During its nearly 10 years of activity ENAR has been tirelessly fighting with racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. It was established in 1998 as an outcome of 1997 European Year Against Racism and throughout the years attracted more than 600 different European NGOs, which all together form the Network. Among its members are representatives of different camps, such as FEMYSO (Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organizations), Muslim Council of Britain, Simon Wiesenthal Center Europe, Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland or British Council.
During its nearly 10 years of activity ENAR has been tirelessly fighting with racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. It was established in 1998 as an outcome of 1997 European Year Against Racism and throughout the years attracted more than 600 different European NGOs, which all together form the Network. Among its members are representatives of different camps, such as FEMYSO (Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organizations), Muslim Council of Britain, Simon Wiesenthal Center Europe, Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland or British Council.
ENAR is mainly concerned with the racism and discrimination in European Union Member Countries, however it does occasionally cooperate with other European countries, such as Norway. Among its scope of activity there is development of European political agenda concerning antiracist laws and strengthening the world of civil society at European level. As ENAR’s Press Officer Georgina Siklossy says, “ENAR wants to involve the grassroots at the regional and European levels, so that the voice of civil society is really heard and integrated into European legislation.”
The question is, can an organization based in Brussels and in close cooperation with EU institutions such as European Commission, European Parliament and Council of Europe be really influential on regional levels? Definitely yes, thanks to its members. They work at national level with their national policy, many of them provide services to victims of racism. Moreover, each year ENAR publishes on its webpage Shadow Reports prepared by its members, which as NGOs can truly get a real insight into racism and discrimination in each EU Member Country.
These reports are not academic work, however, they do present recent trends and changes concerning racism and discrimination in most EU Member Countries. Starting with the report for 2001, they constantly develop and cover more countries. Last year 19 states were described concerning racist incidents and implementation of antidiscriminatory legislation. In a few months Shadow Report for 2006 is to be expected on the webpage (www.enar-eu.org).
Last year, parallel to Shadow Reports a special report devoted only to the phenomena of Islamophobia in Europe was published. However, it still seems not to be the main issue tormenting Europe according to ENAR. As Siklossy comments, “Of course there has been an increase in recent years, but in Europe there are still many other forms of racism and discrimination to combat.” Europe will certainly also have to face the more and more omnipresent issue of positive discrimination. ENAR has already a policy on that too – in November they are organizing a conference on positive action.
ENAR does not content itself only with that. Besides the Shadow Reports being published this year, it has three main priorities for upcoming months. It still aims at combating discrimination and promoting equality. Moreover, the future activity of the organization will be devoted to promotion of development of progressive migration and integration policies. Recognition of anti-racism in equality and fundamental rights will also be on the agenda.
By Hanna Siemaszko
