Inclusion and Anti-Racism Charter to be launched at Cork City Hall 

The Cork Inclusion and Anti-Racism Charter will be launched at 1pm on Friday, November 20, at the Millennium Hall at Cork City Hall.

The new initiative follows on from an event in Carrigaline Park in August, where the local community came together in solidarity following a racist attack on a man in the park the previous month.

Syed Haque, who works in a Cork logistics company, was out for a walk with friends and family when he was repeatedly punched by a teenager, and told to go back to his own country.

Mr Haque was transferred by ambulance to Cork University Hospital for treatment for a deep gash above his right eye.

The father-of-two from Bangladesh said this was his first experience of this kind in two decades of living in Ireland.

The antiracism rally was organised by Carrigaline resident Liz Scott, who told The Echo at the time that with some people feeling anxious following the attack on Mr Haque in the park, “we want to make an event that reassures and uplifts”.

“I moved to Carrigaline because it is a vibrant, welcoming, beautiful place to live, and it still is,” said Ms Scott.

“I live on a multicultural street and we all get on. We value one another and we look out for each other.”

Community led initiative 

The Cork Inclusion and Anti-Racism charter is a community-led initiative headed by Cork-based human rights activist Fahmeda Naheed, working alongside Joanna Dukkipati, founder of Good Day Cork.

It has received funding support from the Cork Equal and Sustainable Communities Alliance (CESCA) and facilitation through the Irish Pakistani Community of Cork and Good Day Cork.

The initiative was inspired by Fahmeda’s participation in the launch of the North West Anti-Racism Charter in Derry in 2025 and was subsequently developed through a Cork-based consultation process involving approximately 80 participants from community organisations, academia, activism and wider civil society across the county.

“The launch will bring together community representatives, academics, campaigners, civic and political leaders, and speakers from Cork, Northern Ireland and other parts of Ireland,” she said.

“It will provide a platform for discussion on anti-racism, inclusion, equality, lived experience, community leadership and social change, while formally presenting a charter developed from the experiences and priorities of Cork communities.”

For more information visit https://gooddaycork.com/action/update-inclusionantiracism-charter.