Television advertisements aimed at encouraging young children to respect differences between themselves and others will begin in the Republic and in Northern Ireland today.
The broadcasts are part of a new educational programme targeted at children between the ages of three and five to create greater understanding of physical, racial and cultural differences.
The "Media Initiative for Children", developed by Nippa, will also involve pre-school activities. The advertisements will be broadcast over three major television stations on both sides of the border.
The adverts feature animated characters with whom young children may identify with who act out children playing in a park.
Nippa's chief executive, Ms Siobhan Fitzpatrick, said: "This pilot programme is using a new approach which uses three short television adverts and interactive curriculum activities to provide opportunities for discussion around the basic feelings - happy, sad, frightened and angry."
Ms Fitzpatrick said the programme supported Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act and Article 2 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child - which recognises the rights of the child to grow up in an environment of understanding, dignity, freedom, peace and equality.
The campaign being unveiled amid increasing attacks on ethnic minorities in Northern Ireland. A number of people from minority communities have been forced out of their homes in loyalist areas in recent weeks.
PA