In the context of the second part of the 2022 Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), MP George Loukaidis spoke yesterday on behalf of the Political Group of the United Left on the issue of tackling discrimination on the basis of social origin.
Loucaides said that class discrimination and discriminatory approaches on the basis of social origin feed and perpetuate economic and social inequalities and the vicious cycle of poverty. Victims, he stressed, are stigmatised most of the time for life and many of them experience stress in their daily lives. These people, the Cypriot MP stressed, are deprived of rights, goods and services of vital importance, such as access to work, education, health and decent living, and many of them are driven to extreme situations and all kinds of abuses. In particular, with regard to equal access to education, children from different social and economic backgrounds should receive special support in order to equalize their chances of success in the educational process. A cornerstone in this direction is to ensure access to free, equitable and quality education.
Children and adolescents, Mr Loukaidis stressed, must be protected from the unacceptable phenomenon of social stigmatisation and exclusion. Schools, he stressed, must show zero tolerance to such practices, which damage the dignity and self-confidence of young people, and values such as respect for human rights, equality and tolerance of diversity must be cultivated in children's consciousness from an early age, so that they themselves are able to recognise and condemn such unacceptable behaviour.
Loucaides stressed that national parliaments should clarify their legal framework to cover all forms of discrimination and draw up national action plans, including preventive and repressive measures to deal effectively and comprehensively with the phenomenon. At the same time, he stressed the need to establish merit-based methods for the evaluation of candidates, particularly with regard to recruitment and promotion in the workplace.
(NΓ/ΣΧ)
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