From the 2nd – 3rd of May 2013 a two day seminar took place in Belfast. It was organised by the NGO ‘Public achievement’ and HiA and it is part of several international Grundtvig meetings taking place in different cities in Europe. Around 18 people from various NGOs attended this Partnership Meeting and were trained to develop skills for campaigning and to learn how to use new and traditional media.
The objectives were campaigning and the use of social media, investigation ‘real-world’ examples of discrimination, prejudices and xenophobia as well as critically examine the role of the Police Service in Northern Ireland in hate crime from an internal and external viewpoint.
The objectives were campaigning and the use of social media, investigation ‘real-world’ examples of discrimination, prejudices and xenophobia as well as critically examine the role of the Police Service in Northern Ireland in hate crime from an internal and external viewpoint.
Day 1 – Understanding the Northern Ireland Context – Paul Smyth
Paul Smyth gave us a short introduction about the history of Ireland / UK and Northern Ireland and the current conflicts and problems they still face.
During the civil war around 3000 people died and there were in total 30000 political prisoners. Most of them were released after the Peace agreement was signed. He said that the society got more divided since then. For instance today just 6% of the children go to mixed schools (protestant & catholic) and there are just 10% mixed marriages. This couples face a higher divorce rate. The schools for instance teach different views on history depending on the religion or the holder of the school.
The peace agreement (1998) brought some changes for Northern Ireland, for instance a big reform of policing and the government system. For instance since then there had to be 2 prime ministers.
The Art of Campaigning and Social Media – Davy Sims
Davy is the Head of Social Media for Public Achievement, and has spent a career in broadcasting and digital media, most of it with the BBC. He explained the importance of social media as a tool for internet campaigning and gave good tips how
to make a successful campaign. We also had the chance to work on a campaign in small groups. All in all it was a really interesting lecture.
‘If you want to make a successful campaign you have to have the tools, a story to tell and a strategy’, he said. It is important to work in an organized and active way toward a particular goal. The main questions before starting a campaign are -> What is the problem? -> Who can help? -> What are you going to do about it? -> Who can solve it? -> Who can hinder?
He emphasized the importance of having a (short and simple) narrative or story to tell.
Real World Café
During lunch and the first session in the afternoon there were people invited to share their stories. They all were migrants and came to Belfast because of different reasons. It was really interesting to hear all this personal stories and I got to know the struggles of refugees better. The stories were also very moving. The session was held by Stephanie Mitchell who works for the ‘Race Relations Integration Project in South Belfast’. She organizes Roundtables in Belfast where people can share stories and get to know new people.
Gee, an asylum seeker for instance was political active in Sri Lanka and couldn’t go back after a year abroad. He almost was deported, but because of a campaign, run by Frederico from Italy who also came to Belfast to work there, he wasn’t.
Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities
Jolena Flett who is Advice and Advisory Manager in the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities talked about the work they do. She explained the how they try to support victims of hate crime and also try to change something within the police. They found out that there is structural racism within the police and that hate crimes aren’t investigated as hate crimes. Also the approach of the police to investigate such cases was wrong. The police was more focused on the victims and what the victims could change so it wouldn’t happen to them again rather than focusing on the perpetrators. They were partly successful, for instance there were hate crime investigators introduced who deal with such cases. In 2012 so called hate and signal crime officers started their work. There also more trainings now for the police and the police is more sensible about this topic than it was before.
After this session we were guide by a tourist guide through Belfast.
Day 2 – Detective Inspector Gary Reid – Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) – Hands Off my Friends, Unite Against Hate Campaign and information on their new campaign
In the morning of the 3rd May we visited the PSNI. They gave an overview of their work, mainly with the focus on hate crime.
The police struggles with a lack of trust from the population. This is caused by the history, but / and also by the fact that the police used to be mainly protestant. But it changed during the years. Now there are also more Catholics working for the police and the British army left NI six years ago. Also the appearance changed. Before police looked very like soldiers, but now they wear ‘normal’ uniforms. With some reforms and actions they try to gain more trust.
They also changed the way they investigate hate crimes. When a person says, that he/she was a victim of a hate crime, it has to be investigates as a hate crime. There are six different ‘categories’ of hate crime: sectarism (catholic/protestant), racism, homophobia, religion, transphobia and disability.
The police also has a round table with people from LGBT organisations and people working in the field of human rights. Everybody has an equal say there. The introduced a code of ethics and their work is now officially based on the ECHR Articles 2, 3, 8, 9, 10 and 14. This gives the police officers also more security when they are working regarding to them.
Policemen attend 2 days diversity trainings and the report rates of hate crime went up. The clearance rate is with 16% per cent pretty low especially in comparison with for instance Scotland where it is 71%. Just on 1% of the 100000 committed crimes are hate crimes, but the police takes it seriously.
The PSNI tries to get into contact with the population for instance through facebook or twitter. They already have 50000 Fans on facebook. The police has iPads and they inform about if there are problems in an area or post pictures or give tips.
They also made an application for android and apple. (thingyapp.com) This app provides help and information about for instance drugs or useful stuff for the young generation. It is promoted with a youtube clip, wristbands and posters.
The initiative ‘Hands off my friend’ was launched with the objectives to have better understanding, increased reporting opportunities, improve confidence and that more hate crimes are reported. For
instance there is now the chance to report a hate crime online and anonymously and it is also possible to report hate crime via the new app.
Meeting with the Northern Ireland Policing Board
Our last session took place at the headquarter of the Ireland Policing Board which controls the police. The board of this organisation consists out of several people from the different parties which also causes sometimes problems. Within this organisation there are experienced people working such as human rights lawyers.
Their task is to monitor the recruitment and composition of the police and they try to rebalance it through for instance positive discrimination and trainings for police officers. They say that there was already a cultural shift among the police officers for instance they use a ‘Human rights language’.
There is a large group in opposition of the police and through the HR based work of the police there was more confidence and trust and cooperation.
Ireland has aside of domestic violence and ‘The Troubles’ a very low criminal rate, but the society is very segregated. For instance 90% of the people live separately which makes it very easy for paramilitaric groups to control this areas. A lot of crimes are not reported but ‘solved’ within the community.
There are measures against ethnic profiling. The police became smarter and more sensitive. The policing boards also monitors stop & searches, to see if it is racist or discriminating. The rules and legislation got stricter, for instance the police has to give a record to the searched person and they are just allowed to do certain things.
Prejudices towards transgender people they try to fight with arranging meetings with them because most of the police officers have never met one before. They try also to improve police trainings. Trainings within the police officers’ communities are more successful and it has to have a more vocational character.
After a feedback session the meeting ended. The feedback of the participants was quite positive.
THANKS TO BENJAMIN JAQUEMAR FOR THE REPORT !
Also, since this meeting, we sadly learned that Andrea Gibson will no longer work on this partnership but we thank her a lot, wish her the best for her next step and we welcome Davy Sims !
