On 1st June, Suman Fernando and ROTA presented an Institutional Racism and the Mental Health Act Review conference, hosted at University of East London. The event showcased ways of counteracting institutional racism in mental health services by promoting culture-change in professional practice and safeguarding human rights of people who use mental health services or are caught up…
With very little publicity and dwarfed by Brexit Theresa May has committed herself to a major reform of the Mental Health Act. Last year she convened a meeting at Downing Street and appointed a former president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Sir Simon Wessely. to conduct a review. This month it published an interim…
Symbols are important. For some people, seeing Meghan Markle marry into the monarchy, while a Black preacher expounded the word and a Black Choir sang at the ceremony, was viewed as ushering in a new area of racialised harmony and black cultural acceptance at all levels of British society. If blackness is acceptable to the…
Since the disastrous fire at Grenfell Tower in June 2017, serious questions have been raised about whether social housing residents are adequately involved in decisions which affect their homes. The London Assembly Housing Committee is investigating how social housing residents are involved in the management of their homes across London. Our Senior Policy Officer, Poornima Karunacadacharan,…
Read the latest June edition of our Policy E-Newsletter now available HERE. This is our quarterly newsletter full of information about our work and what is happening around the sector in relation to race equality. If you have something you would like to include and publicise in our next issue, scheduled for September 2018, please contact the…
More than a third of BMER workers in the UK have faced bullying, abuse and racial discrimination by employers, while BMER young people in particular are much more likely to be underemployed and to find themselves in precarious employment (such as zero hours contracts) subject to short-notice hour-reductions. These worrying facts together with the fast-rise…
We are deeply saddened by the loss of our former Board Member and Chairperson, Kamila Zahno. She joined the ROTA board in February 2005 – April 2010.
Did you know that PPI was sold as far back as 1970? If you’ve ever taken out a loan, mortgage, credit card, store card, or bought something on credit, such as a car, you may have been sold Payment Protection Insurance (PPI). If you think you have or have had PPI, you need to decide…
Seminal is a word frequently used to describe 'How Europe Under-developed Africa', Walter Rodney’s opus magnum that swiftly extended itself far beyond its academic crucible when published in 1972. Not since Frantz Fanon’s 'Wretched of the Earth' had a writer so widely transformed how Africa was seen and researched. Rodney’s gift was his ability to…
An ‘unprecedented’ coalition of charities and academics have written to Chloe Smith MP, Minister for the Constitution, calling on the government to urgently reconsider the decision to enforce voter ID at the local elections in May. The group, led by the Electoral Reform Society, are calling for a rethink from across civil society – including Age…
