'Seismic change' needed to end racism

The Unite Against Hate event at the Belfast Waterfront Hall, which has been organised by the city council, brings together community, statutory and voluntary organisations along with keynote speakers from around the world.

Duncan Morrow warned without a fundamental rethink we risked repeating the same mistakes of years of conflict.

The flight of over 100 Roma from their homes in south Belfast earlier this summer and the large number of sectarian divisions highlighted the problem, the Community Relations Council chief executive added.

"It is seismic change we are talking about, not just a change in the weather that will go away," he said.

He said there were 88 so-called peace walls, 40 Polish families forced out of their homes in south Belfast because of trouble at a football match with Northern Ireland and 65,000 school bus journeys diverted every week because of the risk people will throw rocks at them.

He added: "Nor will it be possible to deal with this (division) without putting it into the core of the mainstream of what we do. We need to stop deluding ourselves that without significant change anything will happen.

"This is Einstein territory, the definition of madness is to do the same thing and expect a different result, the tragedy of it is that we continue doing the same thing."

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Lord Mayor of Belfast Naomi Long said the negative headlines from earlier in the year would focus minds on the problem of hate crime.

"Sadly we all witnessed some recent examples of the racism that exists in our society; and while it may be only a small minority of people who hold these views, it marred the reputation of our city and sent out very negative messages across the world," she said.

"But it's not just racism that is a problem here in Belfast; the issue of hate crime is much wider and includes sectarianism, discrimination against people with a disability, or discrimination due to religious beliefs or sexual orientation.

"But we can only do that through education and understanding and this convention aims to address some of the stereotypes and situations that lead to hate crime in our society."

The inaugural hate crime convention was held last year and the council has plans to make it an annual event.