Combating discrimination: Community action programme 2001-2006

PURPOSE : to establish a Community Action Programme to combat discrimination (2001-2006). CONTENT : The programme promotes measures to combat discrimination on the grounds of race or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation. This programme does not cover gender. There are three principle objectives: - to improve the understanding of issues relating to discrimination through better knowledge and through evaluation of policies and practices - to build the capacity of actors in the Member States and at European level who are actively fighting discrimination - to disseminate to practitioners and opinion formers the values and practices underlying the fight against discrimination The programme divides Community Actions into three strands: - analysis and evaluation of factors through the collection of statistics, studies and the development of indicators and benchmarks, with effective dissemination of the results - capacity building trans-national co-operation between target actors and the promotion of networking at European level between Non-governmental organisations active in the field - awareness raising, particularly to emphasise the European dimension of the fight and to publicise results through campaigns, events and publications A Committee is set up to assist the Commission. The document lists the other countries that may participate in the programme, and makes provisions for monitoring and implementation.�