1st Human Rights Activism Lecture: Film Screening and Panel Discussion-The Hierarchy of Dissimilarity: Racial Discrimination in Europe, 8 April 2006

1st Human Rights Activism Lecture: Film Screening and Panel Discussion-The Hierarchy of Dissimilarity: Racial Discrimination in Europe, 8 April 2006

The film "White Terror" was screened and a panel discussion was conducted by Bilgi University Human Rights Law Research center and Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts within the 25th International Istanbul Festival Film on 8 April 2006. 

Turgut Tarhanlı (Dean, Istanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Law; Director, Bilgi University Human Rignts Law Research Center); François Sant'Angelo (Member of the European Commission Against Racism and Intolarance (ECRI) of the Council of Europe); Semra Somersan (Istanbul Bilgi University Department of Sociology) and Ayhan Kaya (Director, Istanbul Bilgi University Center for Migration Research) participated in the meeting.

Equality, at first sight, is a consept that we perhaps do not find difficult to define. However, has the right of equality, defined as “all humans are nborn free, and are equal in their rights and honours” as influenced by the thought of Enlightenment, taken a place in politics and our daily lives that we can so easily defend? The opposite end of equality is discrimination. Can we claim that we are equal without questioning the existence of discrimination? How do the policies of multi-culturality, minority and majority in today’s world stand in this discussion? How do we observe the policies of racism and xenophobia that we are constantly spreading in Europe? These questions and problems were discussed in the panel, that took place following a screening of "White Terror", a disturbing documentary directed by Daniel Schweiser, which explores the world of neo-nazis.