The borough’s ethnic, faith, gay and lesbian communities have endorsed a joint council and police initiative to stamp out hate crime in Wandsworth.
Members of 31 different groups met last Tuesday at the first meeting of the newly created Wandsworth Hate Crime Forum, which was set up to combat all forms of intolerance including discrimination and persecution based on a person's beliefs, religion, race, age, gender, disability or sexual orientation.
They unanimously agreed a joint declaration condemning all forms of hate crime and set themselves the goal of improving “the quality of life for everyone living, working, visiting or socialising in the borough”.
Forum chairman, Councillor James Cousins, said: “The aims of the forum are quite clear. We will all work closely together to create a more just, equal, peaceful and tolerant society. And we will do all we can to outlaw the abhorrent persecution and discrimination of any minority group.”
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