UNESCO sets the agenda at the General Conference of the European Coalition of Cities against Racism (ECCAR)

 UNESCO, Nov 27, 2020

The European Coalition of Cities against Racism (ECCAR) held its 2020 General Conference entitled “CommunicAction – A common front to protect human rights at the local level” on 19 and 20 November 2020, hosted by the City of Bologna (Italy), ECCAR’s lead city. The aim of the General Conference was to reflect on common approaches and actions that encourage inclusion and non-discrimination of disadvantaged communities in cities.

. 

Gabriela Ramos, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences, opened the meeting which welcomed participants from ECCAR and its partners, including the European Union and the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation. Ms Ramos explained that in the context of increased discrimination, UNESCO is being called by its Member States to upscale its actions in this domain. She furthermore underlined the importance to strengthen collaboration in the pursuit of jointly contributing to the EU Anti-racism Action Plan 2020-2025, and develop a common strategy that will bring the EU, UNESCO and ECCAR together to fight racism and discriminations.

Introductory remarks were also delivered by Marco Lombardo (Deputy Mayor of Bologna), Elly Schlein (Vice-President of the Emilia-Romagna Region) and Benedetto Zacchiroli (ECCAR President). In the first plenary session, participants listened to Karen Taylor, Chair of the European Network Against Racism and Magid Magid, activist, author and former MEP, who discussed the taboos on racism and discrimination in the European political and institutional discourse.

In full: https://en.unesco.org/news/unesco-sets-agenda-general-conference-european-coalition-cities-against-racism-eccar

.