Published:
On 14 August 2020, the Principal Prof. Richard Williams will be signing up to a declaration to tackle racism. The declaration is the first of three pillars of action emerging from the SFC funded Race Project Steering Group.
The Steering Group was established in early 2020 to create a Scottish tertiary sector response to the Equality and Human Rights Commission ‘Universities Challenged’ report into racism in universities.
Prof. Williams said ‘it’s vital that we take part in this joint initiative that names and tackles racism’. The Principal also highlighted that ‘this is the beginning of our work to engage with the outcomes of the Steering Group and to create a Heriot-Watt response to make sure we properly address racism in all its forms’.
The work of the Steering Group focuses on three pillars of action;
The Declaration: A joint, public intention that names, rejects and addresses racism
The Statement of Intent: A framework supporting embedding anti-racism
The Campaign: Tools to further awareness and capacity building for tangible change
Work is underway to develop a programme of activity at Heriot-Watt that engages the University community in a proactive and outcome focused drive to tackling racism. The event on the 14 August 2020 begins at 10am and is the third in a series of four webinars by the Steering supporting critical conversations on race, booking is now open. You can watch earlier webinars again by signing in on the Steering Group’s WebPage, where the details of the fourth webinar will be announced in due course.