The Portuguese Charter for Diversity sets up an Association for Diversity and Inclusion
date: 09/04/2019
The new Portuguese Association for Diversity and Inclusion (APPDI) has been approved on the 26th of November in a General Assembly. According to its statutes, the mission of the Association is “to promote diversity and inclusion in the several organizations and in the Portuguese society in general, cooperating with the national and European institutions that are relevant for the pursuit of its activities”.
All activities of the Portuguese Charter for Diversity and Inclusion at national and European level will be led by APPDI, with the goal to promote diversity and inclusion between members and developing activities that contribute to those objectives”.
The Board of Directors of APPDI, elected on a General Assembly, is made up of 6 members and chaired by EDP- Energy of Portugal. The treasurer is Associação Crescer, the secretary is Clube Intercultural Europeu and L’Oreal and Grafe are other executive voting members of the Board of directors. Rede Ex-Aequo is a voting replacement member.
As for the General Assembly it is chaired by Animar and made up of another 6 members. The secretariat is under LYD and Stone Soup. The supervisory board is chaired by PWC and its secretariat is under GeoClube and CerciOeiras.
“The main objective behind APPDI is to assure the sustainability and further development of the Charter. To achieve it APPDI seeks to strenghen the commitment towards a set of principles that promote respect, value differences among people and reinforce treatment and opportunity equality, fighting at the same time stereotypes and discrimination, fostering a culture of inclusion based on the respect for the human being”, as Paula Carneiro of EDP says.
Activities of the Charter for the fiscal year of 2019 include organizing the 3rd Edition of the “Forum for Diversity”, in October, in Lisbon, as well as the 2nd Edition of the “Diversity Stamp” award, the latter an initiative of the High Commissioner for Migrations that is designed to recognize the organizations with the best diversity and inclusion practices; Organizing gatherings to discuss employment of migrants and of people with disabilities; Starting a pilot project with the goal to professionally integrate people facing exclusion situations; Coordinate an educational project in 27 schools under the slogan “Engineers for a day”, an initiative of the State Secretary for Citizenship and Equality, in partnership with CIG, the Portuguese Engineers Council and Instituto Superior Técnico.
The Charter for Diversity is an initiative of the European Union that aims to encourage the employers to implement and develop politics and internal practices that promote diversity. The Portuguese Charter for Diversity has 237 signatory organizations and has arisen within the EEU efforts to foster diversity and inclusion.
About the Portuguese Charter for Diversity:
The Charter for Diversity is an initiative of the EEU and is one of the voluntary instruments created with the objective to encourage employers to implement and develop politics and internal practices to promote diversity.
The Charter presents concrete measures that can be taken to promote diversity and equality of opportunities at work, no matter the cultural, ethnic and social background, the sexual orientation, gender, age, physical characteristics, personal style or religion.
The Portuguese Charter for Diversity follows the efforts of the EEU and is in line with the priorities set by the strategy Europe 2020. Discrimination has been a subject under the special attention of the EEU, namely in applying the principle of equality of treatment between people, no matter gender (directive 2006/54/CE of 5th July 2006), racial or ethnic origin (Directive 2000/43/EC of 29th July 2000), or definition of a general framework for treatment in employment and professional activity (Directive 2000-78-CE, 27th November 2000).
The Portuguese Charter for diversity at present has 237 signatory organizations. The Executive commission counts with High Commissioner for Migrations, the Commission for Equality at Work and Employment, the Commission for Citizenship and Equality of Gender (CIG) and the Aga Khan Foundation.
More in: www.cartadiversidade.pt