Report to ECCAR on the City of Stockholm's Work to Combat Racism
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Report to ECCAR on the City of Stockholm’s work to combat racism February 2018 stockholm.se Report on the City of Stockholm’s work to combat racism December 2017 Välj ett objekt. Report to ECCAR on the City of Stockholm’s work to combat racism 3 (22) Summary The City of Stockholm is a member of the European Coalition of Cities against Racism (ECCAR) and this report provides an overview of how the City of Stockholm is tackling and working to combat racism. Stockholm’s work against racism is founded on the city’s far- reaching Vision 2040 – a Stockholm for everyone. Stockholm primarily seeks to put sustainable structures in place that will help to eradicate unwarranted obstacles that can affect Stockholmers’ access to human rights. The city’s human rights work should be long term and systematic, as outlined in the City’s budget, reliable discrimination indicators and other governing documents. Educational initiatives to combat racism aim to educate employees and management about human rights, to raise awareness about how protection from discrimination is the foundation on which all human right work is based. One notable trend over the past few years is the way in which the city has developed working methods that help to reach groups that can be particularly vulnerable to discrimination. The city’s widespread civic engagement through citizen dialogue, consultation and other forms of dialogue has been and remains central to Stockholm’s development work. Civic engagement offers additional perspectives for urban planning, better equipping the city to combat structural racism. Dialogue leads to better decision- making and helps the city to develop its operations in a more sustainable way. Stockholm will continue to produce and spread information about the extent and consequences of racism, as well as use proven methods to influence norms and structures that can affect public access to human rights. Report to ECCAR on the City of Stockholm’s work to combat racism 4 (22) Contents Summary ................................................................................................... 3 1 Background ..................................................................................... 6 1.1 Purpose and structure .......................................................................... 6 1.2 Terms .................................................................................................... 7 2 Challenges in the City’s work against racism .................................... 8 2.1 Segregation .......................................................................................... 8 2.3 Hate crime and discrimination .............................................................. 9 3 The City’s work against racism ................................................... 11 3.1 Greater vigilance against racism ........................................................ 11 Dialogue with local residents .................................................................... 11 City Executive Board human rights council .............................................. 12 City Executive Board council on disability issues ..................................... 12 Consultation with the national minorities .................................................. 13 Listening to representatives of the Roma community .............................. 13 3.2 Assessing racism and discrimination and monitoring municipal policies ........................................................................................................ 14 Budget 14 Indicators .................................................................................................. 15 3.3 Better support for the victims of racism and discrimination ................ 16 Anti-discrimination office ........................................................................... 16 3.4 More participation and better informed city dwellers .......................... 16 User-oriented information on national minority rights ............................... 17 Flags flying on national minority days ....................................................... 17 International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination .................. 17 3.5 The city as an active supporter of equal opportunity practices .......... 17 Equal opportunities for work ..................................................................... 17 Programmes and guidelines ..................................................................... 18 3.6 The city as an equal opportunities employer and service provider .... 18 Anti-discrimination clause ......................................................................... 19 Alcohol licences ........................................................................................ 19 3.7 Fair access to housing ........................................................................ 19 3.8 Challenging racism and discrimination through education ................. 20 Inclusive communication........................................................................... 20 Report to ECCAR on the City of Stockholm’s work to combat racism 5 (22) Anti-racism work in schools ...................................................................... 20 LGBTQ education and diploma ................................................................ 20 Online course on anti-discrimination ........................................................ 21 3.9 Promoting cultural diversity ................................................................ 21 3.10 Hate crimes and conflict management ............................................. 22 Report to ECCAR on the City of Stockholm’s work to combat racism 6 (22) 1 Background Human rights are universal. They apply to everyone, everywhere, all the time. The City of Stockholm is a city that embraces human rights and aims to be free from discrimination. The City of Stockholm also strives to be free from racism and hate crime. The City of Stockholm’s work on human rights encompasses both combating and preventing racism. Given the extent of racism, and its consequences, it is essential for the city to undertake sustainable, long-term efforts. The city needs reliable information on how racism is expressed, what its consequences are and how it can be combated. Stockholm’s work therefore mainly involves using knowledge about racism to put long-term, sustainable structures in place that will help eradicate unwarranted obstacles that can affect Stockholmers’ access to human rights. This development work is founded on the city’s far-reaching Vision 2040 – a Stockholm for everyone. The vision is for a Stockholm that demonstrates cohesion and solidarity through the expression and interaction of a diversity of viewpoints, perspectives, life choices and experiences. The City of Stockholm has been part of European Coalition of Cities Against Racism (ECCAR) since 2015. As a member, the city has undertaken to follow ECCAR’s 10 Points Action Plan and report to ECCAR’s secretariat on how it is applying the plan to combat racism. 1.1 Purpose and structure This is the City of Stockholm’s first report to ECCAR. It describes how the city has carried out its work against racism over the past two years. The report is limited to describing how the city is working to establish long-term, sustainable structures for work to eradicate unwarranted obstacles such as racism. It does not claim to provide an exhaustive picture of the extent or consequences of racism. Nor does it provide a comprehensive account of all the work carried out in the City of Stockholm to combat racism. The report begins with an overview of some of the challenges the City of Stockholm faces as a city that embraces human rights and is free from discrimination, hate crime and racism. This is followed by Report to ECCAR on the City of Stockholm’s work to combat racism 7 (22) a description of some of the activities and operations undertaken to combat racism. The report follows ECCAR’s 10 Points Action Plan. 1.2 Terms The definitions of the terms racism, discrimination and hate crime are the same as those used by the Swedish Government in its National Action Plan against Racism (2017) The term racism is used to refer to negative views based on assumptions about race, national, cultural or ethnic origin, religion, skin colour or similar circumstance, that people are essentially different from each other and that they thus can or should be treated differently. Racism can lead to hate crime or discrimination. The City’s work to combat racism also derives from the perspective that structural racism exists. This means that racism, in different forms, is part of the structure of society and that people have different access to rights and opportunities, power and influence as a result of other people’s conscious or unconscious assumptions regarding their ethnic background. A structural perspective also means that individual incidents of discrimination or hate crime cannot be seen as isolated events but are part of a broader context. Racism takes different forms, such as Afrophobia, antisemitism, antiziganism, Islamophobia and anti-Sami racism. In this report, the term discrimination is used in line with its definition in Swedish discrimination legislation. Discrimination exists when someone is disadvantaged or harassed. Disadvantage or harassment must be associated with one of the seven grounds for discrimination: sex, transgender identity or expression, ethnicity, religion or other belief, disability, sexual orientation or age. The ban on