Racism is fundamentally incompatible with human rights — Our statement

The International Center for Civil Initiatives «Our House» consistently stands against racism, xenophobia, and national and gender discrimination in all their forms.

We are an organization of activists who have been forced into exile for political reasons. That is why we understand all too well how destructive prejudice, hate speech, collective stigmatization, and discrimination can be.

Racism is fundamentally incompatible with human rights, human dignity, equality, and solidarity. We consider it unacceptable to divide people into «desirable» and «undesirable», «better» and «worse», «right» and «wrong» on the basis of skin color, origin, nationality, ethnicity, gender or language.

Human rights are the common heritage of all humanity, not of particular privileged groups.

Today, we see that the wave of anti-migrant politics has reached Lithuania as well. Unscrupulous politicians are diverting citizens’ attention from social problems and corruption by fueling xenophobia and encouraging people to look for those «to blame» for all their problems among the most vulnerable groups. We reject and condemn such rhetoric.

For this reason, the International Center for Civil Initiatives «Our House» is joining the anti-racist march organized by the Lithuanian organizations Gegužės 1-osios profesinė sąjunga — G1PS, Solidarumo Grandis, Vilne Bund, Demonstruokimės, Vilniaus anarchistų sąjunga и Rhythms of Resistance Vilnius (RoR) and which will take place on Saturday, 22 August, in Vilnius (Europos aikštė, Konstitucijos pr. 3). Our activists will take part in the action in solidarity with all people who face racism and xenophobia.

We support the demands of the march participants aimed at improving the situation of migrants and refugees in Lithuania:

make the naturalization procedure clearer and more transparent;
increase funding for integration programs and ensure proper oversight of their quality;
improve legislation on hate speech and hold politicians and public figures accountable for spreading disinformation about migrants;
ensure decent housing conditions for refugees;
provide migrants and refugees with genuine opportunities to reunite with their families in Lithuania;
abolish excessively high Lithuanian-language proficiency requirements for professions that do not involve direct work with clients.

The International Center for Civil Initiatives «Our House» stands against racism. Racism, xenophobia, and the politics of hatred must have no place in Belarus, Lithuania, or anywhere else.