As a charity established to promote public benefit in Belfast, and as a recipient of public funds, we acknowledge our responsibility to promote good relations between all persons in our community. In particular, given our recent history in Northern Ireland, we are cognisant of the need to promote good relations between persons of different religious belief, political opinion or racial group.
We are committed to promoting diversity and integration. We recognise that, through discussions of ideas and politics, we are able to contribute to promoting a shared society, rather than responding to the effects of a divided one. We do this by encouraging performers and participants to challenge stereotypes, and by encouraging attendance at our festivals by people from all sections of our community.
We recognise that the discussion of ideas and politics can be used to reinforce stereotypes and/or promote negative views of sections of our community. Therefore, we take care to ensure:
- Our Board and volunteers are committed to promoting diversity and inclusion before they join us;
- We use accessible venues to encourage attendance by, and bring together, people from all sections of our community; and
- Artists and speakers with offensive views are not booked to participate in our festivals.
This policy, and its effectiveness, will be regularly reviewed.