or how to reach more people with a migration background for their activities.
During 21 March, a seminar organised by the Afro-Swedish National Association took place in Stockholm. The seminar was about afrophobia and racism and it was held in a Stockholm suburb where a very large number of inhabitants are Swedish people with a foreign background. Five of Sweden’s biggest political parties were represented in a panel discussion and many really interesting questions and comments were raised during the debate. The title of the seminar was “Debate on Afrophobia and Racism”
This event showed that there is a way to involve politicians and ask them to discuss the issues of racism in society. An important element of making this event productive was the sharing of the outcomes of the meeting through social media, making it highly visible.