The dark cloud of the corona crisis has been upon us for most of 2020. While this is a global pandemic, posing a threat to us all, it does not affect us all equally: the most vulnerable among us are hit more severely. When we zoom in on minorities and migrants, it is striking how they tend to face double jeopardy, because of the systemic discrimination they tend to suffer. Systemic discrimination resulting in a weaker socio-economic position, and poor health conditions, make these groups not only more susceptible to contracting the virus but also disproportionately hit by the ensuing economic crisis.
BIRMM and VUB’s Fundamental Rights Centre invite you – at the occasion of Human Rights Day, to a lunch panel on December 11 that brings together experts from international and national civil society as well as academics to reflect upon "the disproportionate negative impact of COVID-19 on the health and socio-economic participation of minorities and migrants". Representatives of the Belgian Equality Body UNIA, Minority Rights Group International, the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, a rapporteur for EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency and an academic with medical background each will offer their insights on this complex matter. We invite everyone to join the online panel and partake in the discussion.
Prof. Kristin Henrard, (professor of international law who recently joined the Institute for European Studies’ Centre on Migration, Diversity and Justice, and co-director of VUB’s Fundamental Rights Centre), will moderate the debate.
AGENDA
12h30: welcome and introduction by Kerstin Henrard
12h.35: Panel discussion with:
- Catherine Woollard, Director at ECRE
- Rasha Saba, programme officer at Minority Rights Group International
- Tena Šimonović Einwalter, ECRI member in respect of Croatia
- Amy Weatherburn, scientific researcher FNRS-FRS at ULB, and researcher for the Fundamental Rights Agency multidisciplinary research network, FRANET
- Els Keytsman, Director at National Human Rights Institution and Equality Body (UNIA)
- Rita Vanobberghen, Medical doctor and PhD researcher at VUB’s Department of Family Medicine
13h30: Q&A with the audience