UNITED for Intercultural Action is a European network against

nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

fascism Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...

and in support of migrants and

refugee A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

s, in which over 560 organisations from 48

European countries The list below includes all entities falling even partially under any of the various common definitions of Europe, geographical or political. Fifty generally recognised sovereign states, Kosovo with limited, but substantial, international reco ...

cooperate. UNITED was founded in 1992 (officially registered as

charitable organisation A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definitio ...

under

Dutch law The Netherlands uses civil law. The role of case law is small in theory, although, in practice, it is impossible to understand the law in many fields without considering the relevant case law. The Dutch law system is based on the French Civil Co ...

in 1993) and provides a forum for active solidarity and cooperation between a wide variety of organisations in Europe and their activists across European borders. 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 ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

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 Xenophobia (from (), 'strange, foreign, or alien', and (), 'fear') is the fear or dislike of anything that is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression that is based on the perception that a conflict exists between an in-gr ...

riots that took place in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

: the riot of Rostock-Lichtenhagen 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: * European Action Week Against Racism * International Refugee Day * International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism UNITED has participatory status at the Council of Europe, is often an elected member of the Advisory Council on Youth of the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...

and has since 1997 special

consultative status The consultative status is a phrase that has been in use since the establishment of the United Nations and is used within the UN community to refer to "Non-governmental organizations (Non-governmental organisation, NGOs) in Consultative Status with ...

with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

Campaigns

European Action Week Against Racism – 21 March

In 1966, the

General Assembly of the United Nations The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; , AGNU or AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as its main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ. Currently in its 79th session, its powers, ...

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 Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

demonstrators in

Sharpeville Sharpeville (also spelled Sharpville) is a township situated between two large industrial cities, Vanderbijlpark and Vereeniging, in southern Gauteng, South Africa. Sharpeville is one of the oldest of six townships in the Vaal Triangle. It was ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, 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. UNITED collect these activities in an online map available at www.weekagainstracism.eu. 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, annual International Weeks Against Racism (German
''Internationale Wochen gegen Rassismus''
developed in

– the main organisers of this campaign are the German NGO
Interkultureller Rat in Deutschland
an
Gesicht ZeigenSemaine d'Actions Contre le Racisme
a

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

-based NGO, organises a

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

-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 The European Network Against Racism (ENAR) is an EU-wide network of anti-racist Non-governmental organization, NGOs. ENAR aims to end structural racism and discrimination and advocates for equality and solidarity for all Europeans. It connects ...

(ENAR) or

Football Against Racism in Europe The Fare network (formerly Football Against Racism in Europe) is a network set up to counter discrimination in European football. The network was set up in Vienna, Austria, in February 1999 after a meeting of football supporters' groups, footbal ...

(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 The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; , AGNU or AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as its main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ. Currently in its 79th session, its powers, ...

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 The Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, also known as the 1951 Refugee Convention or the Geneva Convention of 28 July 1951 is a United Nations multilateral treaty that defines who a refugee is and sets out the rights of individuals ...

, and that the

Organization of African Unity The Organisation of African Unity (OAU; , OUA) was an African intergovernmental organization established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with 33 signatory governments. Some of the key aims of the OAU were to encourage political and ec ...

(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. Logo 9 November - Int

International Day against Fascism and Antisemitism – 9 November

On 9 November 1938,

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

started a

pogrom A pogrom is a violent riot incited with the aim of Massacre, massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe late 19th- and early 20th-century Anti-Jewis ...

against

Jewish people Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

. Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and villages, as SA stormtroopers and civilians destroyed buildings with sledgehammers, leaving the streets covered in pieces of smashed windows—the origin of the name "

Kristallnacht ( ) or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from the Hitler Youth and German civilia ...

", 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 A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploit ...

, where they were tortured for months, with over 1,000 of them dying. Around 1,668

synagogues A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...

were ransacked, and 267 set on fire. In

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

alone 95 synagogues or houses of prayer were destroyed. The "Kristallnacht" pogrom is seen as the symbolic beginning of the systematic eradication of Jewish people which had started with the

discrimination Discrimination is the process of making unfair or prejudicial distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong, such as race, gender, age, class, religion, or sex ...

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 Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" exc ...

, criminals and "asocial" people, members of diverse religious communities, people with mental disabilities, political ‘offenders’ such as

communists Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, d ...

and

socialists Socialism is an economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes the economic, political, and socia ...

Spanish republican The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of democratic government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931 after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII. It was dissolv ...

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 The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

and of

throughout history; another part focuses mostly on contemporary issues of

antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

right-wing extremism Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

and

neo-fascism Neo-fascism is a post-World War II far-right ideology which includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, ultraconservatism, racial supremacy, right-wing populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xe ...

. The campaign is joined by many different groups with independent actions which are collected by UNITED in an online map available at www.dayagainstfascism.eu.

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.

Publications

The European Address Book Against Racism is an annual publication that holds contact details and working-field information of organisations active within the scope of UNITED. 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. The Calendar of Internationalism is published several times a year and holds information on events and trainings related to UNITED's working filed. There is also a weekly updated online version of the Calendar. On a regular basis, UNITED publishes Information Leaflets written by experts and activist within the UNITED working field.

I CARE – Internet Centre Anti Racism Europe

I CARE - Internet Centre Anti Racism Europe
is a web-portal featuring discussions and live reports on antiracism activities, mainly within Europe. ICARE is an information disseminator for the European NGO-community working in the fields of anti-discrimination, human rights, antisemitism,

diversity Diversity, diversify, or diverse may refer to: Business *Diversity (business), the inclusion of people of different identities (ethnicity, gender, age) in the workforce *Diversity marketing, marketing communication targeting diverse customers * ...

and immigration, with a focus on

anti-racism Anti-racism encompasses a range of ideas and political actions which are meant to counter racial prejudice, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific racial groups. Anti-racism is usually structured around conscious efforts and deliberate ...

. 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 a 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 (WCAR) in

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

, offering critical appraisal of the conference – which included the judgment "that racism was allowed to run rampant" and that " at happened in Durban n 2000should never happen again."; the website continued to track developments regarding the

Durban Review Conference The Durban Review Conference is the official name of the 2009 United Nations World Conference Against Racism (WCAR), also known as Durban II. The :Diplomatic conferences, conference ran from Monday 20 April to Friday 24 April 2009, and took place ...

2009. In 2010, ICARE set out to establish a new service, th
ICARE Hate Crime News
This service contains articles (English only) about hate-motivated incidents and crimes in the 56

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the p ...

(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

crowdsourcing Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digit ...

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. 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 (also known as bias crime) in criminal law involves a standard offence (such as an assault, murder) with an added element of bias against a victim (individual or group of individuals) because of their physical appearance or perceived ...

", ICARE points to the working definition that was developed by the OSCE –

Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) is the principal institution of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) dealing with the "three generations of human rights, human dimension" of security. The O ...

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

UNITED Archives at IISH

UNITED cooperates with the

International Institute of Social History International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

(IISH), which is a research institute located in Amsterdam. The UNITED secretariat, also located in Amsterdam, has collectssince 1992 documentation of a wide range of European anti-racist and anti-fascist groups and of organisations in support of migrants and refugees since 1992. The archive was transferred to the IISH in 1998. It consists of correspondence with the connected organizations; questionnaires concerning the start of the network and documents concerning campaigns; documentation on ca. 300 anti-racist and anti-fascist groups and organizations; and documents relating to conferences organised by UNITED, with correspondence, documents concerning preparation, subventions, participants and accommodation.

References

External links

Official websiteUN – International Day for the Elimination of Racial DiscriminationUN – World Refugee DayI CARE Internet Centre Anti Racism EuropeInternational Institute of Social History
{{Authority control Anti-nationalism in Europe Ethnic organizations International human rights organizations Non-profit organisations based in the Netherlands Organizations with participatory status with the Council of Europe 1992 establishments in the Netherlands Organisations based in Amsterdam