Project Partners

Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities (Lead Partner)
European Network Against Racism (Core Partner)
Public Interest Law Initiative
European Roma Rights Centre
Interights
National Bureau against Racial Discrimination (LBR)
Documentation and Advisory Centre on Racial Discrimination (DRC/DACoRD)

Aim

The project aims at the achievement of effective transposition and implementation of the European Union Race Equality and Framework Directives through empowerment, capacity building and partnership, promoting equality for Ethnic and Racial Minority groups across the European Union.

Overview

The deadlines for the transposition of the Race Equality Directive and the Framework Employment Directive have passed. Not all countries have transposed the Directives, and of those that have there are a significant number where this does not meet the minimum standards. The lack of sufficient implementation in many countries leads to a lack of access to justice for victims of discrimination, and significant legal uncertainty. It is in the interests of the European Union and the NGO community to have effective and uniform transposition and implementation of the two Directives within the EU, in order to achieve effective legal protection against discrimination and remedies from legal protection.

For this to be realised, a holistic strategy needs to be taken which includes, but is not restricted to, litigation and the identification of test cases. The project will train groups of NGO representatives from each of the 25 EU Member States, not only in the standards of the Directives, but also in strategic litigation, and the development of national strategies on litigation and support. This will create a cadre of trained experts who can identify test cases and work in partnership with other organisations, including National Equality Bodies, Trade Unions and other NGOs, to support victims of discrimination.

We also aim to make a crucial connection between NGOs and lawyers. Too many people within the NGO community believe that the law is too remote, while too many lawyers perpetuate this myth. Through this approach gaps in transposition can be filled, the resulting laws will be implemented effectively, and we will begin to see real change in the experiences of communities that face discrimination.

Countries will be grouped geographically, with trainings held in six regions across Europe (including pilots). This will facilitate the creation of national and regional support networks, and increase the regional networking of organisations. Specific attention will also be paid to the national situation of each country, and there will be specific sessions to enable you to apply the learning you have gained and develop concrete actions at the national level.

National Strategies on Litigation and Support

A key objective of the SOLID project is to facilitate the development of national strategies on litigation and support for each EU member state. The development of national strategies is an important method of ensuring the training is not a one-off event, and is able to have further impacts beyond the life of the project, including longer term strategies of sustainability. These strategies must be drawn up by the participants themselves, working in collaboration, and the training will contain facilitated sessions where participants working in the same country can collaborate to produce a national strategy that is relevant and appropriate. The details of the national strategies will be for the participants in the training to decide, our role is to facilitate the process. In general, it would be envisaged that strategies would include a 12 month action plan of activities possibly including dissemination of learning, support for victims, identification of test cases, networking, partnership, capacity building and support.

Recruitment

The SOLID Partners want to ensure that organisations and individuals participating in the training are able to contribute to and benefit from the goals of the SOLID project, particularly the development of longer-term measures, in a strategic manner.

The process of recruitment and selection of training participants is important in ensuring this can happen. Primary selection criteria will relate to the organisation, as participation in the training is for the benefit of organisations, not individuals. However, individuals nominated by selected organisations need to be in a position to bring the learning obtained back to the organisation, and to develop and implement the National Strategy.

The training is targeted at organisations (mainly NGOs, but this can include Trade Unions etc when appropriate) who work directly with ethnic and racial minority groups and either (a) already offer support to victims of race discrimination (not limited to legal support) or (b) be in a position to offer this support. The organisation must be willing to commit to the production and implementation of a national strategy on litigation and support following the full training programme, including the development of a longer term strategy. Organisations don’t have to work solely on race equality, and you don’t have to be a lawyer!

In 2005 we are holding 2 pilot trainings. The 1st Pilot will be held in Brussels, Belgium on the 29thSeptember-2nd October, training people from Slovakia, Belgium and Sweden. The 2nd pilot will be held in Budapest, Hungary on the 27th-30th October with participants from Hungary, Italy and the UK.

In 2006 we will be holding 4 training sessions:

• Training 1 will be held in January with participants from Austria, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic.
• Training 2 will be held in March with participants from France, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal and Spain.
• Training 3 will be held in May with participants from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania.
• Training 4 will be held in September with participants from Cyprus, Greece, the Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland and Slovenia.

Early applications for the 2006 trainings would be welcomed