Praise for the Including Diversity Conference

After the conference over the weekend, participants representing more than 20 countries throughout the world had fresh ideas about how to work against discrimination and promote diversity in their international youth groups. Here’s some insight about what went on in some of the workshops at Gothenburg’s Museum of World Culture, and how people responded to the conference.

Hanna Simberg, a human rights attorney and representative for the Swedish group All Different, All Equal, led a workshop entitled “Equal Rights in a Global Context” where students were given all the clauses of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and were then asked, in groups, to choose the one most important of all the human rights. Students found it was difficult to choose just one, and that students’ preferences varied because of their backgrounds and origins. “Human rights is a heavy yet important subject,” said Simberg. It became clear that not one group could immediately agree on the most important human right, and this was discussed in the groups.

In this workshop, students also role-played in an activity where they were given slip of paper that defined an identity, and each student was different. Identities ranged from a minority super model to a 17-year-old uneducated Roma girl to a white male company owner, among others. Students lined up and took a step forward for each time they could respond “yes,” and questions included “I can practise my religion freely,” “I feel safe,” “I don’t fear for my children’s future,” and “I have the right to love and marry the person of my choice.” After all questions had been asked, only a few had progressed to the front of the line. They were asked to turn around and observe all the people that had been “left behind.” In fact, two people took no steps forward. Students discussed the implications in a global context, and why some in society are, in fact, left behind when it comes to human rights.

Samendra Baratha Tennakoon, Director of Finance for Sri Lanka National Youth Organization Network (NYON) of Colombo, Sri Lanka was impressed with the weekend’s activities. “The human rights program offered a lot of information and ideas. It was perfect,” he said.

“It was an interesting conference,” said Chiv You Meng, President of the Khmer Youth Association in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. He and his colleague, Koet Sovendy from Youth Council of Cambodia, have organised a student exchange program between Cambodia and Sweden since 2002 through LSU, CIU and SIDA. Through their organization, 14 Cambodian students are currently studying and living in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Linköping. “We usually have different topics at workshops in Cambodia. We wanted to learn about new issues and topics from other countries.”

In another workshop entitled “Combating Discrimination in a Country of War,” Ms. Fenek Latif of Kurdistan’s Student Council led a discussion regarding human rights in Kirkuk, Iraq. Students learned about the atrocities done to the Kurdish people, saw photographs of destruction due to bombings, watched a brief documentary about three students living in Kirkuk, and heard their perspectives about discrimination towards both Kurds and Iraqis in the city of Kirkuk. On a positive note, Latif also demonstrated photographs to illustrate the work done by NGOs in the area to build communities and increase tolerance despite the Iraqi/Kurdish division.

Lena Bartholdson, who represented the group Society and Defence in Stockholm, helped to organise the conference. “I think that the workshops are very valuable; they provide the opportunity to go deeper into a specific subject and encourage an active participation. The discussions deal with what has come up at another level, trying to illustrate similar characteristics throughout the different workshop themes.”

Although human rights was a strong theme throughout the weekend, young human rights activists were not the only people present.

Christoffer Fogelström and Anneli Henriksson, representing Sverok, a Swedish youth gaming society, were in attendance for the weekend. Their organization has existed since 1989 and promotes games as a social activity among youth in Sweden. “Our membership is 89% males, with very few non-whites,” said Fogelström. “We’re working to rid our organization of whatever obstacles that keep those other people from getting into gaming”. Fogelström added that Sverok’s goal with gaming is “helping people organize themselves democratically, and giving them something meaningful to do in their spare time”. Their objective is to create a force from below, with gamers themselves organizing other gamers and hosting events. By playing games and starting local sections, the gamers learn social skills as well as issues such as democracy.

Sara Svensson, the International Secretary of Fältbiologerna (Nature and Youth Sweden), felt that the workshops were unique because they offered insight to methodology within the organisations.

“I’ve been to lots of events before, but nothing like this. Just to be here and meet people from organizations here – a lot of sharing and topics discussed are interesting and important, especially to consider internal working methods,” she said, even though she is involved with a group that works for environmental protection. “The issue doesn’t matter,” added Svensson. “We are working for sustainable development. It’s important to achieve change.”

Anne Arnold                                                                            anne.arnold06@globalverkstan.net

Combating Islamophobia 101

On Saturday and Sunday, May 26 and 27, people from youth organizations throughout the world had the opportunity to come together to discuss ideas about diversity and youth at Gothenburg’s Museum of World Culture. The Conference, “Including Diversity: Youth Perspectives on Security, Peace and Democracy,” was a success. One of the most highly attended workshops dealt specifically with misconceptions of Islam.

Shaista Khan, a six-year member and representative for Sweden Young Muslims, led the workshop “Dealing with Misconceptions of Islam and the West.” Born and raised in Sweden, Khan told me before the workshop that she understood discrimination because her Islamic values are visible through her dress. She noted that she “could relate to how [discrimination] would feel as a black person” because “it is based on exterior /visible factors,” although racial and religious discrimination also differ.

Khan, reflecting the participants’ enthusiasm, had high expectations and appeared confident just before she initiated one of the weekend’s first workshops. “I expect people to be a bit more understanding here, because they come from different experiences and are already working in civil society. It’s not such a homogeneous group,” she said.

During the workshop, students took part in a “hot seat” exercise where they got up and moved to another seat to illustrate they understood the basic points of Communism, Christianity, Islam, and Feminism. It became evident that out of a group of about 30, most people understood the basic points of communism, but only four people could explain the basic points of Islam. This fact led to a discussion.

In a perfect American accent, Khan explained to the group that there are over 1.5 billion Muslims in the world today, or roughly 25% of the world’s population. Despite the presence of Islam in the world, information does not get through to those in the West. A survey done in Sweden in 2004 illustrated just that: two thirds of the Swedes polled from across the country felt that “Islamic values were not compatible with Western values.” In the same study, it was found that “40% of Swedes did not want mosques built in Sweden, and 53% were against women wearing headscarves.”

Ironically, she noted, the same study found that more than 60% of the Swedish population “had little or no knowledge about Islam.” This blend of high fear with little knowledge creates a new phenomenon called “Islamophobia,” or the irrational fear and prejudice towards Islam and Muslims. “Is there any wonder,” Khan asked students, “why Islamophobia exists in Sweden today?”

In the discussion that followed, one student noted that while many countries currently remove laws that discriminate against some groups, some laws have recently become blatantly discriminatory towards Muslim people. Decisions made by people and the leaders of nations are based on fear and strongly affect Muslims’ rights, whether while travelling or at home: even in Sweden.

French schools, for example, do not allow Muslim girls to wear headscarves but have allowed exceptions for people of other faiths. One student in the workshop gave an example of being stopped at the airport because “they saw my Muslim name in my passport.” Additionally, discrimination against Muslims is clear because mosques throughout Sweden and Europe are regularly monitored.

Where discrimination exists, the problem is most likely simple: “People do not know what it is to be Muslim, and they do not understand the Muslim lifestyle,” said Khan. Lack of knowledge only feeds ignorance; it’s through understanding and tolerance that diversity is achieved. At the conclusion of the workshop, Khan encouraged students to go out and learn more about Islam if they knew little, and encourage their friends and family to do the same.

To read more about Sweden Young Muslims, go to www.ungamuslimer.nu .

Anne Arnold                                                                            anne.arnold06@globalverkstan.net

Include diversity – our common goal

All the people at the Including diversity conference do believe that diversity makes their organization and the rest of the world better, that’s a good start. Our work now is to see that the necessary steps are being taken to really include diversity.

During the weekend we’ve learned that everyone is winning by promote and include diversity with more motivation, better work environment and better ideas. And to take the nice declarations and make them to practice everywhere we can make a change.

The same day as the conference ended, right wing extremists and police was beating the participants of the pride parade in Moscow who where demanding equal rights in Russia. This shows that the struggle for equality and diversity is important and something we need to work with.

We need to be the change we want to see, in our organizations, all sorts of discrimination only should appear in our common history. It’s a matter of will and focus from all of us. We can’t change somebody else before we changed ourselves. What that means is different from person to person.

I’ve learned very much during the weekend, when I meet people from all over the world, when I participated in both formal and informal discussion. And I’m going to do everything in my power to include diversity.

I also urge everyone of you to change the rest of the world, ask questions to the political and economical leaders, report to the media if you see discrimination, support people working with the issue and much more.

On July 7th my organization are opening a web based magazine, TellUs, where we are going to publish the stories from change makers all over the world who are working to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. I want to invite all the participants of this conference to write stories how you are working to include diversity, and we will spread your ideas and work around the world. If you’re interested, please contact me!

If we succeed to include diversity for real, then everybody is a winner! See you next year, at the conference or at the blog.

Jonas Eriksson
jonas@tellusmagazine.org

Discrimination: a Human Rights Issue

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

Article 1, Universal Declaration of Human Rights

No matter of the nice speeches in the UN and the signs of the declaration, the reality is something else. Human Rights are being violated every day all over the world. One example is that there’s still torture in 130 of the worlds countries.

Amnesty Sweden’s campaign coordinator Ms Katarina Bergehed was talking about the discrimination from a human rights perspective, from the four universal declarations regarding human rights (1948), racial discrimination (1965), women’s rights (1979) and persons with disabilities (2007).

Amnesty International is a pressure group that promotes human rights. Founded in the UK in 1961, they draw attention to human rights abuses and campaigns for compliance with international standards. It works to mobilize public opinion in the belief that it is this, which has the power to exert pressure on those who perpetrate abuses.

To fulfill the human rights is a very good step to an equal world and that we need to keep fighting for it and make harder efforts to make the promises of the declarations.

The workshops

1) Breaking the norms – a workshop on norms
Workshop leaders: Agnes Dahné and Alex Fridunger, RFSL Ungdom (The Swedish Youth Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights)

In all societies there are certain ideas concerning gender, sexuality and ethnicity which have the consequence that some people frequently are considered to be more normal than others. These ideas allow for discrimination, power inequalities and prejudice. This workshop will use interactive exercises to encourage the participants to inspect the actual norms which make some people appear as normal and others as deviating. Based on this, it will also highlight how one can work against discrimination in our different organisations.

2) Availability and Inclusion – A Journey from Gothenburg to Prag
Workshop leaders: Fredrik Jonsson, The Swedish Youth Federation of Mobility Impaired, Jacob Selin, Swedish Association for Visual Impaired and Blind Youth and Linda Karlsson, The Sweden organisation of hard hearing

What happens when you are placed to sit beside by a person that appears in a way that makes you feel uncomfortable, weather it has to do with the looks, way of talking or something with the appearance?
This workshop will illustrate the hurdles of availability and inclusion during a bus ride from Gothenburg to Prag. It will focus on different kinds of prejudices, illustrate the consequences in real life and discuss how we can work against this sort of discrimination.

3) Promoting equal rights in a global context
Workshop leader: Hanna Simberg, All different All Equal, Sweden

What do equal rights mean in a global context? The notion that human rights are universal has been fiercely opposed by critics in many other parts of the world. This workshop focuses on the notion of human rights, discrimination and encourages discussion regarding equal rights in a global context. The European campaign All different All Equal will serve to give examples on this.

4) Understanding and including transgender
Workshop leader: Alex Mamytovich, “Labrys”, Kyrgyzstan

Discrimination of transgender persons is a human rights issue found all over the world. By using Kyrgistan as an illustrating case, this workshop aims at raising awareness about transgender issues and its relevance to human rights. Real life cases will illustrate how organizations, by adapting an including approach to transgender persons and increasing the understanding of trans-gender issues can make a difference on this reality.

5) Dealing with misconceptions of Islam and the West.
Workshop leader: Shaista Khan, Sweden Young Muslims

Today we live in a society where there are many misconceptions about the relation between the religion of Islam and the “West”. Sometimes these are even portrayed as binary opposites and this perception has consistently led to the spread of phobias in society. In this workshop we will look into the concept of Islam phobia. We’ll find out what this means, how it is expressed, and what the effects of this phobia are. The knowledge and understanding of these issues will help us in finding ways for bridging the gaps and uniting the world yet commending diversity.

6 ) Combatting HIV/AIDS-stigma – from a Human Rights Perspective
Workshop leader: Nyoni Mantswe, Southern African Youth Movement

Persons living with HIV/AIDS are not only a victims of a disease, but are also subjected to stigmatisation restricting their every day life. This workshop will help us to understand the challenges and oppurtunites to combat this sort of discrimination. It takes its starting point in a Human rights perspective and explores how it can be applied and used in the work against the HIV/AIDS stigma. The Southern African region will be in focus.

7) Inclusion of youth – how to affect and influence policy
Workshop leader: Ella Bohlin, Christian Democratic Youth and George Omondi, The Youth assembly, African Institute of Research and Resources, Kenya

This workshop will focus on the inclusion of youth on a local and national level. What are the opportunities and conditions for youth to affect and influence policy? In what forum can we make the voice of young people better heard? How can collaboration strengthen our influence on policy? Comparisons and examples from Sweden and Kenya will illustrate the arguments and ideas throughout the workshop.

8 ) Combating discrimination in a country in war
Workshop leader: Fenek Latif, Kurdistan´ Student Council

The news reports from Iraq is characterized by killing, bombings and the presence of the US. This seminar will give a glance from the inside, looking at the life of young people in Kurdistan. How do the clashes of ethnic groups and religious groups affect their every day life? What are the opportunities and challenges for young people to make a difference in the society? What brings hopes for the future?

9) Mobilizing and empowering vulnerable minority groups in Sweden: The experience of working with minority groups from an authority (The Ombudsman against ethnic discrimination) and NGO perspective.
Workshop leader: Johan Hjalmarsson, The Ombudsman against ethnic discrimination (DO) and Kitimbwa Sabuni, The Afro-Swedish Association (ASR).

Different visible minority groups in Sweden face discrimination and marginalisation, both discrimination at individual level and at structural level. The work with minority groups as opposed to measures directed against minority groups was a key concept in this new method, presented at this workshop, aiming to create trust and confidence. On this background the workshop will contain practical discussion on how to combat discrimination concerning specific scenarios. The idea is to identify, evaluate and present solutions and to share best practice on how legal methods can be combined with effective human rights advocacy to combat discrimination and racism.

10) Gender Mainstreaming – combating gender based discrimination.
Workshop leader: Elin Aronsson, Red Cross Youth

Gender Mainstreaming is a globally accepted strategy for promoting gender equality. Mainstreaming is not an end in itself but a strategy, an approach, a means to achieve the goal of gender equality. Mainstreaming involves ensuring that gender perspectives and attention to the goal of gender equality are central to all activities and policies. During this seminar you will get acquainted with the term and be inspired to use it in your organisation and its activities and policies.