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Honoured to Have Nikki Bedi Present the 2023 No2H8 Awards

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We are honoured to announce that BBC presenter and radio broadcaster, Nikki Bedi will be compering the 2023 annual No2Hh8 Awards in London on mid-November. Nikki Bedi also presented the 2022 Awards which was one of the best attended No2H8 Awards ceremony since their launch in 2016.

Nikki Bedi is a television and radio broadcaster with a passion for making arts and culture accessible. She currently curates, writes and presents The Arts Hour on the BBC World Service, their flagship arts and culture programme, which once a month becomes The Arts Hour On Tour, a show that travels across the globe to different countries to bring the hottest names, talents and issues to the airwaves and to 98 million listeners.

She also co-Hosts BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live with the Reverend Richard Coles. A programme she adores because she believes everyone has a story to tell. Nikki has also been a regular interviewer and presenter on BBC Radio 4’s Loose Ends, and has fronted other flagship shows on the station including Front Row and Woman’s Hour.

Over on our televisions, Nikki hosts the new BBC World News series Encounter Culture. She’s been seen presenting BBC2’s topical weekly arts and entertainment programme, Front Row, hosting live screenings and interviews for the BBC, most recently for Ralph and Katie and was a brilliant panellist on QI where she spoke in Hindi.

Nikki describes herself as ‘glocal’ as her work is both global and local. Born to an Indian father and English mother, she began her career in Mumbai as both a stage and film actress and worked with some of India’s finest directors.

Her foray into the world of presenting began when Channel 4 gave her a talk show, Bombay Chat and its success prompted Star TV in Asia to give her a primetime chat show called Nikki Tonight which became Asia’s most widely viewed and also most controversial show.

In her spare time she watches inordinate amounts of television and refuses to discuss the great work she quietly does for her chosen charities.

Sponsorship Opportunities for the No2H8 2023 Awards Are Open

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After last year’s successful No2H8 Awards, we have decided to open the sponsorship opportunities for organisations, corporate bodies and companies two months earlier since this provides a better lead in and promotional time for brands that are supporting the Awards.

Last year’s sponsorship opportunities provided a wide array of exposure both online and offline for sponsors and ensured that communities involved in countering and campaigning against hatred, intolerance and prejudice, had the opportunity to engage and recognise sponsoring brands early on.

If you are looking to engage with socially active individuals and communities of interest in this area, why don’t you get in touch with us on info@no2h8crimeawards.org. Or you can call us on 0207 935 5573.

After last year’s attendance of over 320 people, we are hoping to build on this in 2023.

BBC Presenter and Radio Star Nikki Bedi Presents the 2022 No2H8 Awards

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We are honoured to announce that BBC presenter and radio broadcaster, Nikki Bedi will be compering the 2022 annual No2Hh8 Awards in London on the 17th of November.

Nikki Bedi is a television and radio broadcaster with a passion for making arts and culture accessible. She currently curates, writes and presents The Arts Hour on the BBC World Service, their flagship arts and culture programme, which once a month becomes The Arts Hour On Tour, a show that travels across the globe to different countries to bring the hottest names, talents and issues to the airwaves and to 98 million listeners.

She also co-Hosts BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live with the Reverend Richard Coles. A programme she adores because she believes everyone has a story to tell. Nikki has also been a regular interviewer and presenter on BBC Radio 4’s Loose Ends, and has fronted other flagship shows on the station including Front Row and Woman’s Hour.

Over on our televisions, Nikki hosts the new BBC World News series Encounter Culture. She’s been seen presenting BBC2’s topical weekly arts and entertainment programme, Front Row, hosting live screenings and interviews for the BBC, most recently for Ralph and Katie and was a brilliant panellist on QI where she spoke in Hindi.

Nikki describes herself as ‘glocal’ as her work is both global and local. Born to an Indian father and English mother, she began her career in Mumbai as both a stage and film actress and worked with some of India’s finest directors.

Her foray into the world of presenting began when Channel 4 gave her a talk show, Bombay Chat and its success prompted Star TV in Asia to give her a primetime chat show called Nikki Tonight which became Asia’s most widely viewed and also most controversial show.

In her spare time she watches inordinate amounts of television and refuses to discuss the great work she quietly does for her chosen charities.

Let’s Honour Those Heroes Who Challenged Hate in the Pandemic

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We are finally coming through to some sense of ‘normality’ after the Covid pandemic. However, even as we speak, there is a rise in Covid infections in England as new variations of the Omicron strain take root in our country.

We know that the pandemic meant that more people went online and sometimes consumed web-sites that promoted conspiracy theories and antisemitic, anti-Muslim or LGBTQ hate. The level of hate incidents rose during the first quarter of the pandemic, between April-July 2020. Groups such as the Community Security Trust and Tell MAMA, for example, recorded spikes in online hate that affected both Jewish and Muslim communities.

We are also aware that many individuals were instrumental in working with others to challenge hatred and those groups spreading intolerance when the pandemic took initial root in April 2020. 

Which is why we are keen on ensuring that they are honoured and nominated for recognition at the 2022 No2H8 Awards.

Therefore, if you know of such an individual, do consider nominating them when nominations open on Monday the 18th of July. We will be circulating the nomination link on that day and thereafter.

Organisations Tackling Hate – Get Involved

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The No2H8 Awards have a range of hate crime countering partners who have worked with and associated themselves with the national awards.

We are looking to refresh the list and work with existing organisations, as well as new organisations that have started work in this area since 2020.

We understand that the pandemic has changed much and with that in mind, we must ensure that the Awards include as many organisations countering hate, as possible.

If you are such an organisation, get in touch with us on info@no2h8crimeawards.org to discuss how you may be involved.

Categories for the No2H8 2022 Awards

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As we move towards the November 2022 fifth annual No2H8 Awards, we have confirmed the following categories for the Awards.

These include the following:

  • The Young Upstander Award,
  • The Media Upstander Award,
  • The Community Upstander Award,
  • The Local Authority Upstander Award,
  • The Law Enforcement Upstander Award,
  • The Parliamentary Upstander Award,
  • The Social Research Upstander Award,
  • The Lifetime Achievement Award (in countering intolerance and prejudice),
  • The Business Upstander Award,
  • The Sports Upstander Award,

ADDITIONAL ORGANISATIONAL AWARDS

These will be presented by the following organisations to individuals who have made a marked difference to the work of these organisations in tackling hatred, intolerance and prejudice.

  • The CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) Upstander Award,
  • The Tell MAMA Upstander Award,
  • The Sylvia Lancaster Upstander Award,
  • The Sophie Lancaster Upstander Award

Public nominations for the awards will open on Monday the 18th of July 2022.

We are Launching the 2022 Annual No2H8 Awards in the Coming Months

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So much time has elapsed since the last No2H8 Awards event in 2019. A pandemic has come and gone, the world has changed and many of us could not get together for 2 years to enjoy each other’s company or to celebrate community events.

With the worst of the pandemic behind us, we are proud to announce that that the No2H8 Awards will be held in November 2022. It is our collective chance to honour the best of our communities and the best of those within who stand against hatred, prejudice and intolerance.

We will also be announcing our media partners for the No2H8 Awards in due course and we wanted to highlight the key nomination dates where members of the public can nominate an individual or an organisation for one of the Award categories, The 2019 winners are listed here.

Nominations will open on the 18th of July 2022 and they will close on the 9th of September 2022.

Watch out for links to the nomination forms and in the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact us if you would like to discuss any matter related to the No2H8 Awards.

List of Nominees and Winners at the No2H8 Crime Awards (2019)

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Here is the list of Nominees and Winners at the No2H8 Crime Awards (2019)

(1) COMMUNITY UPSTANDER AWARD – NOMINEE BACKGROUNDS PROVIDED

Zahir Monir

After a UKIP candidate wrongly identified Zahir in a libellous tweet, Zahir took the candidate to court and eventually won his case. The case has shown communities that those who spread hate will be held accountable.

Sybil Lee

Sybil is a Romani activist and campaigner who spent her whole life living a traditional Romani lifestyle. Sybil became the first young woman from the UK to attend the Forum for European Romani Young People. She has spent 20 years working to combat hate crime and volunteers her time to work with the police on matters relating to child sexual exploitation. 

Marteene Pringle

Marteene is an activist in the trans community, who is campaigning for the Gender Identity Recognition Act. She has suffered transphobic hate and encourages reporting all hate crimes. 

Goldsmiths University Hate Crime Reporting Project

Goldsmiths University of London set up third party hate crime reporting centres which are open to staff, students and the local community of Lewisham. The initiative has led to an increase in awareness of hate crime issues including accessing support. The project has also had a hugely positive impact bringing the communities together to support local organisations. 

MURAL (Mutual Understanding Respect and Learning)

MURAL is an international project that brings together six partners from across the EU – Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and the United Kingdom. It aims to address the increase in anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim sentiments in Europe by supporting tolerance and respect for different faiths, religious beliefs and ethnicities.

WINNER OF THE COMMUNITY UPSTANDER AWARD: MARTEENE PRINGLE

(2) PARLIAMENTARY UPSTANDER AWARD

John Mann

In 2019 John was appointed as a government advisor on Antisemitism, having campaigned for years bringing to light the Antisemitism issues within the Labour Party.  John has been a fearless campaigner against antisemitism and is well respected and much loved for his anti-racism work.

Dame Louise Ellman

Dame Louise Ellman who served as an MP for 22 years has spoken out in recent months about anti-Semitism within the Labour party, it was due to anti-Semitism that Dame Louise left the party in October and recently announced that she will not be standing for re-election.

She has been a tireless campaigner for some of the most marginalised communities in Liverpool and has always spoken up against racism and prejudice.

Kate Green

Kate is co-chair of the APPG on Gypsies and Travellers, and a tireless campaigner for the rights of Gypsies, Roman and Travellers. As shadow equalities minister, Kate successfully gained acceptance to equalise sentencing tariffs for disability hate crime. 

Tanmanjeet Dhesi

Tan is the first Sikh MP with a turban in Westminster. He made headlines earlier this year after delivering a passionate condemnation of Boris Johnson’s ‘racist’ comparison of burqa wearing women to bank robbers and letter boxes. He demanded an apology for the comments in a newspaper article that has caused hurt to vulnerable women and resulted in a spike in hate crime.

He is a fearless campaigner who stands high in the struggle against hatred, prejudice and extremism.

WINNER OF THE PARLIAMENTARY UPSTANDER AWARD: KATE GREEN

(3) LOCAL AUTHORITY UPSTANDER AWARD

Warrington Borough Council

Warrington Council work with police, charities, community and volunteer groups to try and stop hate crime from happening. Warrington Hate Crime Strategy aims to support victims for a better future and will not tolerate hate crime in any form. 

Adrian Waters

Adrian is the Coordinator of Hate Crime Events in Stoke On Trent City Council. Through his work he organised the “Harms of Hate” event, which signposted services available to victims of hate. Adrian is also chair of the Peace & Resilience Partnership which brings together a wide range of community organisations. 

Megan Mellor

Megan is the Community Coordinator for the London Borough of Lewisham and she coordinates a range of activities within the borough including interfaith and hate crime workshops.

Megan was also integral in developing the council’s Counter Extremism Strategy, which addressed tackling extremist ideology as well as violent cultural practices such as Female Genital Mutilation.

WINNER OF THE LOCAL AUTHORITY UPSTANDER AWARD: WARRINGTON BOROUGH COUNCIL

(4) THE BUSINESS UPSTANDER AWARD

WINNER OF THE BUSINESS UPSTANDER AWARD: CHELSEA FOOTBALL CLUB

Chelsea launched the “Say No to Antisemitism Campaign” in 2017, utilising their fan base to raise awareness. The Chelsea Foundation has also raised over £100M over 10 years for projects in the UK.

We all remember what was sadly associated with the fan base in Chelsea in the 1980’s. Today, their work on tackling antisemitism is at the forefront of supporting organisations challenging this ancient hatred and also in creating champions against antisemitism from all communities in the future.

(5) SOCIAL RESEARCH UPSTANDER AWARD

WINNER OF THE SOCIAL RESEARCH UPSTANDER AWARD: PROFESSOR MARK WALTERS OF SUSSEX UNIVERSITY

Professor Mark Walters’ areas of interest are hate crime studies and criminal justice reform. He has advised on hate crime to the Home Office, Law Commission, Metropolitan Police Service, and the London Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime. Mark is also co-founder and co-Director of the International Network for Hate Studies.

(6) LAW ENFORCEMENT UPSTANDER AWARD

Inspector Jayne Lewis

Inspector Jayne Lewis is a British Transport Police officer who has worked tirelessly to collaborate with Merseyside Police to create the Hate Crime Pledge. The ultimate goal is to ensure a public transport network free from hate, and Jayne has been pivotal in implementing this pledge.

Anthony Forsyth

Anthony is committed to tacking hate crime he has been instrumental in highlighting the intersectionality of hate crimes affecting Londoners. Anthony has been integral in insurance hate crime remains a priority to the Metropolitan Police Service and has rolled out training for Met colleagues in hate crime awareness.

Bob Mahay

Bob is the community engagement officer for Kent Police and hosted many community networking events, including multiple events during National Hate Crime Awareness Week. One of his colleagues said that his passion and love is “hate crime work”. 

WINNER OF THE LAW ENFORCEMENT UPSTANDER AWARD: INPSECTOR JAYNE LEWIS FROM THE BRITISH TRANSPORT POLICE

(7) YOUNG UPSTANDER AWARD

Yusuf Patel

Yusuf is Community Engagement Coordinator for Redbridge Council, leading on counter extremism and hate crime. While professionally striving to stop hate crime, Yusuf also calls out homophobic, Antisemitic and Islamophobic abuse whenever he encounters it. Most recently, he called out homophobic abuse by a woman who was from a minority community and which led to her being convicted for a public order offence with aggravated homophobic elements to it.

Jack Etheridge

In his role of young volunteer at Investing in Children, Jack helped secure £7000 in funds to further their work. Jack’s interest in hate crime and mental health and he often highlights through his work the impact that hate has on young people and their mental health. Jack is also a campaigner for the LGBTQ+ community and spreads his positive message through social media.

WINNER OF THE YOUNG UPSTANDER AWARD: YUSUF PATEL

(8) MEDIA UPSTANDER AWARD

THE WINNER OF THE MEDIA UPSTANDER AWARD: AMELIA GENTLEMEN

As a journalist and reporter for The Guardian, Amelia spent 6 months working on the story of the Windrush Scandal, an issue which had previously been neglected by the British media. The story breaking led to the resignation of Conservative Home Secretary Amber Rudd. 

(9) SPORTS UPSTANDER AWARD

Anwar Uddin

Anwar is a retired English footballer and Assistant Manager at Aldershot Town. During his career Anwar played for clubs including West Ham United and Eastbourne Borough, and was the first player of Bangladeshi origin to play professional football in England. Anwar has worked extensively with Show Racism the Red Card, Kick it Out and lead the Fans for Diversity Campaign for the Football Supporters Association. 

Rotherham United Community Sports Trust

Through the power of football, Rotherham United Community Sports Trust works in deprived areas off Rotherham to promote education, wellbeing and sports and community development. The trust has delivered activities to over 61,000 participants in the last year and this in an area that has seen some groups seeking to divide local communities.

WINNER OF THE SPORTS UPSTANDER AWARD: ROTHERHAM UNITED COMMUNITY SPORTS TRUST

(10) THE CROWN PROSECUTION SERVICE UPSTANDER AWARD

Gareth Morgan

As Hate Crime Coordinator/District Crown Prosecutor Gareth goes above and beyond in his role to ensure that all staff are have a deep understanding of hate crime. Gareth is also committed to engaging with local communities affected by hate crime in order to learn from their experiences. 

Sonia Chakrabarti

Working for the CPS, Sonia has co-authored the CPS national legal guidance on race, religion and homophobic crime. Sonia also helped create a Hate Crime Tracker which has led to an improvement in the quality of hate crime files. Outside of work Sonia also sits on a number of regional hate crime boards. 

Gemma Rice

Gemma is Inclusion and Community Engagement Manager for CPS North-West, she has worked extensively with youth groups in Salford including the Salford LGBT Youth Group in her previous role as Salford City Council’s Community Cohesion Officer. 

WINNER OF THE CPS UPSTANDER AWARD: GARETH MORGAN

(11) THE LIFETIME UPSTANDER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

THE  WINNER OF THE LIFETIME UPSTANDER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: MARK HEALEY

Motivated after the terrible attack on the Admiral Duncan pub in Soho in 1999, Mark Healey set his life’s work to challenge hatred. The Soho pub bombing was carried out by David Copeland, a self-confessed racist and homophobe. Copeland went onto attack Brixton and Brick Lane and hoped to spark a ‘race war’. Little did his twisted mind realise that we as communities, will not turn against each other.

His twisted actions spurred on Mark Healey. 

Mark founded 17-24-30 in remembrance of the 3 nail bombings in London targeting Black, Asian and Gay communities in 1999. Through 17-24-30 Mark also created the National Hate Crime Awareness Week which takes place every October, encouraging thousands throughout the UK to report hate crimes, improve the way we respond and prevent further hate crimes.

(12) THE JO COX MEMORIAL AWARD

WINNER OF THE JO COX MEMORIAL AWARD: DAVID LINSEY

Daniel and Amelie Linsey were tragically killed on April the 21st 2019 at the Shangri La Hotel in Sri-Lanka. It was Easter Sunday and Daniel and Amelie were eating breakfast at the hotel – when a bomb – one of eight to hit churches and hotels around the country – exploded.

Their father, Matthew survived, and the family were due to fly out from the country that same morning. It was later to transpire that Daniel, (19) and Amelie (15), had been murdered by Islamist extremists.

Just two weeks after this unimaginably horrific passing of his siblings, David Linsey launched the Amelie and Daniel Linsey Foundation to support local people affected by the terrible events. It has become a full-time task and has become “all consuming” as he said to a national newspaper. He managed to raise £220,000 in just four months and through two charities, ‘Nest’ and ‘Their Future’ Today, he has managed to provide shelter, education and therapy for those affected. Recently, David, who is with us tonight, said that, “one of the hardest things about life in Britain after the deaths is how quiet it seems. Daniel was to start university soon and Amelie was always there for everyone.”

(13) THE TELL MAMA AWARD

WINNER OF THE TELL MAMA AWARD: LORD NICK BOURNE

Lord Nick Bourne, formerly the Minister for Faiths and Communities, was a tireless advocate and campaigner for communities and visited numerous faith institutions in what was a personal and professional journey to find out about the greatest spiritual assets we have – our faith institutions which inspire others globally.

Lord Bourne was an active supporter of interfaith, hate crime and social cohesion work and is respected by many communities. He is passionate about people and places and a strong advocate of hate crime work. He is much missed within Government and a much needed voice of moderation when it comes to supporting communities.

 

Former Minister Shahid Malik’s Speech at the 2019 Awards

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On leaving 10 Downing Street after an emergency summit called by then PM Tony Blair in the wake of the horrific 7/7 attacks, I recall encountering a huge media scrum gathered outside. My core message was that we had now been forced to confront our naivety and that words could indeed lead to deeds so heinous that hitherto they were unimaginable.

Of course, that was over 14 years ago and I was referring to unhinged ideologues who spouted extremist rhetoric but were regarded as ‘harmless’ – after all which rational person could take them seriously …….?

Though we have learnt much since then, today sadly it appears that some in public life happily skirt on the fringes of acceptable discourse naively or even wishfully believing that their words would not really have any harmful impact on our society.

Some in leadership positions clearly see fit to ignore the huge responsibility that goes with their privileged positions and are willing to utter words which corrode the relative cohesion in our society. To these individuals, of all persuasions and backgrounds, we have to send out a strong unequivocal message, that helping create an eco-system for hate and fear can never be a price worth paying for expediency and short-term gain because this is the real threat to our way of life.

As Chair of Tell Mama I know, as do our partners in the Jewish Community Security Trust, a tragic truth that hate crime seems to be on the rise year-on-year. And we all agree that the very least we should surely expect of those in public life is that they do nothing that contributes to making the situation more acute. Indeed, in a sane world we would expect them all to contribute to the defeat of hate but alas sanity appears in scant short supply in some quarters.

But it’s far from all doom and gloom. There are many in public and civic life who are now taking their responsibility very seriously, great role models who are becoming great activists. At last year’s event I talked of the challenge of getting out of our ‘comfort zones’ and I sincerely believe more people today than ever before have risen to that challenge – they are active, energised, engaged, aware and willing to create positive change. Indeed we will be recognising many today with our awards.

The principles of the challenges don’t change much – yes there’s a new global wave of populism, there’s new media and technology communications but none of that should be daunting. The fundamentals don’t change – as Burke reminds us that for evil to prevail all that is required is that good people do nothing.

So what do we need? Well we need a global consensus amongst governments that technology giants must continue to be scrutinised and must take their responsibilities seriously or pay the ultimate price.

We need to get our school curriculum fit to develop young people who are well rounded and equipped to face the challenges of the diverse society in which they live today and tomorrow.

We need our religious and non-religious institutions to mainstream and re-emphasise the notion of us all being equal citizens with equal rights and responsibilities and hurt to one is hurt to all.

We need to work hard to create greater mixing and greater understanding to allow sustainable cohesion in our community.

When we first came up with the concept of these anti-hate awards, we naturally aimed to showcase best practice, superb role models and outstanding courage and in that respect, they have proven an overwhelming success.

However, our ambitions did not end there. In truth we had another less overt agenda – we believed the Awards could become a unique platform, bringing together diverse groups and individuals under a common cause. I am delighted that today we have created an environment where increasingly we understand that the commonality we share is profound and the big differences that we perceived are unquestionably benign.

Thank you to all of you for sparing the time to be with us this evening and importantly, please stand proud because collectively we truly are part of the solution.

Sanjeev Bhasker to Compere the 2019 No2H8 Crime Awards

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We are proud to announce that Sanjeev Bhaskar OBE will be compering the 2019 annual No2H8 Crime Awards. We would like to thank him for his support to the No2H8 Crime Awards and some more information on his professional background is listed below.

“Actor and writer Sanjeev Bhaskar gained publicity as creator and performer of the BBC hit series GOODNESS GRACIOUS ME. His film roles have included NOTTING HILL (Roger Michell), THE ZERO THEORUM (Terry Gilliam) and PADDINGTON 2.

Sanjeev led the cast in the BAFTA award-winning television series INDIAN DOCTOR which garnered record ratings and critical acclaim. He has appeared in the West End as King Arthur in Eric Idle’s SPAMALOT and in 2015 he played the role of Alawi in DINNER WITH SADDAM at the Menier Chocolate Factory. He also wrote and starred in THE KUMARS AT NO. 42 which had global success winning two Emmys, a BAFTA nomination, a British Comedy Award and the Bronze Rose at Montreaux. He plays DI Sunny Khan in ITV’s award-winning drama UNFORGOTTEN and has a prominent role in Danny Boyle/Richard Curtis film, YESTERDAY.”