Our original aims
We aim to improve the life prospects of any person anywhere in the world who has a facial difference or disfigurement, an unusual-looking, scarred or asymmetrical face (or body) from any cause.
The mission of Face Equality International (FEI) is to mobilise the many groups and organisations, big and small, national and international, which support and represent people with facial differences and disfigurements and thereby to create the critical mass and solidarity needed to gain global attention for the campaign for face equality.
FEI will raise the profile of disfigurement and put the issues experienced by people with disfigurements on the agenda of the UN Convention for the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD), international bodies, companies and social media outlets.
Face Equality International is an alliance of NGOs/charities around the world that are supporting and representing people with many different disfigurements. Most of these NGOs are condition-specific (ie: for people with clefts, burns, cranio-facial conditions, psoriasis and other conditions) and their members have very different medical and surgical needs and treatments. But their members also face very similar psychological, cultural and social barriers to living fulfilling lives.
Many people report (and academic studies bear this out) feeling low self-esteem in the global ‘look-perfect’ culture, being isolated and friendless, facing teasing, ridicule and staring in public places, low expectations in school, problems getting work, discrimination in the workplace, abuse on social media and stereotyping in the media just because of the way they look. In many countries, disfigurement goes hand in hand with poverty, prejudice and exclusion.
Face Equality International will facilitate charities working together to tackle these injustices, will enable the sharing of best practice and be an incubator (capacity-builder) for NGOs to campaign for face equality and against disfigurement discrimination in their own settings. It will be a learning exchange and set global standards on how to challenge disfigurement discrimination (eg: at work) and promote face equality (eg: in schools). It will also co-ordinate an International Face Equality Week in May each year, the first one being successfully achieved in May 2019.
The alliance will make common cause with organisations and alliances representing other equality issues and diversity strands.
The vision of Face Equality International is that all societies across the world accept, respect and value people who have facial differences and disfigurements so that they can then lead the lives they wish unaffected by prejudice, low expectations and stigma.
What will Face Equality International do?
Face Equality International will:
- facilitate charities working together to tackle the injustices experienced by people with facial differences — whether at work, in schools or the media, or in culture and lifestyle
- promote all positive portrayals of people with facial differences — in business, culture, film, fashion and life at large
- enable the sharing of best practice and be an incubator (capacity-builder) for NGOs to campaign for face equality in their own settings
- be a learning exchange and set global standards on how to challenge disfigurement discrimination (eg: at work) and promote face equality (eg: in schools)
- co-ordinate an International Face Equality Day in May each year.
The alliance will make common cause with organisations and alliances representing other equality issues and diversity strands.
Our immediate priorities
Face Equality International’s first actions will be:
- to establish the initial membership and reach out to other NGOs and groups
- to develop a members-only website that gathers best practice in the campaign to date
- to arrange the first annual Forum in London in March 2019
- to agree the major international issues on which to campaign
- to nurture members’ own efforts to campaign for face equality in their countries
- to plan an International Face Equality Week each year
Our long-term commitments
The plan is for Face Equality International will gradually expand:
- to support and inspire existing and new members in tailored ways to promote face equality and challenge disfigurement discrimination in their own countries and settings
- to provide a knowledge-sharing platform gathering ideas, resources and best practice about face equality in many fields (eg: education, health care, business, media and law)
- to identify examples of facial prejudice and disfigurement discrimination and take action to eliminate them wherever they occur (eg: by lobbying agencies and companies)
- to spur the collection and spread of evidence about what people with disfigurement in different countries confront in their lives and what enables their life chances
- to represent its members on global bodies engaged with the UN’s Convention of the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
- to promote annual International Face Equality Weeks in May building on the lessons learned from the Days in the UK and Taiwan.
