PRESS RELEASE

NEVER AGAIN’ presents anti-racism monitoring project in Polish Parliament

On 18 August 2011, at the invitation of the Polish Parliament’s National
and Ethnic Minorities Committee, the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association presented
its activities against racism and xenophobia in football stadiums in the
lead up to EURO 2012.

Polish football is often quite multi-cultural, which is emblematic of
broader demographic changes across Europe, but the situation in many
stadiums still gives reasons for concern’ – said Dr Rafal Pankowski, the
coordinator of the East Europe Monitoring Centre set up by ‘NEVER AGAIN’
in cooperation with the FARE Network and UEFA.

The MPs discussed results of hate crime, antisemitism and racism
monitoring conducted by the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association and its Ukrainian
partner Football Against Prejudices. It covers an 18 month period from
September 2009 to March 2011, detailing 195 individual incidents
involving football in Poland and Ukraine.

The representatives of ‘NEVER AGAIN’ emphasize the European Championship
provides a chance for positive changes. – ‘We are implementing a social
responsibility project for UEFA EURO 2012 titled RESPECT Diversity -
Football Unites. Educational activities are an important part of the
project’ – explains Rafal Pankowski.

In the recent period, the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association has been involved in
numerous consultations, trainings and good practice exchanges in the run
up to EURO 2012.

For instance, on 18 July 2011, Jacek Purski - a ‘NEVER AGAIN’
representative - chaired a special session at the international experts
conference on ‘Ensuring Equal Chances Through Sport Participation’
organized by the Ministry of Sports and Tourism in frames of the Polish
Presidency of the European Union at the City Hall in Wroclaw, a EURO
2012 host city.

On 23 June 2011, Pavel Klymenko, as a representative of ‘NEVER AGAIN’
and the FARE partner organization Football Against Prejudices (Ukraine),
presented the findings of the East Europe Monitoring Centre at a session
of the Council of Europe’s Standing Committee of the European Convention
on Spectator Violence held in Rome.

On 22 June 2011, Rafal Pankowski took part in a training on hate symbols
conducted by the FARE partner East European Development Institute in
Donetsk (Ukraine), another EURO 2012 host city.

On 14-15 June 2011, the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association hosted the FARE
Network Expert Seminar on ‘Monitoring and Counteracting Racism in
Football and Beyond’ which took place at the Polish Parliament and the
Foreign Ministry in Warsaw.

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association is an anti-racist educational and
monitoring organization established in Poland in 1996. It implements the
FARE Network ‘Respect Diversity. Football Unites’ Project supported by
UEFA in the lead up to the 2012 European Championship in Poland and
Ukraine.