UNITED for Intercultural Action
Encyclopedia
UNITED for Intercultural Action is the biggest European network against nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...

, racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...

, fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

 and in support of migrants and refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...

s, in which over 560 organisations from 46 European countries cooperate. UNITED was founded in 1992 (officially registered as charitable organisation under Dutch law in 1993) and wants to provide a forum for active solidarity and cooperation between European organisations and their activists – special emphasis is put on supporting cooperation with NGOs and activist in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...

.

UNITED defines itself as pan-European tool to strengthen and cross-link grassroots organisations and their actions to improve their socio-political impact. The idea of the UNITED network was born by participants of two anti-racist European youth seminars in Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...

 in 1992. At these occasions, the need for a European-wide info- and networking system was expressed against the background of the most violent and massive xenophobic riots that took place in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 after the Second World War: the riot of Rostock-Lichtenhagen
Riot of Rostock-Lichtenhagen
From August 22–24, 1992 a violent anti-Vietnamese and anti-Roma riot took place in Rostock-Lichtenhagen; it was the worst mob attack against foreigners in postwar Germany. Although there were stones and petrol bombs thrown at an apartment block that housed asylum seekers, no one was killed...

 August 22–24, 1992.

The work of UNITED mainly focuses on the coordination of European-wide awareness-raising campaigns, organisation of international conferences and the maintenance of an info-system and network structure. UNITED coordinates following annual campaigns:
  • Action Week Against Racism
  • International Refugee Day
  • International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism


UNITED is member of the Advisory Council on Youth of the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...

 and has since 1997 special consultative status
Consultative Status
Consultative Status is a phrase whose use can be traced to the founding of the United Nations and is used within the UN community to refer to "Non-governmental organizations in Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council." Also some international organizations could...

 with the Economic and Social Council
United Nations Economic and Social Council
The Economic and Social Council of the United Nations constitutes one of the six principal organs of the United Nations and it is responsible for the coordination of the economic, social and related work of 14 UN specialized agencies, its functional commissions and five regional commissions...

 (ECOSOC) of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

.

Action Week Against Racism – 21 March

In 1966, the General Assembly of the United Nations declared March 21 the International Day for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination as a reaction to the murder of 69 anti-apartheid demonstrators in Sharpeville, South-Africa, in 1960.

The first European-wide Action Week Against Racism on occasion of 21 March was organised by UNITED in 1993. Since then, UNITED coordinates the European-wide Action Week Against Racism on an annual basis with the aim to create public attention by stimulating and integrating different activities under the umbrella of a common campaign. UNITED doesn't organise campaign activities, but produces and freely provides so-called “campaign tools” and documents the campaign activities. The campaign activities are organised by independent organisations and groups all over Europe.

In several countries, the idea of the annual Action Week Against Racism successfully developed into self-reinforcing tendencies, whereby local NGOs started to stimulate national action weeks. Since 2001, an annual International Week Against Racism (German: "Internationale Woche gegen Rassismus") is organised in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 – the main organisers of this campaign are the German NGOs Interkultureller Rat in Deutschland and Gesicht Zeigen. Semaine d'Actions Contre le Racisme, a Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

-based NGO, organises a Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

-wide action week against racism since 2000. Other major groups that followed the idea and promoted the action week against racism around 21 March are the European Network Against Racism
European Network Against Racism
The European Network Against Racism is a coalition of over 600 EU NGOs working to promote equality of treatment within the member states...

 (ENAR) or Football Against Racism in Europe
Football Against Racism in Europe
Football Against Racism in Europe is a network set up to counter "racism and xenophobia" in European Football. The network was set up in Vienna, Austria, in February 1999 after a meeting of football supporters' groups, football players' unions and football associations...

 (FARE). Despite the fact that different national action weeks developed throughout time, all focus around 21 March and are related in their message.

International Refugee Day – 20 June

In 2001, a special UN General Assembly
United Nations General Assembly
For two articles dealing with membership in the General Assembly, see:* General Assembly members* General Assembly observersThe United Nations General Assembly is one of the five principal organs of the United Nations and the only one in which all member nations have equal representation...

 Resolution was adopted to declare the former African Refugee Day as the International Refugee Day as an expression of solidarity with Africa, which hosts the most refugees. The General Assembly noted that 2001 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees
Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees
The United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees is an international convention that defines who is a refugee, and sets out the rights of individuals who are granted asylum and the responsibilities of nations that grant asylum. The Convention also sets out which people do not...

, and that the Organization of African Unity (OAU) had agreed to have the International Refugee Day coincide with African Refugee Day on 20 June.

UNITED coordinates an annual campaign around this date. This campaign aims to highlight the issues of refugees from a non-governmental perspective. The message of the campaign is carried by the monitoring results of the ongoing monitoring project Fatal Realities of Fortress Europe.

International Day against Fascism and Antisemitism – 9 November

On 9 November 1938, Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 started a pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...

 against Jewish people. Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and villages, as SA stormtroopers
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...

 and civilians destroyed buildings with sledgehammers, leaving the streets covered in pieces of smashed windows—the origin of the name "Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...

", which freely translated means the Night of Broken Glass. 91 Jews were killed, and 30,000 Jewish men – a quarter of all Jewish men in Germany – were taken to concentration camps
Nazi concentration camps
Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps throughout the territories it controlled. The first Nazi concentration camps set up in Germany were greatly expanded after the Reichstag fire of 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime...

, where they were tortured for months, with over 1,000 of them dying. Around 1,668 synagogues were ransacked, and 267 set on fire. In Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 alone 95 synagogues or houses of prayer were destroyed.

The "Kristallnacht" pogrom
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...

 is seen as the symbolic beginning of the systematic eradication of Jewish people which had started with the discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...

 and exclusion of the German Jews since 1933 and which eventually led to the murder of millions Jewish people and so-called "enemies of the German state": homosexuals, criminals and "asocial" people, members of diverse religious communities, people with mental disabilities, political ‘offenders’ such as communists and socialists, Spanish republican refugees, and minorities like Roma and Sinti and others.

Since 1995, UNITED coordinates an annual pan-European campaign on occasion of the 9 November, called International Day against Fascism and Antisemitism. Hereby, the approach is two-fold: while one part of the campaign aims to commemorate victims of the "Kristallnacht" pogrom and, more broadly, victims of the Holocaust and of fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

 throughout history; another part focuses mostly on contemporary issues of racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...

, antisemitism, right-wing extremism and neo-fascism
Neo-Fascism
Neo-fascism is a post–World War II ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. The term neo-fascist may apply to groups that express a specific admiration for Benito Mussolini and Italian Fascism or any other fascist leader/state...

. The campaign is joined by many different groups with independent actions.

Fatal Realities of Fortress Europe

Since 1993 UNITED has been monitoring the deadly results of the building of 'Fortress Europe' by making a list of the refugees and migrants, who have died in their attempt of entering the 'Fortress' or as a result of Europe's immigration policies. UNITED receives this information from newspapers, journalists, organisations working in the field of refugee and migrant issues, private researchers and governmental organisations. The figures given can only be taken as an indication of the true number of deaths. Each case published by UNITED is documented in the UNITED archives and the scientific part of the documentation can be requested by researchers and journalists to use it for their studies.

By 2011, more than 15,181 deaths have been documented. The so-called "List of Deaths" plays an important role in UNITED's annual Refugee Day campaign and is also used as lobby tool. To measure the magnitude of the "war on migrants", OWNI – an online information and news platform – built an interactive map as an electronic memorial for these tragedies. The "List of Deaths" was also used in several art projects.

European Address Book Against Racism

The European Address Book Against Racism – sometimes referred to as the "Yellow Pages
Yellow Pages
Yellow Pages refers to a telephone directory of businesses, organized by category, rather than alphabetically by business name and in which advertising is sold. As the name suggests, such directories were originally printed on yellow paper, as opposed to white pages for non-commercial listings...

 of the anti-discrminiation movement" – is published annually by UNITED and contains the contact details and information on working field of organisations active against racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...

, fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

, nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...

 and in support of migrants and refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...

s in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. The printed edition 2011 contained addresses of more than 2,480 organisations and magazines and 155 funding institutions. The searchable online version contains over 4,500 entries.

Calendar of Internationalism

In the Calendar of Internationalism, UNITED publishes information about events, seminars, training courses conferences, demonstrations, exhibitions and festivals in the field of anti-racism
Anti-racism
Anti-racism includes beliefs, actions, movements, and policies adopted or developed to oppose racism. In general, anti-racism is intended to promote an egalitarian society in which people do not face discrimination on the basis of their race, however defined...

, anti-nationalism
Anti-nationalism
Anti-nationalism denotes the sentiments associated with the opposition to nationalism, arguing that it is undesirable or dangerous. Some anti-nationalists are humanitarians or humanists who pursue an idealist form of world community, and self-identify as world citizens. They reject chauvinism,...

, anti-fascism
Anti-fascism
Anti-fascism is the opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals, such as that of the resistance movements during World War II. The related term antifa derives from Antifaschismus, which is German for anti-fascism; it refers to individuals and groups on the left of the political...

, support of migrants and refugees and human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

. The online version is updated weekly. A printed edition is distributed European-wide to 2,500 contacts several times a year.

I CARE – Internet Centre Anti Racism Europe

The Internet Centre Anti Racism Europe is a web-portal featuring discussions and live reports on antiracism activities, mainly within Europe. ICARE is the information disseminator for the European NGO-community working in the fields of anti-discrimination, Human Rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

, antisemitism, diversity
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...

 and immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...

, with a focus on anti-racism
Anti-racism
Anti-racism includes beliefs, actions, movements, and policies adopted or developed to oppose racism. In general, anti-racism is intended to promote an egalitarian society in which people do not face discrimination on the basis of their race, however defined...

. ICARE is a NGO community networking system, an environment where large and small organizations can work on local, national, regional and international issues. The purpose of ICARE is the empowerment of democratic, non-violent Human Rights and antiracism work by offering information and reporting on events taking place, by facilitating communication, advocacy, campaigns and actions and by stimulating intersectional and international co-operation of NGOs.

I CARE started on 1 October 1999 as a cooperation project of UNITED for Intercultural Action and the Magenta Foundation. The aim was to create a portal for anti-racism on Internet. Although the Internet opened-up the possibilities for collaboration with organisations worldwide, the decision was to focus on Europe, as both founding organisations basically work within an European context and because specific aspects of racism are still very much related to In "Real Life" culture, policies and practices. In September 2005 ICARE became a Magenta Foundation-only project.

ICARE reported from the 2001 UN World Conference against Racism
World Conference against Racism
The World Conference against Racism are international events organised by the UNESCO to struggle against racism ideologies and behaviours. Four conferences have been held so far, in 1978, 1983, 2001 and 2009...

 (WCAR) in Durban
Durban
Durban is the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal and the third largest city in South Africa. It forms part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. Durban is famous for being the busiest port in South Africa. It is also seen as one of the major centres of tourism...

, offering critical appraisal of the conference – which included the judgment "that racism was allowed to run rampant" and that "[w]hat happened in Durban [in 2000] should never happen again."; the website continued to track developments regarding the Durban Review Conference
Durban Review Conference
The Durban Review Conference is the official name of the 2009 United Nations World Conference Against Racism , also known as Durban II. The conference ran from Monday 20 April to Friday 24 April 2009, and took place at the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland...

 2009.

In 2010, ICARE set out to establish a new service, the ICARE Hate Crime News. This service contains articles (English only) about hate-motivated incidents and crimes in the 56 OSCE participating States and is updated almost every day with items from 'regular' news sources. Next to individual research, ICARE Hate Crime News makes use of crowd-sourcing to collect incident reports. I CARE's secretariat states to monitor all contributions in order to be in line with universally recognised human rights standards
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled...

. Incident reports need to be written in English language and include source and, if available, web location. For the definition of "hate crime
Hate crime
In crime and law, hate crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, social status or...

", ICARE points to the working definition that was developed by the OSCE – Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights is the principal institution of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe dealing with the "human dimension" of security. The office, originally named Office for Free Elections, was created in 1990 by the Charter of Paris and...

 (ODIHR). ICARE Hate Crime News contains articles from 1 January 2010.

See also

  • No Border Network
    No Border network
    The No Border Network refers to loose associations of autonomous organisations, groups, and individuals in Western Europe, Eastern Europe and beyond...

  • Football Against Racism in Europe
    Football Against Racism in Europe
    Football Against Racism in Europe is a network set up to counter "racism and xenophobia" in European Football. The network was set up in Vienna, Austria, in February 1999 after a meeting of football supporters' groups, football players' unions and football associations...

     (FARE)
  • No one is illegal
  • Antifaschistische Aktion
  • European Network Against Racism
    European Network Against Racism
    The European Network Against Racism is a coalition of over 600 EU NGOs working to promote equality of treatment within the member states...

     (ENAR)
  • Anti-nationalism
    Anti-nationalism
    Anti-nationalism denotes the sentiments associated with the opposition to nationalism, arguing that it is undesirable or dangerous. Some anti-nationalists are humanitarians or humanists who pursue an idealist form of world community, and self-identify as world citizens. They reject chauvinism,...

  • Anti-racism
    Anti-racism
    Anti-racism includes beliefs, actions, movements, and policies adopted or developed to oppose racism. In general, anti-racism is intended to promote an egalitarian society in which people do not face discrimination on the basis of their race, however defined...

  • Anti-fascism
    Anti-fascism
    Anti-fascism is the opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals, such as that of the resistance movements during World War II. The related term antifa derives from Antifaschismus, which is German for anti-fascism; it refers to individuals and groups on the left of the political...

  • Refugee
    Refugee
    A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...

  • Right of asylum
    Right of asylum
    Right of asylum is an ancient juridical notion, under which a person persecuted for political opinions or religious beliefs in his or her own country may be protected by another sovereign authority, a foreign country, or church sanctuaries...

  • Schengen Area
    Schengen Area
    The Schengen Area comprises the territories of twenty-five European countries that have implemented the Schengen Agreement signed in the town of Schengen, Luxembourg, in 1985...


External links

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