Reducing Discrimination Initiative

Regional Activities

As part of the global Reducing Discrimination Initiative, the Federation is supporting a number of regional activities. All of the regional activities share one or more of the main objectives of the initiative – to inform, to train, to raise awareness and to integrate the aims of the initiative into existing National Society programmes. Recent activities include

• In Central America, targeted National Societies (Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala) were consulted on how they can engage in the Initiative in ways most relevant to their local contexts and in line with their identified priorities. Individual interviews and field visits were undertaken, combined with presentations and updates on recent developments in the Initiative.
  
• In South Asia, a pilot programme integrating the Reducing Discrimination agenda through case studies on population movements and gender issues in Nepal. This was discussed at Katmandu with 6 National Societies of the region and 10 visiting National Societies from other regions. This activity followed up on a previous training for the National Societies of the region, which was followed up by integration into National Activities.
  
• In Europe, a pilot training workshop was run in Poland, integrating Human Rights modules in the Reducing Discrimination training process
  
• In North Africa, Presidents and Secretary Generals of 5 National Societies in the region agreed in Tunisia to integrate Discrimination as a key agenda within the North Africa Programmes

Regional events

Important regional events in the past 3 years that have included important decisions on the theme of reducing discrimination include

• At the European Regional Conference, Berlin, April 2002, specific workshop addressed Racism and Xenophobia, with particular relation to migration.
  
• At the Asia and Pacific Regional Conference, Manila-Philippines, November 2002, the adopted “Manila Action Plan 2002” includes “Action 2.1.3: Each National Society will actively fight discrimination, racism and xenophobia”
  
• At the Inter American Regional Conference, Chile, April 2003, the adopted Plan of Action included objective 4.2
  "4.2 National Societies carry out new initiatives to promote tolerance, non-violence and non-discrimination with a special focus on HIV/AIDS-related stigma, the defence of the rights of migrants, displaced people and minorities as well as social violence, particularly youth and gender violence.

Previous regional activities in 2001-2002 included

In North Africa, the programme focussed on issues of ethnicity, especially between Arabic and Kabyles communities, as well as looking at the links between the elite and the middle class.

In Central Africa, the focus was very much on reduction of ethnic-related hate, and particularly on how this can be the result of high levels of poverty, and of competition and struggles for wealth and power in that context. As three countries in this region are at war, the Red Cross Red Crescent approach here is a focus on promoting a culture of peace and mutual understanding.

In the Gulf States the regional initiative was linked with the Vulnerability and Capacity Analysis process. One issue being addressed in this region is population integration, as a result of the return of one millions native Yemenis from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, following reunification of Yemen in the 1990s.

In Latin America, as with the Guatemala Red Cross use of the "Stop Violence" (Adiós Violencia) Campaign, one of the thematic focal points is on promotion of peace culture. With this approach, the delegation is focussing on the issues of wide social and economical disparity, on political and social violence and on the specific problems of indigenous people.

In Central Asia, activities are linked with the Regional Assistance Strategy where "economic hardship has exacerbated the tension between different communities, and prejudice against minority groups is believed to be increasing". In the face of this, one of the main approaches is giving "direct support to minorities", such as migrants in the region.

Please contact the Principles and Values department directly for more information on any of these regional actions, by sending an email to principles@ifrc.org or tel.: +41 22 730 4337, fax +41 22 733 0395.