The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is observed annually on 21 March. On that day, in 1960, police opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration in Sharpeville, South Africa, against the apartheid “pass laws”. Proclaiming the Day in 1966, the General Assembly called on the international community to redouble its efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination.
Posted in Social cohesion
International Human Solidarity Day was established by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2005 as an initiative in the fight against poverty. It is:
Posted in Social cohesion, Volunteering
Following the United Nations Year for Tolerance in 1995, the International Day for Tolerance was first observed on 16 November 1996.
Activities on the Day seek to promote recognition of the need for tolerance and understanding of the practise of tolerance. Building tolerance and trust in diverse communities is not done overnight, but takes time and commitment. Building tolerance requires access to education. Intolerance is often rooted in ignorance and fear: fear of the unknown, of the “other”, other cultures, religions and nations. Intolerance is also closely linked to an exaggerated sense of self-worth and pride: notions taught and learned at an early age. Therefore in coming years, we need to place greater emphasis on educating children about tolerance, human rights and fundamental freedoms.
But we should not forget that education does not end in school, that adults – firstly as individuals capable of committing acts of intolerance but more importantly in their capacity as parents, law-makers and law-enforcement officials – also need to be considered a priority target of our educational efforts.
An International Day for Tolerance can serve as an annual occasion for tolerance education as well as for wider social and political reflection and debate on local and global problems of intolerance. It is a moment to take stock of the progress made during the year and to propose fresh policies to close remaining gaps.
While the problem of intolerance is global, in the sense that it is on the increase in many parts of the world, the manifestations of intolerance usually take on local or national forms. Thus, in order to be effective, global norms against intolerance need to be combined with local, national and not least individual measures.
For more information visit the International Day for Tolerance website.
Posted in Social cohesion
Today is the International Day against Fascism and Anti-semitism, an annual commemoration of the ‘Kristallnacht’ pogrom – a joint campaign of anti-fascist, anti-racist, human rights and Jewish organisations.
After World War II the Europeans decided that they would never let anything like the Holocaust happen again. Anti-fascist, anti-racist, human rights, Roma and Jewish organisations both inside and outside the UNITED network commemorate the Kristallnacht, which took place on 9 November 1938.
This partly state-organised pogrom against German Jews symbolises the beginning of the Holocaust. The commemoration has taken on a new meaning as we remember not only the victims from 1938, but also campaign against the rise of neo-nazism and racism in Europe today, and show support for the recent victims of racist and fascist attacks.
Posted in Jewish, Social cohesion
Anushka Asthana reports in the Observer that senior government officials have blocked attempts to create the first school without an act of collective worship branding it a ‘political impossibility’.
“Dr Paul Kelley, head of Monkseaton High School in Tyneside – the first to join the government’s flagship ‘trust school‘ scheme – wanted to challenge the legal requirement in all state schools for pupils to take part in a daily act of worship of a broadly Christian nature. There are only a handful of exceptions at faith schools where the daily worship can be based on a different religion.
He also wanted to change the way that religious education was taught, introducing tuition about a number of world views, some that involved faith and some that did not. He intended to follow a ‘third way’ that neither banished religion from the classroom completely nor had children attending daily worship.
According to the Observer “One senior figure at the then Department for Education and Skills, told Kelley that bishops in the House of Lords and ministers would block the plans.” Continue reading
Posted in Education, secularism, Social cohesion
James Meikle reports in the Guardian that in advance of the creation of morefaith schools (they already make up a third of state schools in England) “Faith groups will today signal a new compact with the government over the promotion of social cohesion in schools, in return for state education funds”
“The children’s secretary, Ed Balls, is expected to say that ministers and faith groups have a common goal in promoting a more cohesive society, including building understanding and tolerance of other faiths [and beliefs I wonder?]. Ministers believe faith-based schools can play a lead role in twinning arrangements between schools in mixed and more monofaith areas.”
I wonder if it would fair to infer from this that faith schools didn’t previously have a commitment to social cohesion?
Meanwhile the Association of Teachers and Lecturers asked why schools “in which the majority of funding comes from the state, should, as the government proposes, nurture children in a particular faith”.
Posted in Education, Social cohesion
A poll of 1,000 adults for the BBC finds that four our of five people say UK is in ‘moral decline’ and only 9% disagreed that moral standards were falling.
62% said religion was important in guiding the nation’s morals, while 29% disagreed that faith had a role to play.
People aged 16 to 24 were more likely than those in older age groups to agree that religion had a key role to play in guiding the nation’s morals.
Another stupid, badly conceived poll for a TV programme (at least for a change it’s not trying to ask how loyal Muslims are or similar).
Best view I’ve seen was in resposne to Simon Barrow’s commentary in Comment is Free from someone called Margin:
“Can you name five moral standards that have declined? five that you have evidence of both change and of decline? I can’t….[M]y argument is not that nothing changes, but that the verifiable changes are not conclusively decline or incline, while changes percieved as moral decline are often not verifiably changed. eg.I can conclude that the unwillingness to tackle homosexuality, with fewer prosecutions and many more openly gay people in society as evidence of change, is a form of moral decline. I can likewise conclude that tolerance towards homosexuality, with fewer prosecutions and many more openly gay people in society as evidence of change, is a form of moral incline.
What I can’t do is decide that some one spitting in the street is a form of moral incline or decline because I don’t know if he spat in the street before, or how many other people did. “
“as such I will ignore this poll that considers one instant in history (now) and compares to to all past instances without looking at them.”
And it’s not really controversial for most people to think religion plays a part of guiding our morals (we do have a religious heritage after all) – it’s not the same as saying religion is necessary for morality (although many people do think that as we all know).
In Sarasota County, Florida, authorities are investigating an arson that destroyed a Muslim family’s home as a hate crime.
The blaze happened on July 6. The Sejfovics, who moved from Bosnia in 2001, were out of town on holday and returned to find their home completely destroyed and spray-painted with anti-Muslim graffiti.
Several agencies, including the FBI, Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office, Florida Department of Law Enforcement and U.S. Department of Homeland Security, are investigating the fire.
Members of the Unitarian-Universalist Church – the church that sponsored the family in 2001 – are standing by the family and vetting correspondence and phone calls. Others who have offfered theire suppport are a local rabbi and a Humanist Jewish Congregation, a couple of American-Islamist Groups, as well as many, many outraged individuals. Condolences and a reward have been offered; a fund is in the process of being set up.
I’ve just come across the March 2007 edition of Sublime Magazine, ”a bi-monthly international lifestyle magazine with ethical values and intelligent content.” It contains an interview with Tobias Jones (pictured) author of Utopian Dreams, an account of the year he spent living in communes and amongst unusual dreamers:
Has this experience made you more religious or less? In the book you often refer to the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was a proponent of ‘religionless Christianity’…
I would try to talk less about it now and do it more. More than 99% of church services are theory; community is the practice.
So what is the glue that binds a community together?
Everyone from St Bendict to Simone Weil hassaid that the spiritual core of any communiy has to be physical labour. When you put your own body intot he circuitry, that is the point when amazing things happen. I regret that I don’t work alongside the people I worship alongside. If there’s no shared labour, no pulling the plough in the same direction we’re in trouble.
This does all sound rather nice but is reminsent of Tolstoy’s communistic Christianity and as such feels a little…dated? unrealistic?
Posted in Christian, Social cohesion
The Guardian has a feature on American social scientist Robert Putnam his first paper “on his five-year study of social capital in the US – the biggest survey of its kind – which concludes that ethnic diversity does reduce social capital. He found that the higher the diversity in a neighbourhood, the lower the levels of trust, political participation and happiness between and within the ethnic groups, and he called it “hunkering”. But what has prompted criticism is not his analysis of hunkering, which the right has seized upon with delight, but his optimistic assertion that this is a short-term problem that, with “intelligence and creativity”, can be overcome. …[His] Harvard/Manchester research programme has identified four initial areas of social change on which to focus: immigration; the changing workplace and the consequences of women moving into the paid workforce; the changing role of religion in society; and inequality, particularly the mounting evidence of the inheritance of class and how it restricts social mobility.
…What fascinates him is tracking where the new forms of social capital are developing and why they are successful. One of his key areas of interest is religion – religious affiliations account for half of all US social capital. He cites US megachurches which, typically, attract tens of thousands of members, as “the most interesting social invention of late 20th century.” Continue reading
Posted in Christian, Research, Social Capital, Social cohesion
20 June is World Refugee Day. Around this date activities in support of refugees will take place all over Europe with demonstrations, conferences, festivals and exhibitions organised.Under the banner ‘different pasts, shared future,’ Refugee Week runs from June 19 until June 25 2006 and is a UK-wide programme of events celebrating the contribution of refugees to the UK that aims to encourage better understanding between communities.
Is your humanist group doing anything to support the week? If so email me at info@oproject.co.uk
Posted in Social cohesion, Volunteering
The final report of the Commission on Integration and Cohesion was published today setting out the steps that need to be taken to build strong, cohesive and integrated communities.
The independent Commission chaired by Darra Singh (pictured) was established by Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly and tasked with considering what local and practical action is needed to overcome the barriers to integration and cohesion. Over the past year they have visited towns and cities across the country gathering evidence on how communities themselves are taking action in response to their own circumstances and particular cohesion challenges.
The Commission’s report, Our Shared Future puts forward a wide-ranging set of recommendations for practical action to address cohesion and integration issues at a local level, along with suggestions for a national framework to support these.
Some of the key areas covered by the report include how the government promotes and supports English language speaking, developing a new role for local authorities with strengthened support from national government and how it puts a renewed focus on citizenship. It recommends that unless there is a clear business and equalities case, single group funding should not be promoted. In exceptional cases where such funding is awarded the provider should demonstrate clearly how its policies will promote community integration and cohesion.
It also contains a number of messages about the importance of both faith communities and local government developing and deepening inter faith programmes. Encouragingly it also calls for “a more constructive conversation between those who are religious and those who are not”.
It also states that “there is a case to be made for a review of some aspects of the way Government, both central and local, supports, consults and engages with faith-based bodies. These might include: grant giving (and appropriate guidelines for this); issues linked to contracts for the delivery of public services; and forms of engagement with non-religious belief groups, such as Humanists. There are also wider debates to be held about the role of faith in society more generally.”
The British Humanist Association has welcomed parts of it, but warned that there are important omissions and some flaws in some of the recommendations made.
The report is covered in the Guardian (“Racial strife more likely in country villages than big towns, says report”) and the Telegraph (“Violence’ warning over immigration“)
The Observer reports that the Darra Singh, the Chair of the Commission on Integration and Cohesion (the body created by Tony Blair after the 7 July bombings in 2005 to promote more unity) as saying ‘We need to have a debate about the possibility of a national community service – and we should not be afraid of asking whether this should be compulsory.’
“Singh said that, having spoken to hundreds of people over the past years and listened to the views of many groups, he would like to take the idea further and see ‘a communities week that puts the local (community) centre stage – marking what makes our area unique’.”
Posted in Social cohesion, Volunteering
