ICARE

founded by United and Magenta

1999

I CARE — Internet Centre Anti-Racism Europe — started on October 1, 1999 as a cooperation project of United and Magenta. United and Magenta wanted to create a portal for anti-racism on Internet. Although the Internet opened-up the possibilities for collaboration with organisations worldwide, United and Magenta decided to focus on Europe, as both founding organisations basically work within an European context and because specific aspects of racism are still very much related to In Real Life culture, policies and practices.

I CARE was a virtual network to support and to be used by those who are committed to improve universal human rights standards and particularly non - discrimination principles. ICARE was the information disseminator for the European NGO-community working in the fields of anti-discrimination, Human Rights, antisemitism, diversity and migration, with a focus on anti-racism. ICARE was a NGO community networking system, an environment where large and small organizations can work on local, national, regional and international issues. The purpose of ICARE was the empowerment of democratic, non-violent Human Rights and antiracism work by offering information and reporting on events taking place, by facilitating communication, advocacy, campaigns and actions and by stimulating intersectional and international co-operation of NGOs. ICARE was a Magenta Foundation project.

I CARE's main role was to provide services adapted to the needs of NGOs and to European civil society in general. I CARE focused on all European countries, it was an open structure which means that everybody was free to contribute. Those who participated in I CARE agreed to use it as they considered appropriate: by receiving information, expressing views, sharing experiences, creating partnerships, etc.

I CARE's secretariat monitored all contributions in order to be in line with universally recognised human rights standards.

February 2000.

I CARE was the first news source to report in English and French on events taking place in Austria after the FPÖ became member of the Austrian government.

March 2000.

Reports on the International action week against racism.

April 2000.

Opening of the European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia in Vienna.

March 2001.

Reports on the International action week against racism.

The UN World Conference Against Racism and the preparatory process. In preparation for the WCAR the Council of Europe organised a preparatory conference for Europe in Strasbourg. Although participation of NGOs was sought, only a fraction of Europe's NGO's would be able to participate in the forum or the conference. In addition, there were many individuals - especially in Eastern & Central Europe or on the move throughout Europe - for whom participation was impossible. We wanted to make real participation a virtual reality. I CARE started a discussion list for organisations and individuals who wanted to get involved. At the same time on the website all relevant documents and policy papers were published. During the preparatory conference in Strasbourg we organised the InterConference: an international team of technicians, chat session moderators, translators and reporters issued live reports on the conference; led chat sessions between web contributors and conference participants and interjected feed-back from web participants directly into the conference, creating an interactive channel between policy makers and people who deal with racism and discrimination on a daily basis.

May 28 - June 4, 2000.

European Youth Preparation Ready! Steady! Go! in Strasbourg for the UN World Conference Against Racism in 2001.

August 4-12, 2000.

Expo 2000 Hannover, Germany: International Youth Forum against Racism.

October 9-13, 2000.

The InterConference at the forum of NGO's and the European Preparatory Conference All Different, All Equal: From Principle to Practice intergovernmental conference in Strasbourg. Starting in 2000, at the Palace des Nations, the UN headquarters in Geneva, preparatory meetings for the WCAR (PrepComs) were held by the UN Human Rights Commission. Once again I CARE reported on the web and through discussion lists. To help strengthen the network, we created caucus pages on I CARE on which every caucus could have their information published. The International Steering Committee, coordinating the NGO Forum in Durban, had their own mailing list, facilitated by I CARE.

May 21 - June 1, 2001.

Live reports from the 2nd PrepCom meeting in Geneva.

July 30 - August 10, 2001.

Live reports from the 3rd PrepCom meeting in Geneva. As time progressed, the UN-discussion list at I CARE had around a 1000 NGOs from around the world discussing and exchanging information.

On August 25, 2001

the I CARE International News team arrived in Durban, Reporting in English, French and Spanish.

2005

In September 2005 ICARE became a Magenta Foundation-only project.

The original ICARE-website is still online, to preserve the legacy of Suzette and Ronald.