Christine Sudbrock – Page 7

PECAO’s workshop materials and media monitoring tool now available

PECAO’s workshop materials and media monitoring tool are available for download

With approximately 12 Million people living in Europe for centuries, the Roma are the continent’s biggest ethnic minority. At the same time they are the its most disliked and discriminated minority, with every third person not wanting to have a Roma neighbour and 80% of Roma living at the risk of poverty.

Antigypsyism – a specific form of racism against people who are perceived as ‘Gypsies’ in the public imagination, is at the core of the social exclusion and discrimination of Roma.

PECAO will counter antigypsyist hate speech online by working with young people, using a combination of peer education and monitoring in order to obtain two-fold results: the peer education methodology will achieve a direct change in attitudes and actions of a high number of young people, and the monitoring will contribute to better understanding and a more systemic change of policies through advocacy based on the results.

By using the standard workshop materials created by the consortium and translated in the available languages (EN, BG, CZ, HU, RO and ES), participants of the workshop will be able to understand the phenomena of antigypsyist hate speech and its impact on Roma, as well as the importance to monitor and report that speech online. Furthermore, the participants of the workshop can engage into advocacy and work towards better anti-discrimination policies by addressing antigypsyism as bias motivation, as well as raise awareness among various stakeholders about the antigypsyist hate speech in online media.

The project consortium of PECAO consists of the following partners and funding:

Funded by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020) with co-funding from Google.org:

Integro Association (Bulgaria)
Nevo Parudimos (Romania)
Federation of Catalan Roma Associations (FAGIC), Spain
Romaversitas (Hungary)
Romanonet (Czech Republic)
ERGO Network (Belgium)

Funding from the Google.Org Impact Challenge on Safety in the framework of ERGO Network’s project Peer education to counter antigypsyist online hate speech:

La Voix des Rroms (France)
Upre Roma (Italy)
Roma Women Fund Chiricli (Ukraine)
RROMA (North Macedonia)
Roma Active Albania (Albania)

The standard workshop materials are available in English, Bulgarian, Czech, Hungarian, Romanian and Spanish language for the moment. Should you have any additional requests for session outlines examples, exercises, or need for additional information concerning the topic, please write an e-mail to ERGO network at info@ergonetwork.org by adding the word PECAO to your subject line.

The materials consist of the following documents:

M01 – Objectives, Impact and Methodology
M02 – Aim and objectives of the workshop
M03 – Programme of the workshop
M04 – Non-formal education
M05 – Protocol form for monitoring media content with hate speech

As well as the media monitoring tool with a glossary available within the tool.

You can access the materials here and media monitoring tool here.

Publicity Disclaimer:

This publication was funded by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (REC 2014-2020) and Google.Org Impact Challenge on Safety. The European’s Commission’s and Google.Org’s support for the production does not constitute and endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views of the authors only, and the European Commission and Google.Org cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained there.

ERGO’s monitoring of the European Semester

ERGO Network continues its monitoring of the European Semester and meets the cabinet of Commissioner Nicolas Schmidt

The European Semester had a surprise early start this year, with the Annual Sustainable Growth Strategy (ASGS) released two months earlier than expected, in September 2020. This year’s document is driven by an overriding impetus to fight the immediate consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and build a green and digital Europe, and is built around the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the central pillar of Next Generation EU, which is the European Union’s “emergency temporary recovery instrument to help repair the immediate economic and social damage brought about by the coronavirus pandemic, support an economic recovery and build a better future for the next generation. ERGO Network members are already engaging on the ground with the drafting of the National Plans that Governments need to submit to access these funds.

While there is no explicit mention of the European Roma in the Annual Sustainable Growth Strategy, ERGO Network welcomes that “people with a minority racial or ethnic background” are indicated as having been disproportionately hit by the coronavirus crisis. There is a lack of coordination and complete disconnect between Europe’s growth and recovery strategies and the EU Roma Strategic Framework for Equality, Inclusion, and Participation. While it is indicated that the National Resilience and Recovery Plans should be consistent with other national initiatives, such as the Energy and Climate Plans and the Partnership Agreements and Programmes, sadly nothing is said about coherence with the National Roma Integration Strategies. You can read ERGO Network’s full response to the ASGS here.

The situation is mirrored by the draft Joint Employment Report, which was released as usual at the end of November. This year’s disconnect between the ASGS and the draft Joint Employment Report means that the former was not underpinned by the latter, and that Europe’s priorities for a green, digital, sustainable and inclusive recovery were not guided by in the in-depth analysis of realities on the ground that the Report provides. While the Roma are mentioned a number of times throughout the document, it is exclusively in the context of access to education. While the focus on improving Roma access to quality and inclusive mainstream education is very welcome, particularly as it also refers to obstacles such as severe poverty and housing exclusion, tackling structural problems like persistent poverty or rampant discrimination does not seem to be a concern. The Report also contains no reference to the situation of ethnic minorities or combatting antigypsyism and racism. Read ERGO Network’s full response to the draft Joint Employment Report here.

Based on the extensive work carried out by the ERGO Network to include a Roma perspective on the European Semester and other social and economic inclusion strategies at EU level, we secured a meeting with the Cabinet of Nicolas Schmit, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights. The exchange, attended from the Commission side by Policy Advisors Christoph Nerlich and Anouk Faber, focused on how to create positive synergies between the EU Roma Strategic Framework and the European Green Deal, the European Pillar of Social Rights, and the Multi-Annual Financial Framework 2021-2027. It also touched upon other social policy topics that ERGO Network is working on, and which fall under the purview of DG Employment, such as the the Youth Guarantee, Child Guarantee, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as social economy and minimum income.

ERGO Network members Katalin Nagy (Butterfly Development, HU), Pedro Aguilera (Federation of Roma Associations in Catalonia, ES), and Adriatik Hasantari (Roma Active Albania, AL) spoke about how the upcoming Social Economy Action Plan and the reinforced Youth Guarantee can be very useful tools to contribute towards reducing the gap between Roma and majority populations, as well as about the importance of including the Western Balkans and Enlargement and Neighbourhood Countries in the learning and exchanges about Roma inclusion in Europe. Cabinet members Ms Faber and Mr Nerlich confirmed Commissioner Nicolas Schmit’s commitment to Roma rights and inclusion and exchanged with ERGO Network members and staff about the best ways to engage with the above-mentioned policy frameworks in order to ensure a strong Roma dimension in Europe’s social and economic development strategies, as well as drew the attention to the key role of EU Funds (including InvestEU and ReactEu) to support these processes. Find the full meeting of the report here.

ERGO Network will continue to push for bringing Roma rights and inclusion much more in focus in the processes of the European Semester and the disbursement of Recovery and Resilience funds, and for better alignment with the priorities of the Sustainable Development Goals and the European Pillar of Social Rights. Hopefully the new decade will bring closer alignment between the EU Roma Strategic Framework and these frameworks, to ensure that Europe’s Roma are not left behind, particularly in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and recovery.

For more information about our work on the European Semester, please contact Senior Policy Adviser Amana Ferro in the ERGO Network Brussels Secretariat.

Child Guarantee and the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child

ERGO Network response to the European Commission public consultations on the Child Guarantee and the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child 2021-2027

The European Commission will be proposing, in 2021, a Child Guarantee and a Strategy on the Rights of the Child, two instruments specifically designed to improve the lives and wellbeing of children in the European Union. ERGO Network has been engaging closely with these processes to ensure that the unique situation of Roma children is taken on board. We are also pleased to have become a member of the EU Alliance for Investing in Children, which brings together over 20 European networks sharing a commitment to end child poverty and promote child wellbeing across Europe.

The Child Guarantee is meant to ensure that all children in Europe who are at risk of poverty, social exclusion, or are otherwise disadvantaged, have access to essential services of good quality. ERGO Network strongly welcomes the initiative and gave input to the European Commission consultation on the Roadmap for a Council Recommendation for a Child Guarantee (Download the full input). The Covid-19 pandemic highlights the urgent need to invest in proper care services and income support for Roma children and their families.

While the proposed Roadmap for the Child Guarantee identifies several groups of “children in need”, Roma children are not one of them. This is unacceptable, where the Fundamental Rights Agency found that every third Roma child (30%) lives in households where someone went to bed hungry at least once in the previous month, and only about half (53%) of young Roma children are enrolled in early childhood education and care programs. Unless they are explicitly mentioned as target group and specific measures put in place to deal with very specific needs, experience shows that Roma children will once again be left behind.

We equally contributed to the EU Alliance for Investing in Children’s Response to the public consultation on the Action Plan to implement the European Pillar of Social Rights, which calls on EU Member States to develop actions that will protect children (including Roma children) from poverty, as well as support their access to quality early childhood education and care and to equal opportunities.

Additionally, we also prepared an input to the European Commission public consultation on the upcoming EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child (2021-2024), whose objective is to provide a framework for EU actions to better promote and protect children’s rights, with specific measures and funding.

ERGO Network will continue to work closely on the file to ensure that Roma children’s voices are heard, and that appropriate links will be made, at EU and national level, between initiatives on children’s rights and wellbeing such as those above and the objectives of the EU Strategic Framework for Roma Equality, Inclusion, and Participation.

Crowdfunding for Grid Detective Game – Autonomia Foundation

Crowdfunding campaign for Detective Game

The Autonomia Foundation and the Detectivity Creative Education and Experience Center have jointly developed the Grid Detective Game – following the successful implementation of other detective games with a similar social purpose. Our own experience and international research prove that the transfer of objective facts is not the most effective in shaping attitudes. It can also be said that many people, when they feel that a program wants to change their thinking or want to pass on some knowledge to them, distance themselves from it and lose interest. However, during detective games, participants are basically busy solving a crime, they are active all the way through – not just involved in knowledge transfer – so as they play, they almost unknowingly acquire knowledge and start thinking about topics they usually avoid. Furthermore, prejudices and stereotypes about the members of a group can be most effectively overwritten by a personal meeting and conversation with the members of the group.

In this game, both the player gaining knowledge and a personal encounter appear, as while participants have to investigate the details of a crime in a disadvantaged village, they can also meet in person with the suspected Roma boy, played by a professional Roma actor for authenticity. During the game, they learn a lot about the situation of the rural Roma in connection with the boy’s story and can identify with the boy step by step during the investigation. After the successful conclusion of the investigation, there will also be a conversation in which young people will be much more active, raising questions and thoughts on Roma integration than they would otherwise after the fresh experience and the excitement of the investigation.

The investigative game has already reached many groups of students and has proven to be successful and effective among the participants. At the same time, there are many classes and schools where such a program would be needed, but financial resources are not available.

Everyone can support the donation campaign to allow 100 young people to take part in the Grid Detective Game and to meet and face issues that redraw their image of disadvantaged Roma. You can support the campaign here.

The games will take place in the first half of 2021.

ERGO’s Annual Members Meeting 2020

ERGO’s online Annual Members Meeting 2020

This year ERGO Network’s Annual Members Meeting took place under unique circumstances, forcing us to move online and to create as much exchange and networking on an online platform.

From 2-4 December 2020, ERGO Network met on Zoom with its members to analyze the work that has been done, reflect on this year’s special situation and how it impacted our work with Roma communities, and to deliberate about ERGO Network engagement in the upcoming years.

One afternoon was dedicated to building membership capacity, focusing this year on making the best use of online working environments and wellbeing of staff during the pandemic.

The meeting also provided the basis for a new 10-year strategic plan, while also introducing final steps for legally moving ERGO Network to Belgium.

The first day started with a welcome from Director Gabriela Hrabanova, board co-chair Daniel Stanislav and vice-chair Adriatik Hasantari. The board praised the flexibility, collectiveness and connectedness of the members during such an uncertain and though year.

During this day, participants attended breakout rooms designed to provide with updates and project presentations. Each of the four rooms, moderated by staff and members of ERGO Network, tackled ERGO’s core working areas of 2020, such as Roma in post-2020 European Frameworks, a Covid-19 study, our work on employment and the new projects “New Solutions to Old Problems” (NSOP) and “Peer education to counter antigypsyist hate speech online” (PECAO).

The second day invited participants to two working groups on employment and data collection. Amana Ferro and Carmen Tănasie from the ERGO Network Secretariat in Brussels provided participants with updates regarding the state of play of current and upcoming employment work, covering the main EU policy frameworks and the specific actions under the Youth Guarantee and ERGO Network’s Employment Campaign.

Isabela Mihalache, Senior Policy Officer, helped the participants to understand better the role of data collection in the delivery of our advocacy work.

The third day started with sharing about the past and looking at the present in order to set the ground for planning our future. The statutes of a new legal organization was discussed and agreement was reached to move the organization officially to Belgium.

Members then had an open space to share where they see ERGO now and where they want to see it in the future, laying the ground for the start of a 10 year strategy.