European-Wide Action Week against Racism 2011

Working with the Icelandic Red Cross, Intercultural Square, The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland and the Committee for Sport and Leisure in Reykjavík, ICEHR organised a number of activities and launched several projects with the common aim of combating different forms of racism and focusing on this year's topic: The Racist is the Other.

 

EGK-2011-logo

 

ICEHR launched a design competition in February 2011 for the logo to be used in all the materials supporting this year's campaign. The jury awarded the idea of a young design student, who cleverly captured the theme Racist is the other in his graphic solution of  a black and white silhouette of two faces,

one of them pointing a finger to itself, with the accompanying  text: Rasisti! Ekki ég! ...er það? (Racist? Not me! ...or am I?). This logo was used on T-shirts, badges, postcards and information flyers that were distributed among people during all the anti-racism events.

 

 

On 12th March educational workshops, carrying the message of anti-racism, were organised for more than 30 children aged 9 to 14. Children were taking part in different creative activities, ranging from making posters and playing in anti-racism themed sketches, to openly discussing their feelings and attitude towards “the different”. Various youth organisations as well as Icelandic Red Cross were involved in the workshops.

EGK-2011-Salaskoli

An awareness raising public event was organised in one of the Iceland's most popular shopping malls on 17. March, carrying the message of antiracism to the broadest scope of general public. The event was well received by and gained a lot of the attention of the people also due to the performance of a popular Icelandic musician supporting the campaign.

 

 

EGK-2011-Smaralind

 

A lecture held at the Icelandic University on the 21. March was aiming to bring the question of racism to the attention of the student population in Iceland. The speakers shared with the participants of the lecture discoveries of their academic research on the field of racism as well as their personal encounters with this problem. It was agreed upon among the participants that the additional value of the lecture was the insight into the hidden forms of racism in the Icelandic society, experienced by the lecturers themselves.

Icelandic Human Rights Centre

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