House of Commons, Room 10, Palace of Westminster, London SW1A 0AA
Speakers include:
Kate Green MP – Co-Chair of APPG Gypsies Travellers and Roma
Martin Gallagher – Irish Traveller activist and academic
Rosanna Rafel-Rix – Community Security Trust
René Cassin and the Traveller Movement invite you the Houses of Parliament for the launch of our new campaign: ‘#CutItOut’ – part of National Hate Crime Awareness Week.
Gypsies, Roma and Travellers share a history of persecution
with Jewish people. Targeted by the Nazis during the Holocaust, faced with open
prejudice and official indifference, and now subjected to a rise in hate speech
and online abuse.
Hate speech legitimises prejudice. Prejudice fuels
hostility. Hostility can lead to violence. All too often that sequence begins
with casual bigotry from the powerful – politicians and the media – at the
expense of the powerless.
The Traveller Movement and René Cassin are launching this
campaign to raise awareness of the harmful consequences of hateful rhetoric
against minorities.
The launch is free and all are welcome – please reserve your place(s) via Eventbrite
We hope to see you there
Today, 10th December, is International Human Rights Day – the 76th anniversary of the signing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
The Declaration was a reaction to the horrors of the Holocaust. So, for Jews, today has a particuar significance.
Although rooted in response to atrocity, the Declaration was forward-looking and optimistic. It spoke for the majority of people who knew a better world was possible. The fact that it’s co-author , the French-Jewish lawyer Monsieur Rene Cassin, could draft such a hopeful document so soon after 26 members of his family were murdered by the Nazis is a testament to his humanity and the power of human rights in general.
Today, as the organisation that works in Cassin’s name, we are determined to ensure his Declaration’s vision of human rights for all is fully realised. Central to that work is a focus on so called ‘socio-economic rights’ – rights to everyday essentials like food, housing and health. This vision was best articulated in Article 25 of the Declaration:
‘Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control’.
Bolstering these rights would ensure everybody has access to the foundations on which to build a dignified, prosperous and meaningful life. They have been neglected for too long.
We are constantly developing our campaigns, planning events, and cultivating discussions on Human Rights issues, sign up for our email updates and we’ll keep you informed on all we are working on and how YOU can get involved.
