The group – which has until now been inactive since 2005 – expressed its commitment to drawing attention to race inequalities in the UK and highlighted right-wing extremism, islamophobia, education and implementation of the Equality Act as possible areas of focus over the coming year.

Runnymede – the UK’s leading race equality think tank – will act as the secretariat of the group and has been working to re-establish the group since the start of the year.

Commenting, the group’s chair Diane Abbott said:

“I’m delighted that the All Party Parliamentary Group on Race and Community has been successfully reestablished. Too often the topic of race falls to the bottom of the political agenda, so going forward as a group we will work together to draw attention to race equality issues in the UK”.

Members of the APPG on Race and Community are as follows:
Group Officers
· Chair: Diane Abbott MP (Labour)
· Vice Chair: Lord Lester (Liberal Democrat)
· Vice Chair: Lord Sheikh (Conservative)
· Vice Chair: David Lammy MP (Labour)
· Vice Chair: Lord Adebowale (Cross-bench)
Group Members
· Lord Avebury (Liberal Democrat)
· Gavin Barwell MP (Conservative)
· Luciana Berger MP(Labour)
· Peter Bottomley MP (Conservative)
· Baroness Coussins (Cross-bench)
· Lord Dholakia (Liberal Democrat)
· Lord Dubs (Labour)
· Jim Fitzpatrick MP (Labour)
· Richard Fuller MP (Conservative)
· Kate Green MP (Labour)
· Meg Hiller MP (Labour)
· Baroness Howells of St Davids (Labour)
· Simon Hughes MP (Liberal Democrat)
· Lord Hunt of Wirral (Conservative)
· Lord Ouseley (Cross-bench)
· Lord Parekh (Labour)
· Baroness Prashar (Cross-bench)
· Jonathan Reynolds MP (Labour)
· Gary Streeter MP (Conservative)
· Paul Uppal MP (Conservative)
· Keith Vaz MP (Labour)

During the past two years the Black European Women’s Council (BEWC) has held two strategic meetings; one in Holland and the second in Austria, toward its goal of establishing itself in the heart of the EU quarter in Brussels.

The BEWC also organized a conference in Brussels which was attended by EU politicians, leaders of organizations for women in the US and across Europe as well as diversity executives from corporate America and Europe.

This movement started at the historic 1st Black European Women’s Congress in Vienna in 2007.

Under the High patronage of the First Lady of the Republic of Zambia, Mrs. Thandiwe Banda

The International Congress of Black Women is the First International Congress intended to promote and develop black women entrepreneurship worldwide. Our mission is to collect black talented women who participate actively in the emergence of a new Africa. What constitutes progress? Where are we headed? At a time of major world changes, what forms of progress do black women most need and want? What are our hopes for our future? How to build a real community of black business women worldwide?

Get the following information:

Why attend?
The Program
Logistics and additional activities

Beatrice Acheleke, founder and leader of the Black European Women’s Council was honored at the 2009 World Diversity Leadership Summit this month in Washington, DC. Ms. Acheleke is a mother, executive director of AFRA, a non-profit, non governmental self-organisation and NGO of Black Women with headquarters in Vienna, Austria, and an inspiration to Black women everywhere.

Previous honorees include Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic and leader of the Czech Velvet Revolution against Communist Rule.

The World Diversity Leadership Summit conference is the world’s leading gathering of senior corporate executives, leading experts and policymakers focused on global and local diversity best practices. Conference partners included some of the largest and most respected companies and media outlets n the world.

The Black Women in Europe Blog and Social Network, and Women of the African Diaspora website and social network is proud to know Beatrice and have her as a member of our community! We salute you and congratulate you!