NGO Alliance Anti-Racism Report Launch.

national | racism & migration related issues | news report

Friday January 28, 2005 17:26

by Maria - NGO Alliance

“The Government has not done enough to accept multicultural society”, said Benedicta Attoh, Louth African Women’s Support Group representative
at the Anti-Racism Report release last week in Dublin. The Non Government Organisation (NGO) Alliance Shadow Report has been launched in response to a perceived failure of the Government to address immigration issues.

It makes a number of recommendations to protect
ethnic minorities in Ireland from racism and it is a commentary on Ireland’s First National Report to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). There is “defacto apartheid / segregation” aimed at the Traveller Community as well as at other ethnic groups, claimed David Joyce, representative of the Irish Traveller Movement and speaker at the report launch. The NGO Alliance report highlighted what it says is government’s refusal to recognise the Traveller Community as an ethnic group thereby depriving it of protection under the International convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Low financing for organisations such as the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI) has been criticised by the NGO Alliance report. Some groups working with ethnic minorities may have to close down due to budget cuts, the report says. Lack of transparency in immigration and asylum system and the absence of a clear legal framework, have been criticised by the NGO Alliance Shadow Report. It also refers to a lack of communication between the government and minority groups which it says resulted in misleading statistical information on Black and other ethnic communities in Ireland.

The joint report took 18 months to complete and was signed by 44 NGOs working in the area of racism.

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Comments (11 of 11)

Me thinks Mr McDowell Pre-Empted you. You know he's really nice guy.

by dodgy foreigner

Fri Jan 28, 2005 19:33

Minister announces National Action Plan Against Racism grant scheme to help tackle racism and highlight Ireland's cultural diversity
http://www.justice.ie/80256E01003A02CF/vWeb/pcJUSQ693HYN-en

In making the announcement the Minister said "The roll out of this scheme coincides with the launch of the National Action Plan on Racism. The projects that have been granted funding are excellent examples of the initiatives being organised at local level which will have a real and sustainable impact in the area of anti-racism and will assist in giving practical effect to the aims of the Action Plan".

so where is the report?

by eeekkk

Fri Jan 28, 2005 20:26

This place has acres of space

The Report

by Maria - GCD

Sat Jan 29, 2005 14:41

mariaoleinik at hotmail dot com

Dublin 8

087 6985722

The NGO Alliance Report has been handed out to everyone present at the launch. As far as I know they have sent it to Geneve. I have a copy if you are interested (087 6985722).Immigrant Council of Ireland may help as well. They took part in the launch organisation.

Maria

Hi Maria

by eeekkkk

Sat Jan 29, 2005 14:54

Meant is it online or can someone from NGO alliance publish it on here? Stuff can be put here with a copyright notice if worried about it being spread around too much.

Hi!

by Maria

Sat Jan 29, 2005 15:03

The Report is quite big. I don't think it would be published online. Although, I'll make a few inquiries in relation to that. In the meantime, I think the NGO Alliance might have done a good job, but they failed in making general public aware about it. I received my launch invitation from the Immigrant Council of Ireland. I worked there a bit. That's it really. There was a camera man and a lovely lady with a mike, but I doubt it was RTE.

If the report was published here a lot of people who are interested

by eeeekkkk

Sat Jan 29, 2005 15:08

in this issue would read it and it would be available for researchers etc. let them know that. It's not such a big deal to do if it has already been typed basically. Just use the publish button.

Even the ansbacher report is on here somewhere

here's the report

by pc

Sun Jan 30, 2005 17:41

statewatch, watching when even we aren't :)

don't think that's it

by redjade

Sun Jan 30, 2005 18:46

that report says 'November 2004'

the report above is (i assume) more recent.

i emailed her to see if we can publish it

It seems to be the same report.

Mon Jan 31, 2005 10:28

I had a look at the report attached to the website. It seems to be the same. They finished this report in November, but there was no public presenttaion or anything like that. I'll check if it is any different from the one presented at the launch.
The cover is different for sure, though.

The Report on the web

Mon Jan 31, 2005 18:26

The NGO Alliance Report is available on the website of the Immigrant Council of Ireland.

http://www.immigrantcouncil.ie/CERDfull.pdf

It is the very same one as posted above.

Response re NGO Alliance report and coverage

by Aoife - Immigrant Council of Ireland

Mon Jan 31, 2005 18:57

Hi all, I got a query from Maria re this report and thought I'd check out all this interesting discussion re the NGO Alliance report!

To answer your various queries:

The Immigrant Council of Ireland organised the launch on behalf of the of the Alliance of 44 NGOs who put the report together. Some members of the Alliance will be bringing the report and its recommendations to Geneva in March to present them to the UN Committee which monitors the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (when the Irish Government presents its report). The aim of the NGO report was to shadow the Government's report on racism in Ireland and to give a more realistic, on the ground picture of the reality of racism in Ireland today.

The report was completed in Nov 04, but by the time it was proofed, designed, published etc (along with the Christmas holidays) the soonest the launch could take place was January. It was also decided to launch it around the time of the Government's National Action plan against racism on purpose for strategic reasons.

Regarding public awareness of the document. A huge variety of local and national media were informed of the event and it got good coverage, including RTE TV news and radio, as well as other national and local radio and newspapers. We are also delighted to see the Indymedia article about the report too. Also, as there are 44 NGOs all over the country involved in the Alliance, which would have informed their members about the report, we hope it will get wide exposure.

Finally the PDF version of the report (minus the outside cover which is only on the hard copy) is available on ICI's website, as well as the sites of other NGO Alliance members if you'd like to download it - no problem. Also if you would like a free hard copy of the report, you're welcome to contact the Immigrant Council of Ireland to request one: [email protected].

Hope all this info is helpful and thanks for the interest in the report and its recommendations.

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NGO Alliance Anti-Racism Report Launch.

Comments (11 of 11)