Ángeles Solanes: “To think that all women wear the burqini by imposition is to negate their capacity to decide”
The prohibition of the burqini in several French municipalities has brought to the fore the interaction between the governance of diversity, the fight against racism and the promotion of gender equality. In an interview with Naya Puri from Radio Gandía, professor Ángeles Solanes sustained that the bans had no place in democratic states under the rule of law, since they infringe women’s freedom and the principle of non-discrimination on grounds of religion. In addition, they do not pursue a legitimate aim but the exclusion of cultural differences from the public space. To watch the interview (in Catalan), click here.
International seminar on police, diversity and rights education
An international seminar on Police, diversity and rights education organised by Multihuri and Valencia city council will be held on 28 June at Palau de Cervero (4 Cardenal Cisneros Sq). The conference brings together a range of key researchers and officials working in the field of diversity and equality. Javier de Lucas, professor of Legal and Political Philosophy at the University of Valencia, will open the seminar with a lecture entitled "The struggle for human rights: discrimination and cultural diversity". The following presentations will tackle historical issues, hate crimes and anti-discrimination law, the evolution of police institutions, social education, bureaucratic representativeness and rural areas. Click on the icon to read the full program.
Comparing the accommodation of cultural diversity in Spain and Canada
Ángeles Solanes will close the Course on intercultural mediation and diversity management in the Valencian Community (migracionesyciudadanía.es), currently in its third edition, with a conference on the accommodation of cultural diversity in Spain and Canada on 27 June at 17.00h, in Valencia University's Faculty of Social Sciences. By drawing on the Canadian experience, she will identify legal and policy instruments to integrate diversity while deepening democratic pluralism and protecting the exercise of fundamental rights. Access is free for the general public until seats are filled.
Understanding and combating racism in compulsory education
Among the many institutions involved in the management of intercultural conviviality, primary and secondary schools play a decisive role by virtue of their structuring influence on children’s attitudes and social relations. In a working paper recently published by Oxford University’s Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), Pier-Luc Dupont offers a theoretical synthesis of the relationship between education policies and the reproduction of racism in Western Europe. Based on a wide range of empirical studies, he shows that biased curricula interact with the scarcity of foreign-origin teachers and the ethnic segregation of pupils to catalyse out-group prejudice. He also puts forward a number of concrete measures and opportunities for political mobilisation aimed at reversing these trends.
To read the working paper, click here. For the associated COMPAS blog post, click here.
