Human Rights and Wrongs

My presentation from today...

This is the text of the presentation I made at the OSCE's annual Human Dimension Implementation Meeting today. Yeah, it went ok...

Introduction:

EVS project

Good afternoon, my name’s Rebecca. I’m in the middle of a European Voluntary Service project, and part of my time is spent with the Refugee Association.

Why the association?

I was interested in working with the association in order to get practical experience working with human rights issues. I have theoretical knowledge and some work experience in large organisations but I wanted to experience working with a small grassroots organisation such as the association.

Role within organisation

I work with other volunteers to support the work of the association, contributing to the magazine ‘Voice of Exile’, helping to prepare cultural events (such as ‘Standstill Moment’ which will be performed here in a couple of days) and ongoing activities in the association such as identifying possible funding opportunities and taking part in conferences such as this one.

Current situation:

As Zuu pointed out, the association is the only one at grassroots level run by and for refugees. Asylum seekers and refugees come to the association for help with many areas of their lives and I’m going to talk about the main areas in which the association is active.

First I will talk a bit about hate crimes, a topic the OSCE is very much focused on, then I will go on to the type of activities the association organises, finishing with the monitoring, which is part of the association’s day-to-day work.

Hate Crimes

The association is often the first place to which asylum seekers and refugees come following an attack. A number of hate crimes have been reported to the association in the four months I have been in Warsaw and I’d like to mention a few to illustrate the kinds of crimes we are talking about:

KFC – A Cameroonian refugee was attacked while queuing for food on a Saturday evening. The fast-food restaurant was packed and nobody, security guards included, intervened to stop the attack. It was unprovoked and vicious, consisting in a verbal and physical attack that left the refugee with a head injury.

Siekirki break-in and stabbing – A Polish man broke into the Siekirki refugee centre late at night and stabbed an asylum seeker from Ingushetia. The police were called and the man held down by other residents of the centre, but the police failed to arrive. Only when residents of the centre called Zuu, the president of the refugee association, and he called the police again, did they arrive.

Pizza Hut – Another Saturday night, a group of African footballers were leaving the Pizza Hut adjacent to the KFC in which the Cameroonian refugee was attacked. As they left, they were attacked from behind by people wielding chairs that had been stacked by the exit. They needed hospital attention but decided not to contact the police

Other hate crimes that have been reported to the association include verbal and physical attacks on buses and in the street.

Many of the people who are affected by such crimes contact the association before, or instead of, the police, which indicates a certain lack of trust in the effectiveness of the authorities. The association does advise all people suffering such crimes to report them to police and also to keep medical documents relating to the injuries sustained as a result, but many feel there is little point as refugees and asylum seekers are low on the list of police priorities.

Integration activities

As well as monitoring the bad experiences that asylum seekers and refugees face in Warsaw, the association also tries to encourage good experiences.

The association regularly takes part in education and integration activities. I’ll give you a few examples of some of the activities that I have witnessed.

Cultural Events – At the last OSCE conference, here in May, asylum seekers and refugees from the association, as well as a couple of volunteers like me, performed a play: ‘Journeys in a New Homeland’. It’s the story of a woman who flees her war torn homeland in Africa and comes to Europe. As well as giving the asylum seekers and refugees a chance to earn some money at the same time as being creative, the play aims to raise awareness about the kinds of situations asylum seekers are fleeing, and the kinds of difficulties they may face when arriving at their destination. At the moment we are looking for funding to allow the play to tour around Poland and reach the wider Polish public. The association has organised a number of performances, including dancing, music, theatre, story-telling and poetry. These activities encourage refugees to rediscover their culture and share it with their host society.

Integration activities – A recent example of an integration activity is the football match that was held between a Polish team (Ballaton) and a team made of players from various African countries. The association considers that this contact between Polish people and refugees in a popular area such as sport, will go some way to help changing prejudiced attitudes.

Educational activities – This summer Zuu led an integration class of young Poles who are currently out of work. He has also taught an English class at a community centre in Żoliborż for the past two years. Just last week the association finally opened the doors to their second office in ul. Oleandrów, which will be an integration centre running language courses, offering free information and holding a range of activities.

A couple of months ago, we also hosted a debate following an article in a popular newsmagazine entitled “Black women in Africa are not human beings”. The debate was aimed at raising awareness about the complexities of the situation in many African countries and to warn against these types of sensationalist statements that paint a one-dimensional and false picture of the continent of Africa.

Monitoring

I already mentioned the monitoring of hate crimes, but the association monitors more than this.

Any individual who comes to the association for help leaves comprehensive contact details to enable easy follow-up;

Publications by other NGOs, governmental organisations and other authorities working with asylum seekers and refugees are systematically monitored to ensure they are abiding by international human rights standards;

If anything is highlighted that seems to contradict human rights standards, the information is scrutinised and a meeting is organised with the relevant authority. For example, a website quoted the Director General of the Office for Repatriation and Aliens Mr. Jan Węgrzen as saying the only refugees who should be accepted into Poland are those from Slavic countries as they tend to integrate more easily. We arranged a meeting with Mr. Węgrzen and challenged him with what he was quoted as saying. He explained that his comments had been directed at Slavic workers, not those seeking asylum. He wanted such individuals to be invited to Poland to live and work.

Conclusion:

Hate Crimes: The association is shocked every time someone comes to us with another report of a hate crime. We will continue to monitor the situation and keeps records of each event, but we hope that we can also contribute to a change in societal attitudes, which would hopefully reduce the number of these terrible crimes.

Integration activities: The integration and education activities that we organise will continue as long as we can find the sponsors and willing participants. Polish society does not yet accept asylum seekers and refugees and we will do as much as possible to change attitudes for the better and show everyone the value refugees can bring to a society.

Monitoring: The monitoring of hate crimes, the services that are required by asylum seekers and refugees and the position of organisations working in this area is vital for the protection of human rights. We are determined to continue this work and continue to build bridges with other organisations working in this area.

As with every small NGO, one of our biggest challenges is finding the funding to continue our everyday work. We are currently facing a bit of a financial crisis and if anyone is in a position to help, we would love to hear from you! Thank you.

posted by Becca @ 4:35 pm