NWC team participated in several events for the International Day Against Racial Discrimination

This week has been very intense because of the International Day Against Racial Discrimination, which motivated the celebration of different events in Brussels. The New Women Connectors team has been present in activities and meetings among which the Anti-Racism Week organised by the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) in the European Parliament.

The association organised different debates that aimed to convene a European discussion on the current state of play of racial discrimination, its different manifestations and the existing policy tools to counter it. In order to be part of it, they invited NWC to talk about our expertise and experience in the field.

Another major event was the European Humanitarian Forum #EHF2023, which had the goal to strengthen cooperation and partnership among countries affected by crises.

Although the statement by the European Commission during the closing session was to “stop seeing refugees as statistics anymore” but as “individuals with dreams, with hopes, with needs”, we found a lack of true representation. We witnessed the absence of local actors that weren’t taken into account, as well as an overrepresentation of the same participants.

These days we were also part of the training within the WeEmpower European Project, led by WIDE+. We had the opportunity to network with other migrant and refugee leaders, and the managing director of NWC, Anila Noor, was part of the panel discussion "The Political and Democratic Participation of Migrant Women in the EU".

We also had the chance to connect with partners such as Red latinas, Asociación por la Solidaridad and EUROCITIES, and we were in the European Parliament to present our demands in a face-to-face meeting with the MEP Ramona Strugariu.