Education and training are best tools to defeat discrimination – Helena Dalli

Speaking during the launching of Enhancing Equal Rights - an EU co-funded project on equal rights -Social Dialogue and Civil Liberties minister Helena Dalli said that it is of concern that most cases of discrimination go unreported.

Quoting local and European research on different forms of discrimination in Malta and in Europe, Dalli said that the majority of cases happen at the workplace with people from different ethnic origin, gays and transgender people being the main victims.

"Society should combat discrimination through more education and training," she said.

Dalli pointed out her recent visit to The Hague, where she took part in a ministerial meeting during which a number of EU ministers signed a joint call to the European Commission to adopt a comprehensive policy approach at European level to fight discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

During her trip to The Netherlands, Dalli visited a secondary school where Dutch students and their educators give attention to and celebrate diversity at school and in life in general.

Dalli said that secondary school students in The Netherlands are "inspired to discuss and talk about diversity and the respect for human rights."

The Enhancing Equal Rights project will address discrimination through training - internal training for NCPE employees on all grounds within the Commission's remit - and training to public and private sector employees on Diversity Management.

The NCPE is now responsible for sexual orientation, gender identity, religion and belief, age as well as race and ethnic origin, besides sex and family responsibilities in employment, financial services and educational and vocational training.

The NCPE's Executive Director Romina Bartolo explained that to facilitate and accelerate the implementation phase of the Commission's wider responsibilities, it was necessary to strengthen internal knowledge capacity through this new project.

"It is necessary to empower stakeholders through training," Bartolo said.

NCPE's Manager, Therese Spiteri said that Enhancing Equal Rights project will target the general public, enterprises, trade unions and NGOs, national and local authorities, teachers, young people and children.

Training will be carried out also on diversity management with employers. A pilot study will also be carried out on equality and non- discrimination developing training modules for primary and secondary school children.

Once again an anti-racism theme day will be carried out marking this as a yearly event to raise awareness. Furthermore, a non-discrimination campaign will be launched later on this year, which will be aimed to further empower and provide a space to citizens to have their say.

The project will span over a year.