Earlier in 2026, the new EU Anti-Racism Strategy was launched to guide institutional efforts over the next five years, aiming to address racial discrimination in Europe. As its implementation begins to take shape, the Brussels Office of the Bahá'í International Community, together with the UN OHCHR Representation Office to the EU and the UNESCO Liaison Office in Brussels and Representation to the EU, hosted a roundtable discussion on 24 June to explore the central role of education and culture in eradicating racism.

Titled "Education, Culture, and the Eradication of Racism: Addressing Prejudice and Bias," the discussion brought together policymakers, educators, civil society, academia, and international institutions to identify key areas to be explored under the Anti-Racism Strategy's framework.

Opening the discussion, Christina Meinecke, Representative of the UN OHCHR to the EU,  remarked that “lasting change cannot be achieved through laws and policies alone. We must also transform the ways in which we learn, teach, create, and relate to one another [...] When culture and education work together, they can create powerful opportunities for connection, linking reflection with lived experiences, and allow people to encounter diversity as a source of strength, rather than division.”

Emphasizing this point, Vanessa Kabuta, policy coordinator at the European Commission, and speaking on behalf of the EU's Anti-Racism Coordinator, said: “We have legislation, we have enforcement mechanisms, but this alone cannot eliminate prejudice [...] it requires something deeper—the ability to shape attitudes, to foster empathy and create meaningful opportunities for interaction and mutual understanding.” 

Alessandro Benedetti, Representative of the BIC Brussels Office, highlighted the importance of grounding education in the principle of the oneness of humanity: “It invites us to move beyond approaches that focus solely on coexistence or tolerance. It challenges us to work for the well-being and just treatment of each individual, because we realize that their well-being is profoundly connected to the well-being of all.” It is founded in “the recognition that all human beings, while culturally profoundly diverse and having different elements of their identity, they also share one common identity, which is the human identity.”

Lodovico Folin Calabi, Director of the UNESCO Liaison Office in Brussels and Representative to the European Union, added that “if we are to effectively combat racism, we must understand and address the social mechanisms that produce and perpetuate prejudice, from stereotypes and unconscious biases to exclusionary norms and unequal power structures.”

The conversation underscored the need for a deeper paradigm shift — one that views education not as a peripheral tool, but as the very foundation required to transform attitudes and cultivate a society rooted in an understanding of humanity's common identity, while being profoundly enriched by its diversity. Moreover, participants drew attention to several fundamental aspects related to this vision, including the need to revisit the content and pedagogy of school curricula; the central role of teachers, as well as of the parents and community; and the need for education, both formal and informal, to foster agency in succeeding generations of young people to address discrimination.

Representing the European Coalition of Cities Against Racism, Linda Hyökki said that education “should equip students to recognize discrimination and teach them how they can be active members of their local communities. It is very important that they are not passive observers, but they become active contributors to inclusive communities.”

Moreover, education is "a lifelong process, at every stage of our lives we are educated," said Modi Mntambwe, a human rights and gender equality expert in Belgium. It starts, however, within the family setting, "where what is fostered lasts longer," and therefore calls for envisioning the "role of families when we come to the [school] content."

Other participants from grassroots initiatives also drew attention to the importance of including parents in educational efforts to overcome racial discrimination, as this often resulted in increased consciousness within the household and, consequently, in the wider community.

Another central theme of the conversation was how underlying conceptions of the learner shape the entire educational experience and system. Ruhiyeh Thabet, Director & Co-Founder of EFID, who works with refugees and newcomers in Luxembourg, described how curricula built from a "lens of deficiency" can subtly create hierarchy within the classroom itself—dividing students into "those who are a receiver, and those who are a giver, or those who are capable, and those who lack capacity."

This roundtable discussion is expected to open a series of conversations in the coming years, exploring the role of education in overcoming prejudice and contributing to the implementation of the EU Anti-Racism Strategy.