Participating Organizations

This learning partnership  is a two-year project, starting October 2012, involving several European organizations. It is dedicated to sharing best practices on improving the impact on campaigns against all forms of xenophobia and racism through an effective use of new and traditional media.

The organizations involved in the partnership are:

  • Humanity in Action France (France)


Humanity in Action France (HIA France) is a non-profit organization which focuses on providing educational opportunities to young adults, professionals and members of the European civil society on diversity issues in a historical, comparative, and action-oriented perspective. 
Its main activity consists in developing programs and fellowships combining academic study and skill-building workshops for participants from different personal and professional backgrounds. 

HIA France sustains a Senior Fellow Network (HIA < Network France) of diverse students and professionals who seek to adress intercultural and social cohesion issues through lifelong learning opportunities, but also community organizing, public speaking, debating, media strategy, and project management trainings.

HIA France is part of a network of organizations active in Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands, Poland, Bosnia and the United States. It believes that an important test of a genuine democracy is how it treats its minorities, and that the commitment to democratic values and the protection of minorities cannot be taken for granted in Europe.

  • The Mediterranean Women's Fund (France)


The Mediterranean Women’s Fund was created in 2008 through the initiative of women who have been involved for many years in promoting women’s rights in the Mediterranean region.
Starting from their experiences of trying to finance their projects or those of other associations in Algeria, France, Turkey, Morocco and in Palestine, they have found that it is necessary to create a structure in order to provide financial support for the women’s rights movement in the region.


AIMS         
To participate in the improvement of the condition of women and the promotion of equality between sexes throughout the countries around the Mediterranean by contributing to the development of the women’s movement in the region, at both local and regional levels.
 
 MISSION 
To provide, or help to find, the financial or technical means which are needed to fund actions decided by those groups, associations, organizations or individuals who are working towards equality between women and men in the Mediterranean region. 

STRATEGY 

The Fund's strategies are defined in close collaboration with both associations and networks created by women throughout the Mediterranean region. This link enables the Fund to adapt to the region's many different political and social contexts and to keep pace with changes.

  • Public Achievement (Northern Ireland)   

 
Public Achievement is Northern Ireland’s leading youth focussed civic education organisation.  Our work is rooted in a commitment to helping young people and adults who work with young people to contribute to the building of more democratic communities.  They do this by doing real work on real issues, and in the process learning about how community works and their capacity to contribute to social change.  At the core of this work is a ‘coach’ – normally a volunteer, who supports the group and helps them to develop critical thinking and a range of skills, but who doesn’t do the work for them.   
Our work is also underpinned by a commitment to improving community relations, building relationships between communities, and encouraging respect for and engagement with diversity.  We work alongside local communities, community organizations and individuals with a vocational commitment to working constructively with young people.   

We currently are delivering on three major projects:

Away From Violence: a project supporting the development of community based initiatives that directly tackle violence and the legacy of violence and the building of better community relations in four communities across Northern Ireland.  Breaking the Cycle is a sister-project of Away from Violence and focuses on work with young women and young people from ethnic minority backgrounds. Beyond the Margins has also developed from Away from Violence to address issues around policing. 
WIMPS: A youth-led participation project (Where Is My Public Servant?) promoting the civic engagement of young people through a world-class website and a comprehensive youth engagement programme. We train young people in cross-community ‘Crew’ across Northern Ireland to make films, conduct interviews, do research and campaign on issues that are important to them.  Through the website, young people can identify and email their elected representatives or they can set up and run campaigns.
Driving Change: this project is a collaboration between the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service, their equivalent organisations in the border counties of the Republic of Ireland and Public Achievement around the theme of safer driving. 

  •  The Association for Social Change (Turkey)  

The Association for Social Change (ASC) was founded by activists in order to carry out various campaigns on social, cultural and environmental issues and to support such efforts through projects and campaigns.

» Our Mission
The Association aims at contributing to a civil society that is democratic, respectful of human rights, mindful of cultural and ideological differences as sources of richness. To this end, the association carries out advocacy work, launches campaigns, and conducts research, training, lobbying and similar activities to:
·       Foster participation and democracy within the civil society,
·       Strengthen the freedom of association and autonomy,
·       Ensure the coexistence of different cultural identities, faiths and opinions,
·       Create a community that respects human rights,
·       Resolve disputes amicably and through dialogue,
·       Eliminate all forms of violence and discrimination,
·       Build relationships with non-governmental organizations from abroad, especially with those from Europe and neighbouring countries,
 
» Our Projects on Hate Crimes  

1. Campaign for hate crimes legislation
We have developed draft legislation for hate crimes based on the examples from the EU and the USA.
Activities:
  • Visits to all political parties represented in the national assembly, the Ministry of  Interior and the Ministry of Justice to submit our proposed legislation
  • Lobbying for the establishment of a special parliamentary committee on hate crimes
  • Grassroots campaigning
2. Monitoring Centre
We are setting up a monitoring centre for hate crimes, racial and ethnic discrimination.
Activities:
  • Raising public awareness on hate crimes
  • Collecting and publish accurate data and statistics on the frequency and prevalence of hate   crimes
  • Offering adequate assistance to victims of discrimination
  
  • International Association for Intercultural Education (Netherlands)

The IAIE brings together professional educators interested in diversity and equity issues in education. These concepts are defined quite broadly, and include intercultural education, multi-cultural education, anti-racist education, human rights education, conflict-resolution, multi-lingualism issues, etc. 

The main aims of the IAIE are: 

(1) To examine the implications of the societal contexts of education and the relationship between society, nation state and the international contexts and the situation of individuals, groups and minorities within them; 

(2)T o contribute to the development and implementation of intercultural education and issues of education in multicultural societies; 

(3) To promote the exchange of information, knowledge and materials about all relevant issues concerning education in multicultural societies amongst teachers, teacher trainers, and professionals working in curriculum development, research and educational policy.

The IAIE is best know for its academic journal Intercultural Education (Routledge Publishers) (http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/ceji20/current), one of the leading international journals in the area of Multicultural and Intercultural Education. 
It appears 6x a year and is read by many thousands of professionals and university students. 
The IAIE also puts out an electronic newsletter 4x a year.


  • Humanity in Action The Netherlands (Netherlands)

Humanity in Action is an international educational organization. HIA educates, inspires and connects a global network of students, young professionals and established leaders committed to promoting human rights, diversity and active citizenship—in their own communities and around the world. HIA is a non-profit and non-partisan organization.

HIA NL started in 1999, thanks to a collaborative effort of American executive directive Judith Goldstein and the former mayor of Amsterdam, Ed van Thijn. Since 1999, HIA NL has organized 14 summer programs, two international conferences in Amsterdam, several workshops, an international trip to Auschwitz and now HIA on Tour. We have also co-organized various other activities within the HIA network. HIA NL has approximately 155 alumni (referred to as senior fellows), of which at least 50 are active in the network.

Activities:

The first and most important AIM of HIA NL is to hold the annual summer program in June, where 24 students from the USA, The Netherlands, Bosnia and Turkey spend five weeks learning about minority rights, diversity and the multicultural society in The Netherlands. Participants are students or young professionals with a special interest in minority rights. During the program, participants speak to journalists, academics, activists, politicians and NGO’s such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. 
In the last week, they write reports on a topic that they found the most pressing and / or interesting. After this program, participants travel to our annual International Conference. Here they meet, study and collaborate with participant from other countries. Through this program we intend to create a strong, international network of committed young leaders who keep inspiring each other.

Another core activity of HIA NL is a program called HIA on Tour, where we visit high schools all through the country to discuss the tension between fundamental civil rights (freedom of speech, freedom of religion) and the right to not be discriminated with the pupils. We also hold evening sessions, where the public is invited to discuss these same tensions with a moderator and two guest speakers.


Invited Organizations (Members of the Open Society network) :

Stop Le Contrôle au Faciès :

http://www.stoplecontroleaufacies.fr/

Cité en Mouvement :

 http://citeenmouvement.fr/

Les Indivisibles :

http://www.lesindivisibles.fr/

RADAR :

http://radar.nl/

Al Nisa :

http://www.alnisa.nl/