Chair of BARAC UK co-signs letter on Covid 19 and Racial Inequality in Higher Education - Black Impact and Make Diversity Count writes to the PM

Chair of BARAC UK Zita Holbourne has  co-signed this letter initiated by Black Impact  regarding Covid 19 and racial inequality in higher education. 

Read original on Black Impact website here 

On the occasion of the United Nations’ International Day for the Elimination of Racism, we have written to Prime Minister Boris Johnson MP, to express our concern about the growing crisis in relation to racial inequalities in higher education and are seeking his urgent support in tackling this important issue.

Read our letter below.

Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP

Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA

19th March 2021

                                          COVID-19 RACIAL INEQUALITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Dear Prime Minister,

We are writing to you today 21st  March 2021, being the United Nations’ International Day for the Elimination of Racism, to express our concern about the growing crisis in relation to racial inequalities in higher education. We are seeking your urgent support in tackling this important issue.

We work with and support local and International Black African and Caribbean students in higher education across the UK. As you are aware, the health of ethnic minorities is disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Additionally, vaccination hesitancy has led to lower vaccination rates within some ethnic minority groups, mainly African and Caribbean communities. Our lived experience of racism partly explains such hesitation and the consequent lack of trust and confidence felt by many in UK African and Caribbean communities, in Government and institutions willingness and commitment to tackle racial inequality.

We believe that the evidence shows that current rates of ethnic disadvantage in education, health and economy have all increased during this pandemic.

The amplification of racial inequality comes as a direct result of the pandemic. It is now doubly important that the Government develops a clear Race Equality Strategy in response. Also, we believe it is essential that within Higher Education, there is a radical reappraisal of the Advanced Higher Education Race Equality Charter (REC) as called for by the Race Equality Now (REN) campaign supported by Universities and launched in 2020.

Black Impact and Make Diversity Count launched the REN campaign and have disseminated a national Black student and staff survey to assess their perceptions of the progress made in implementing the REC.

Race Equality Now has received support from organizations, both within and outside of the higher education sector, including the National Union of Students and Operation Black Vote. The campaign has also received support from Vice-Chancellors and individuals within senior university management.

Prime Minister, we are seeking your public endorsement of the REN campaign and a statement of support. We would like to discuss the REN campaign with Michelle Donelan, Minister of State for Universities, Gavin Williamson, Secretary of State for Education, and seek your support to facilitate this meeting.

Far too many Black African and Caribbean students continue to face the reality of differential treatment, racial harassment and sometimes violence on university campuses across the country. Evidence of this discrimination can be found in numerous reports, including the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s Tackling racial harassment: Universities challenged and Universities UK’s Tackling racial harassment in higher education.

The systemic issues Black students and staff are experiencing during this pandemic include:

• declining mental health; lack of culturally competent services; 8% of students who experienced racial harassment said they had felt suicidal
• digital and economic poverty; lack of access to educational resources and spaces to complete assignments
• Black attainment gap of 26%; there has been little specialist measures or support put in place to ensure the attainment gap does not widen during this pandemic
• reduced graduate employment rate, e.g. BME graduates with a first degree are more than twice as likely to be unemployed as white graduates[1]
• day to day discrimination at their universities; Nearly 1 in 3 members of staff had experienced racist name-calling, insults and ‘jokes’[2]
• a low disproportion of Black people in leadership positions, e.g. there are only 155 Black professors out of 22,810 professors in the UK[3]
• inaccessible ways to report incidents of racism and investigations not taking place; Two-thirds of students who had experienced racial harassment did not report it to their university.  [4]
• International students are facing incredible financial pressures and a high degree of social isolation.

We would like to discuss all of these critical issues with you and your ministers. We would appreciate it if you could consider providing us with a supporting statement for the REN campaign to help us advance the cause of quality, fairness, and opportunity for all within higher education.

Yours sincerely,

Ceewhy Ochoga, Founder, Black Impact
Osaro Otobo, Founder, Make Diversity Count
Hillary Gyebi-Ababio, VP Higher Education – National Union of Students
Patricia Lamour MBE, CEO Aspire Education Group
Zita Holbourne,  National Chair BARAC UK

Zoom Forum on the Windrush Scandal, Two Years On, Thursday 7th of May, 6.30 to 8pm

Join BAME Lawyers 4 Justice on Thursday 7th of May 6.30pm to 8.00pm  to discuss the ongoing impacts of the Windrush Scandal amidst the Coronavirus Crisis and  how we respond to that. This event is the first of a series of online forums we will host. On the day click on either of the links below to join the online event.  

Speakers include National Chair of BARAC UK, Zita Holbourne 

Here is the YouTube link https://youtu.be/QinhIr5H2Ig

                                     Here is the Facebook link https://bit.ly/2WiwcSu

Coronavirus and its impact on Black communities

This article written by Chair of BARAC UK Zita Holbourne was a guest post written originally for RS21 and published here:

Coronavirus and its impact on Black communities

By

 Zita Holbourne

 -

30 April 2020

In the rising coronavirus death toll, black and brown people in the UK are represented in disproportionate numbers, due to not only discrimination and poverty, but because they make up a sizeable amount of the frontline workforce working without adequate PPE, argues Zita Holbourne.

Black and minority ethnic workers and communities are disproportionately adversely impacted by coronavirus in multiple ways with the most devastating, sudden and harshest impact being the high and disproportionate number of people dying from the virus, especially those who are key workers, with a particular impact on those who work in the health sector and in transport. 

These are the workers on the frontline, delivering essential public services including caring for and treating those with coronavirus who have disgracefully been failed by the government who have not protected them and failed to provide personal protective equipment, effectively being sent to die with no care for their lives. 

Black communities have historically and right up to the present day faced race discrimination at work and in the labour market, meaning they are in frontline jobs, often working precariously, bearing the brunt of ten years of austerity and cuts to the public and voluntary sectors, pay freezes, zero-hours contracts and discrimination in promotion and progression. They are the same people who experienced the horrendous Windrush scandal – some of whom are still experiencing destitution and homelessness and with the majority impacted still not receiving compensation, they are from migrant communities who have been demonized, labelled and scapegoated through a decade of austerity and who have and continue to face not just discrimination and racist abuse at work but in wider society. Black and migrant communities have for decades been crucial in keeping public and voluntary sector services running. 

Other impacts are the increase in racist attacks and abuse. Chinese people and communities and those perceived by racists to be Chinese who are not, have been subjected to horrific abuse, including hate mail sent to Chinese restaurants and takeaways and physical attacks leading to people having to be hospitalised. 

There have been reports of key workers, even while they keep essential services running and are caring for those who are ill, facing abuse and told they want a white nurse or carer. 

I think that any moves by the government to end lockdown before it is safe to do so will impact adversely on even more black workers and must be resisted. 

There is now an inquiry underway to look into the reasons for BAME people dying disproportionately but there is little faith amongst black communities in the person originally appointed to lead this inquiry and an array of formal letters issued by BAME and health representatives calling for this to be changed including one by 100 black women and one representing thousands of BAME people. There has been speculation that the reasons for black and other minority ethnic people dying disproportionately is due to underlying health conditions that impact on our communities and whilst this may be a factor the key reasons are linked to racism and poverty, where we live, how we are treated in the workplace and the labour market and now the complete disregard for our lives in failing to provide protection and safety.

I know of one family where two members of the same family, key workers in different sectors died a day apart from each other. The trauma and pain for families who have lost more than one loved one, will have lasting impacts – mentally, physically, spiritually and economically and whilst the government have announced a payment to families who have lost loved ones, this cannot bring back lives – the priority should be on keeping everybody safe and reducing all the risks of getting coronavirus – lives cannot be replaced by cash.

We have had so many inquiries and reports into race discrimination in the UK and what we don’t need is another inquiry for the sake of an inquiry without action to address the causes and reasons – but this is an urgent situation that cannot wait for the outcome of an inquiry – an inquiry cannot be an excuse to do nothing in the meantime. The government should be carrying out equality impact assessments on all key work and carrying out ethnicity monitoring on those doing key work, those who get the virus and those who die from the virus by sector and work area. Official figures broken down by ethnicity is not there for all areas, but we sadly see it for ourselves as the photos alongside heart-breaking tributes to those who have died are published by the media and shared on our social media.

Whilst responding to the coronavirus pandemic is clearly a priority, we must not forget about the other injustices faced by black and migrant communities here in the UK and globally.

For the past 7 years, I have organised regular aid and solidarity missions to people who are refugees in Northern France in addition to being part of a European Trade Union group who have monitored and responded to the impacts on refugees and migrants coming to Europe, visiting refugee centres in Melilla and Palermo. Due to the coronavirus, for the safety of people who are refugees and volunteers and closed borders, some of the charities on the ground we work with have had to stop the support work they do as have we and this has left already vulnerable traumatised, predominantly young people at risk and without basic sanitation, food and water, let alone shelter, people who are displaced due to climate change, conflict, poverty and persecution and who have in recent years been labelled and demonised as coming to steal jobs and strip resources. Yet it is a large proportion of migrant and black workers who the UK are depending upon right now to keep essential services running. The government have already indicated that when we are through the coronavirus crisis, they will continue with their hostile environment policies. 

This will coincide with an economic crisis which will also have disproportionate adverse equality impacts as the last decade long one did but with potential impacts we have never experienced before with whole sectors that black and migrant workers are concentrated in impacted in a major way by the coronavirus crisis and the necessary lockdown that has come with it.

However, whilst the response by the government in ensuring safety and reducing the spread of the virus is essential, I do not agree that there is no individual responsibility required. This week we have seen people travelling to hold protests outside the workplaces of key workers. Whilst some may have walked to these demos, others may have taken public transport, putting predominantly BAME public sector workers at risk at a time when those workers have expressed over recent weeks their fears about going to work. I know from family and friends who are key workers that they worry about using shared facilities such as toilets, cannot access food or drink during the working day and have to put their own measures in place to protect themselves and have to do all they can do be socially distanced from their colleagues. Meanwhile, there are people outside their workplaces, not practising social distancing, not considering the safety of workers who have no choice but to be there, blocking pathways and posing for photos with smiles on their faces. Yes, we should protest and campaign for their rights but we need to do this in different ways to what we may be used to and with respect for the safety of everyone else, as well as in coordination with the workers in these workplaces.

In the midst of the coronavirus crisis the Windrush Lessons Learned report was published with a range of recommendations and the two year anniversary of the Windrush scandal came whilst more than one thousand applicants to the Windrush Compensation scheme, some waiting for over one year, have not even had their cases considered by the government. 

Black nurses, transport workers and other public sector workers who came to the UK as part of the Windrush generation faced the most horrific racism yet dedicated their lives to helping others and to public service and now face destitution, injustice and poverty because of the way they were discriminated against due to racist immigration policies and laws and it is black and migrant workers who are keeping essential services running now – some of them the children and grandchildren of the Windrush generation who have also experienced the impacts of the hostile environment in their lives. We must hold the government to account for failing them yet again.

Black Lives Matter.

Zita Holbourne is the Chair of BARAC UK, a founding member of BAME Lawyers for Justice, a trade unionist, human rights campaigner, author, visual artist and poet.

Zita Holbourne. Photo copyright Elizabeth Dalziel photographer, courtesy of Women Activists of East London exhibition.

People's Assembly National Rally co-hosted by BARAC UK and others , Thursday 7th May 6.30 to 8pm

BARAC UK is a co-host of this event on Thursday  6.30 to 8pm
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/234254484316736/

Covid-19 and vaccines: Concrete actions needed for global pledges to result in access for all

BARAC UK have signed this statement on equal access to vaccines for Covid-19

Concrete actions needed for global pledges to result in access for all

4th May 2020

We welcome the efforts of the global health actors and other stakeholders to rally financial support to the research and development (R&D), manufacturing and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics through the May 4th global pledging conference.

We are also pleased that the EU joined WHO and global health organisations’ call for action to accelerate the development, availability, and equitable access to safe, quality, effective and affordable diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines against coronavirus.

As organisations and individuals in the health sector defending  the public interest, we would like to underline the vital importance of the commitments in the call for action. We would also like to share recommendations to increase the accountability and public ownership of this pledging initiative and subsequent activities.

A global pandemic needs an accountable global coordination mechanism

Pandemics have no borders and only a coordinated global response can mitigate the consequences of the current crisis.

Without global coordination and agreement, including on the areas of investments and practices for R&D, useful and needed resources and time will be wasted. It is also important that all initiatives supported with public funding in the context of COVID-19 have a global mandate.

We invite the EU and all the other donors and  partners to the pledging conference to set up a transparent and inclusive governance structure to decide on priorities, monitor progress, evaluate and report on the results of the pledges and further investments. A robust accountability mechanism should also be put in place to ensure that commitments are translated into actions. The meaningful involvement of civil society organisations should be ensured in all governance structures.

An ambitious goal requires a detailed plan and strong access and affordability clauses

As world leaders expressed their support for the WHO ACT accelerator and heightened expectations of global equitable access, many barriers remain to be addressed: safe and effective tools need to be developed and tested; manufacturing need to be transformed to meet global demand; supply and distribution need to be organized accordingly; and pricing arrangements need to be negotiated to ensure the tools are indeed affordable to all. Pre-COVID-19 experience has shown that each of these barriers can hinder access to life saving medical tools and It is essential to address them early on.

The pledging conference can provide the financial means to overcome some barriers. A plan detailing how each of these barriers will be addressed is needed. This plan should comprise a shared definition of what global equitable access, affordability and availability mean and detailed conditions under which partners are expected to contribute to fulfilling these ambitions in return for funding. As the pledging conference aims to raise funding from across the world to address the needs of all, this information should be publicly available.

Funding pledged to support COVID-19 R&D should include coherent legally binding arrangements with private and public partners to ensure that health technologies are priced fairly and affordably to healthcare payers and are free to the public at the point of care in all countries.

To complement those efforts, any COVID-19 treatment, diagnostic and vaccine developed with public funding through the 4th May pledges and afterwards should be conditional on mandatory inclusion to a global technology pool. A proposal for the creation of a voluntary pool has been submitted to the WHO by the government of Costa Rica. This proposal should be further developed, expanded and implemented in an effort to “pool rights to technologies that are useful for the detection, prevention, control and treatment of the COVID-19 pandemic”.

We hope our suggestions will be taken onboard and we are at your disposal for further exchanges on those issues.

This statement was coordinated by the European Alliance for Responsible R&D and Affordable Medicines.

Download the full statement

Contact – Viviana Galli – viviana@medicinesalliance.eu

Supporting organisations

1. AAJM – Association for Fair Access to Medicine, Spain
2. Access to Medicines Ireland
3. AJF – Africa Japan Forum
4. ARAS – Romanian Association Against AIDS
5. Association “Novi put”, Bosnia and Herzegovina
6. Association des Femmes de l’Europe Méridionale – AFEM
7. Aurora Universities Network, The Netherlands
8. Austrian Institute for Health Technology Assessment (AIHTA), Austria
9. BEUC – The European Consumer Organisation
10. Black Activists Rising Against Cuts – BARAC, UK
11. Chronic Illness Advocacy & Awareness Group, USA/Global
12. Commons Network, The Netherlands
13. Corporate Europe Observatory – CEO
14. Ecologistas en Acción, Spain
15. EKPIZO, Greece
16. European Alliance for Responsible R&D and Affordable Medicines
17. European Public Health Alliance – EPHA
18. European Public Services Union – EPSU
19. Fondation Eboko, France
20. Fondation Joseph The Worker/Structure Lazarienne, Bénin
21. Foundation for Integrative AIDS Research – FIAR, USA
22. France Assos Santé, France
23. Fundación IFARMA, Colombia
24. Fundación Mexicana para la Planeación Familiar, Mexico
25. Global Health Advocates
26. Global Justice Now, UK
27. Health Global Access Project
28. Health Poverty Action
29. Heart to Heart Foundation, Thailand
30. Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine and Sciences, India
31. Instituto para el Desarrollo Humano, Bolivia
32. IT for Change, India
33. ITPC-LATCA
34. KEI Europe
35. La Ligue contre le Cancer, France
36. Mecanismo social de de control y apoyo en VIH – MSCAV, Colombia
37. Médecins du Monde France
38. Medicines, Information and Power, Colombia
39. MSF Access Campaign
40. OCU – Organización de Consumidores y Usuarios, Spain
41. People’s Health Movement, Kenya
42. Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation, the Netherlands
43. Prescrire, France
44. Public Eye, Switzerland
45. Society of Development and Care – SODECA
46. SOMO Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations
47. STOPAIDS, UK
48. Students for Global Health (SfGH-UK), UK
49. Sukaar welfare organization, Pakistan
50. T1 International
51. Test Aankoop/Test Achats, Belgium
52. Transnational Institute, The Netherlands
53. Transparency International Health Initiative
54. Treatment Action Group, USA
55. Tunisian association of Positive Prevention – ATP+
56. UFC-Que Choisir, France
57. Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, UAEM
58. Wemos Foundation, The Netherlands
59. Yolse, Santé Publique et Innovation, Switzerland

Supporting individuals

Ellen ‘t Hoen, LLM, PhD, Medicines Law & Policy and Global Health Unit, University Medical Centre Groningen, The Netherlands

Brook K. Baker, Professor, Northeastern U. School of Law, Boston, USA

Dr. Claudia Marcela Vargas, Fundación IFARMA, Colombia

Graham Dutfield, Professor of International Governance, University of Leeds, UK

Oswaldo Adolfo Rada – Senderos A.M., Colombia

Dr J Kay Richmond FFPH, FRCGP, Cardiff, UK

Professor Yousuf Vawda, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa