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1. NEXT FRA EVENTS AND MEETINGS |
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Symposium: Strengthening the fundamental rights architecture in the EU |
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7 May, Vienna: A Symposium on 'Strengthening the fundamental rights architecture in the EU' will take place at FRA premises. The Symposium will invite high profile personalities and representatives from national human rights institutions, equality bodies and data protection authorities to discuss the findings of the Agency's four reports that will be launched on 7 May:
These reports discuss the overarching architecture of fundamental rights in the European Union: equality bodies, data protection authorities, and national human rights institutions. For the Agency, these three sets of monitoring bodies at the national level are highly relevant. A video booth in the interactive Info Point for the VIPs will be installed where participants will be invited to deliver 1 minute statements on fundamental rights, which will trigger discussion on the current deficiencies and challenges with regard to the new findings of the four reports. |
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Europe Day - Open Day at the FRA premises |
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9 May, Vienna: On the occasion of Europe Day, the Agency will open its doors to the general public by celebrating the Europe Day. The day will also see the presentation of a new Info-Point at the Agency's premises. The purpose of the Open Day is to raise awareness among the general public of the European Union's work, in particular the work of the Agency, to raise awareness about fundamental rights issues, and to promote the Agency's reports. The Info Point's key messages will be the following:
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Other main FRA events |
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2. NEXT FRA PUBLICATIONS |
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The following list is not exhaustive. Publication titles are provisional.
On the situation of irregular migrants:
On racism in sport:
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3. LATEST FRA ACTIVITIES AND PUBLICATIONS |
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The 3rd Fundamental Rights Platform Meeting |
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15-16 April, Vienna: The 3rd Meeting of the Fundamental Rights Platform (hereafter FRP) brought together around 150 representatives of civil society organisations from across the European Union (26 EU Member States were represented by civil society organisations). Participants discussed the human rights dimension of poverty and social exclusion, the theme of 2010's European Year, and the Treaty of Lisbon and its implications for the protection of fundamental rights. Participants at the meeting were also invited to put forward initial ideas for the Agency's 2012 Work Programme and elect the new members of the Advisory Panel. Future developments of cooperation between Fundamental Rights Agency and FRP were also discussed. The Fundamental Rights Agency also presented a draft Code of Conduct for the participants of the FRP which will be finalised by the Director in consultation with the Advisory Panel, taking into account FRP suggestions. Morten Kjaerum, FRA Director: "The 3rd Fundamental Rights Platform meeting (FRP) was concluded after a day and a half of intense discussions. We addressed the work of the Fundamental Rights Agency, developments in the area of fundamental rights in Europe, and crucially, on the possibilities to influence processes in making a difference on the ground. Again we can see how important it is to have with the FRP a direct channel towards civil society. It is the FRP participants who help us keep track of new developments and concrete problems on the ground. I believe that this sort of regular and structured interaction is a good practice that is in line with innovations brought about by the Lisbon treaty, namely to give civil society means at its hands to become active at European level. I think the Platform will help the participating NGOs to take up this new possibility." The Report of the 3rd FRP Meeting will be submitted to the Management Board in view of their meeting at the end of May.
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‘Learning Democracy and Human Rights': Human Rights Education at the Council of Europe |
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15-16 April, Strasbourg: Presentation of the Agency's work at the Council of Europe's annual key Human Rights Education event ‘Learning Democracy and Human Rights'. |
| The FRA meets with national Equality Bodies |
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14 April, Vienna: The Agency hosted its annual coordination and cooperation meeting with national equality bodies from the EU Member States and with their network Equinet. The meeting marked the second general meeting with all equality bodies (after a first meeting in May 2009). The aim of the meeting was to discuss issues of common interest and to provide an opportunity for the equality bodies to give substantive inputs into the Agency's work. Discussions centred on how equality bodies and other stakeholders can better respond to the challenge of underreporting by victims of discrimination - a problem evidenced by the Agency's EU-MIDIS survey. Another thematic focus was on the rights of LGBT persons, in particular, how to make equality legislation work for the transgender persons, an area in need of improvement as evidenced by the Agency's report on homophobia and discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity. Finally, the equality bodies made a number of suggestions for priority issues to be tackled in future FRA work programmes, including: hate speech and incitement to hatred in public discourse, labour market exploitation in unobserved sectors, EU-MIDIS type surveys for other vulnerable groups such as women and LGBT persons, indirect discrimination in access to social housing (at local level), and addressing the challenge of poor data availability and comparability in the field of discrimination and victimisation. In addition, there was encouragement for the Agency to add situation testing into its toolbox of research and data collection methodologies. |
| Isreal 4th Seminar on Combating Racism, Xenophobia and Anti-Semitism |
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11-13 April, Jerusalem: The Agency was invited to take part in the Seminar of the European Commission and Israel to present its report on Anti-Semitism in the European Union and joint FRA-Yad Vashem project on the Holocaust and Human Rights Education. Eva Sobotka held a coordination meeting with Yad Vashem to discuss next steps on the Toolkit on the Holocaust and Human Rights Education. |
| ‘Promoting Policies in Favour of the Roma Population': 2nd EU Roma Summit |
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8-9 April, Cordoba: The Agency participated in the II. European Roma Summit with a view of positioning the Agency in the process of building European Roma Strategy, engaged in networking with relevant stakeholders and put forward Agency's research findings on Roma and Travellers. Discussions at the Summit centered on the effective implementation of European Union Roma policies, the involvement of civil society in this implementation and health and social inequalities. The Director of the Agency spoke about the need to involve Roma communities in the planning, implementation and evaluation of policies targeting them. He also underlined the joint responsibility that must be assumed by all relevant actors if the plight of the estimated 10 million Roma in the European Union is to be improved. The following documents are available under: http://www.fra.europa.eu
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| ‘On a Road to Equality': FRA Roundtable with Romani and Traveller women activists |
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6-7 April, Cordoba: In the run up to International Roma Day, the Agency held a roundtable with Romani and Traveller women networks in order to:
The roundtable brought together representatives from the European Commission, the Fundamental Rights Agency and Romani women activist networks. Discussions focused on European Union policies on Roma and Romani and Traveller women, facilitating the application of these policies at local level and anti-gypsyism, hate crime and other forms of intolerance. The feedback from the Roundtable and the Summit will feed into the Agency's Work Programme 2012. Most importantly the Roundtable helped Romani women to achieve visibility of the Romani gender dimension and provided them with an opportunity to develop targeted messages to the Summit organisers. |
| 4. FRA RECRUITMENT AND CALLS FOR TENDER |
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Please note that the deadlines for the vacancies listed below were extended. For more information please see our web site under http://fra.europa.eu/ |
