RED Annual Report 2011
In times of unprecedented social, political and economic crisis of the last 70 years, acute racist hate crimes and attitudes in Europe constitute major threats to social cohesion and equality. The developments regarding the diffusion of stereotypes, hate speech and political discourse of generalisations risk to inflame an already explosive landscape of intolerance, xenophobia and discrimination.
The acute economic crisis and the collapse of the European social model threaten to render stereotypes, demonisation, hate and intolerance against minorities widespread and commonly accepted by a wide range of social subjects and in the public sphere. Such phenomena seriously endanger the social cohesion and democratic living together of imploding local and national societies under the weight of an unravelling and devastating economic crisis and fear. In this landscape, the RED Network has developed and publishes today the RED Early Warning System and The Atlas of Racism, Equality and Discrimination, a unique monitoring on line tool that is powerful, empowering and independent. It is highly interactive, visual and customizable to the needs of the user.
This effort started in 2010 and was co-funded by the EU in 2011. It is a design initiated by the Greek Institute for Rights Equality & Diversity (i-RED) and co-developed by 17 research partners in 17 member states of the RED Network. The work of 50+ experts in these EU countries stands behind the on line RED portal and its significant amount of information and content. Despite this being a collective effort, at this first implementation of the RED System, at the end of the day each one of the national partners – specialist research institutions in each country - is responsible for the information input regarding their own national context.
We believe in the power and the potential of RED Early Warning System and the Atlas of Racism, Equality & Discrimination and we hope that it will help improve monitoring and reporting on racism and discrimination in EU countries, while providing the tools for raising awareness and knowledge on the real and effective situation on these phenomena in our continent.
