The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights report (2019) expressed “serious concerns about the increase in intolerance in Italy” based on differences of origin, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion.

The “ITACA – Italian cities against discrimination” aims to fight both direct and indirect discriminations within and outside the administrations of seven municipalities of the Italian Network of the Intercultural Cities (Cities of Dialogue).

ITACA is co-financed by the European Commission through the “Rights, Equality and Citizenship” Programme; it is coordinated by ICEI in partnership with the Municipality of Reggio Emilia, the Municipality of Modena, MondInsieme Foundation, and Ismu Foundation. The project is promoted in collaboration with the UNAR (Ufficio Nazionale Antidiscriminazioni Razziali – Italian Equality Body), ASGI (Association for the juridical studies on immigration), and the Intercultural Cities Programme.

ITACA aims to have a dual impact: 1) improving the skills of the staff of participating municipalities in the field of non-discrimination and engage with civil society – including the private sector - to raise awareness on this topic.

ITACA will also offer a training course to public officials and civil society organisations to support Municipalities in strengthening their policies and practices to prevent and fight discrimination.

At the same time, ITACA will learn from the European context. The Italian municipalities involved, in fact, will be able to learn about experiences promoted by other UE cities and by the Intercultural Cities programme. Indeed, the project provides for participation in events organized by the Council of Europe and a study visit at one of the Cities of the International Network of Intercultural Cities, as well as the organization of a policy sharing event in Brussels at the European Commission’s headquarters.

For further information, please refer to the technical project sheet.