The working group is mandated to explore how national equality bodies can share information on and enhance their strategic approach to communication activities and build capacity in this area. This working group will serve as a platform for discussion, reflection and action on the effective development of communication strategies and activities by equality bodies. It will focus on the work of members in raising awareness of equality, rights and obligations among the general public and the groups experiencing discrimination.
Moderator
Mintautė Jurkutė from the Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson, Lithuania
Email:
Ana Tretinjak from the Office of the Ombudswoman, Croatia (on maternity leave in 2019)
Email:
Staff support in the Equinet Secretariat
Sarah Cooke O’Dowd, Communication Officer
sarah.cookeodowd@equineteurope.org
Members’ Contacts
2019
1st Meeting – Sofia, March 2019
Agenda – 13 March 2019
Participants, Sofia, March 2019
Summary of meeting
***Presentations
Hope-based communication:
- Presentation
- https://www.openglobalrights.org/hope-guide/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFAMpW0hPNY&list=PLL_jJbfWdlOdZRf88x5tW6PldnwCALala
Cyprus
Finland – Monday morning
- Presentation
- https://www.facebook.com/maanantaikuuluukaikille/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mGcb3AgSos
Germany
Ireland
Latvia
Norway
- Female Fire Fighters – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5Mq1gLtJ60
- Male nurses – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKVkd9etLHw
UK – Great Britain
- The State of Britain today
- Is Britain Fairer? Communication Toolkit
- Is Britain Fairer? Disability Rights
2018
- Organise thematic meetings on topical communication challenges that are presented by an expert (internal or external depending on the topic). The group will get to ask questions, identify the values-based messages and work together to develop responses to the challenges.
- Following on from work that we did in 2017 on values and combating online negativity, the Working Group will have a practical session on how to combat hate through positive narratives.
- Develop recommendations on how to set the agenda on equality and non-discrimination during campaigning periods in the run up to elections.
- Support the organisation of the Seminar on Hate Speech from the point of view of Equality Bodies
2nd Meeting – Budapest, September 2018
Summary & Participants List – Budapest
**Presentations
Presentation – Victims’ Stories
Lilly Korpiola: Strategic Narratives in a Media Society
1st Meeting – Vilnius, March 2018
Summary (including agenda & participants list)
**Presentations
**Additional information
- UN Declaration of Human Rights 70th Anniversary – Communication Material
- Hate Speech explained – A Toolkit
- No Hate Speech Movement
- Recommendation: Avoid using discriminatory, racist or xenophobic speech election campaigns, Spain, 2015 (in Spanish. Basic summary available in English in Equinet presentation above)
2017
- Organise thematic meetings on topical communication challenges that are presented by an expert (internal or external depending on the topic). The group will get to ask questions, identify the values-based messages and work together to develop responses to the challenges.
- Contribute to the development of a Communication Toolkit on Valuing Equality. Following on from the 2012 report on Valuing Equality, the WG members will work together with experts who will undertake in-depth research into the framing of the actual communications that equality bodies use. The final objective is to develop an accessible toolkit for communicators in equality bodies for analysing and designing their own communications with values in mind. This aims to give organisations a set of practical tools that can be adapted to their own contexts, and examples of best practice.
- Support preparation for a second training session on Social Media for Equality bodies with practical examples.
- Continue to develop the Project Library (formerly known as Media Library) internally and externally so as to provide members with concrete examples of how to develop communication actions, as well as promoting the members’ actions to a wider audience.
2nd Meeting – Bucharest, November 2017
- Meeting Summary (includes agenda and list of participants)
**Presentations
- How should we go about framing equality? (includes 2018 overview), Sarah Cooke O’Dowd, Equinet Secretariat
- Campaign against pregnancy discrimination, Päivi Ojanperä, Ombudsman for Equality, Finland
1st Meeting – Vienna, March 2017
- Meeting Summary (includes agenda, list of participants, short summary and long summary)
**Presentations
- Equality Bodies – Mediatisation and the challenge of media society, Lilly Korpiola, Communication expert
- Partnerships for Equality – Experiences, successes and lessons learned, Katrine G.Pettersen, Equality and Anti-discrimination Ombud, Norway
- Silence kills video (campaign to stop violence against women)
2016
2nd Meeting – Bratislava, November 2016
**Presentations
- Introduction, Katrine G.Pettersen, Equality and Anti-discrimination Ombud, Norway
- Using communication to change legislation, Ann Kathrin Sost, FADA, Germany
- PRISM – Preventing, Redressing and Inhibiting Hate Speech on the New Media, Marco Buemi, Italian expert
- Equality bodies’ role on social media: Where do we fit in? What’s our position?
Value based counter speech and combating symbols in the media society, Päivi Ojanperä, Ombudsman for Equality, Finland
1st Meeting – Nicosia, March 2016
**Presentations
- Cologne Attacks – How to (and how not to) tackle hate and balence different discrimination grounds, Ann Kathrin Sost, FADA, Germany
- Equinet Communication Strategy, Sarah Cooke O’Dowd, Equinet
**Additional information requested at meeting
- Together against Hate Speech: Ways to tackle online hateful content proposed by the Task Force against illegal online hate speech
- Refugee/migrant crisis and human rights. Regional joint action plan of Ombudsman institutions
2015
2nd Meeting – Berlin, November 2015
**Presentations
- Introduction to Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency, Germany and their work on the Horizontal Directive
- Presentation: Crisis communication – Hate Speech. Draft Strategy of the Interfederal Centre for Equal Opportunities, Belgium
- Written summary: Crisis communication – Hate Speech. Draft Strategy of the Interfederal Centre for Equal Opportunities, Belgium
**Additional information requested at meeting
- Joint Statement: Towards a Consistent Level of Protection Against Discrimination in Europe – Overcoming Germany’s Blocking of the Proposed Equal Treatment Directive
- Equinet note on the Horizontal Directive
- Cases from equality bodies regarding the Horizontal Directive
- Article written by Marco Buemi regarding the situation in UNAR, Italy
1st Meeting – Brussels, May 2015
For additional information on the Working Group, including a list of recent publications, please see the external section of the website on Working Groups.
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