On March 17-20, 2024, we were part of the central training at the European Youth Center in Budapest, which was held under the auspices of the Minority Rights Group. Our organization SVET TICHA was represented by the founder of the association, PhDr. Mgr. Tomáš Dunko, Ph.D., together with other organizations from various countries – Lithuania, Romania, Hungary, Poland, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria and Croatia.
The goal of the meeting was to exchange experiences of organizations within the framework of the project plan in the field of combating discrimination. Together with participants from Slovakia and representatives of other countries, we agreed that the issue of discrimination is a topic that deserves due and systematic attention due to its seriousness. It is true that despite the inclusion of provisions declaring the principle of equality and the prohibition of discrimination in many countries, the reality is often different. In society, we often encounter behavior that prevents certain people from fully living their lives according to their own ideas, compared to others. It leads to restrictions on these individuals’ rights in various spheres of life. The aforementioned behavior is mostly conditioned by irrational reasons and very often concerns characteristics or conditions for which the affected individuals themselves are not responsible. It penetrates the most sensitive personal spheres of the individual and often violates his or her human dignity, and therefore it is necessary to look for solutions and ways to eliminate the existence of discrimination as much as possible and as effectively as possible.
The authority of the entire discussion and a great honor and inspiration for us was the prominent human rights activist from Ireland and the chairwoman of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) Anastasia Crickley. She is also the co-founder of the Pavee Point (National Travellers Centre), where she has been working for a long time with the traditional itinerant ethnic group of Irish Roma known as Travellers. During the discussion, she stressed the important role of close cooperation between individual organisations from different countries in these turbulent times, as social dialogue is increasingly under pressure and peace and democracy are under threat in various countries around the world, while pointing out examples of discriminatory attitudes of the majority towards Irish Travellers. Her life experiences are an inexhaustible source of knowledge and inspiration.
We realise that the current time is very confusing. Each of us experiences certain discriminatory factors, we feel alone. We do not know how to cope, we do not know how to proceed in the case of demanding justice. Fortunately, thanks to central training and exchange of views, the solution is right under our noses, we just do not see it, or do not want to see it, or are not comfortable seeing it. As is customary, under the lamp is the greatest darkness. We are under the lamp and the lamp is the foundations of Europe and the basic ideological values. Such a foundation is SOLIDARITY. It is thanks to the cohesion, solidarity, and consonance that prevailed between the individual members of the organizations that we are determined and motivated to work towards the set goal in the field of combating discrimination, racism of individuals on the basis of disability, ethnic and racial stigma, or the fight for civil equality.
