Greetings to all our UNITED friends!
Hope you are all bundled up for the winter!
We are nearing the very end of a strange and difficult year. We faced the most unprecedented crisis of our times, and we watched it hit our friends in unequal measures.
The pandemic was particularly impactful on those facing multiple discrimination; minority women especially were hit harder. As the main holders of jobs in the informal sector, they were more at risk of being left without health coverage or paid leave. Ethnic minorities, who already live in overcrowded housing, were less likely to be able to self-isolate and keep from the virus. Children who did not have adequate access to the internet, or came from abusive homes, have suffered not only the loss of learning but also increased vulnerability and lack of shelter.
If there’s one thing that this year has highlighted, it’s that the world needs to pay more attention to minorities.
2021 will, unfortunately, be no different. We can still expect the already vulnerable to be hit harder; we can still expect discrimination in healthcare; we can still expect that the already-present structural inequalities that divide us will mean that many are left out of medical treatments.
What does this mean for us? It means we have to continue to work hard, to continue bringing the right people together so we can build an anti-racist world.
Despite the difficulties of 2020, we still managed to:
- Bring together people from around Europe, (virtually of course), to plan actions around youth, women, refugees and minorities, NGOs, and intersectionality
- Released an updated list of refugee casualties, which documents every single life lost due to the policies of “Fortress Europe”; a list that has served many activist and advocacy opportunities
- Co-hosted the Europe regional forum on hate speech and minorities, the recommendations of which informed the Special Rapporteur’s report for the upcoming UN Human Rights Council
- United activists from western, central and eastern Europe to talk about dismantling authoritarian, military, trade, and financial regimes that support the continuation of racist neo-colonial oppression.
In 2021, we plan to do so much more.
For now, we take a short break, recharge our batteries, and get some rest after a long and difficult year. We hope that you will be able to as well.
For all our friends who had it particularly rough this year, we want you to know that we see you, we hear you, and we stand UNITED with you.
