Belfast not a race hate capital: “Rights expert”
Belfast is not the race hate capital of Europe, a leading international human rights expert said today.
Despite a number of high profile attacks on the Chinese, Indian, and Eastern European communities in Belfast, Chris Sidoti, who is chairing the North’s Bill of Rights Forum, disputed claims that it was any more racist than other European cities.
“I have heard stories but I would be very loth to call anywhere a race hate capital,” he said.
“This is an unfortunate characteristic of a large number of societies that everybody is grappling with.
“Certainly it is a standard experience that when the ethnic composition of communities change and particularly change rapidly you do get inter-ethnic tensions. You do get expressions of racism.
“There is no point in denying or refusing to use the word racism because that is precisely what it is.
“I would be surprised if Belfast was the racist capital of Europe. I think there are places in Europe where there are far more nasty and far more prolific expressions of racism than what we find here.“But there are people here who have told me they have found experiences of racism. As understandable as that may be, it is totally unacceptable.
“Again a Bill of Rights can make a difference in making a society develop positively with all of its diversity because it is able to ensure protection of the identities and cultures and humanity of all of its elements.”
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