A Racism Conference took place in East Tyrone College on Wednesday 30 April, with guest speakers including politicians from Northern Ireland Assembly.

This was part of Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council's duty as local Government in tackling racism and as part of its Anti-racism and Racial Equality Action Plan, to engage specialist perspectives and Northern Ireland politicians on the issues of racism and what should be done to tackle it.

The conference aimed to provide keynote independent perspectives on contemporary racism and engagement with Northern Ireland's main political parties as to strategic direction in addressing racism. Through afternoon workshops further discussion was facilitated on the topics of: models for the public sector, racism in the workplace, racism faced by Travellers and on the role of the Assembly.

The keynote panel consisted of Arun Kundnani of the London- based Institute of Race Relations and two home-grown County Tyrone specialists, the Independent researcher Dr Robbie McVeigh and Bernadette McAliskey of the community based NGO S.T.E.P.

A panel of MLA from each political party was given the opportunity to answer questions from representatives for all sectors including local government, community and voluntary sector NGO's, statutory agencies, Trade Unions, government department and researchers.

Source: Tyrone Courier
Date: 7 May 2008