Young people in Montenegro learned about human rights and hate speech

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Monday, 15 February 2021 08:08

NGO Young Roma - Herceg Novi organized from 11 to 13 February 2021, in Podgorica, training on human rights and hate speech, within the project MNE Youth against Hate Speech.

 

 

The project aims to increase the knowledge and skills of young people in Montenegro about the importance of human rights with special emphasis on the rights of the Roma community, anti-discrimination policies, and the danger of hate speech, offering funds to develop counter-narratives aimed at combating this phenomenon.

The training gathered twenty participants from Podgorica, Niksic and Bar of the Roma and majority community, who are high school students as well as students of media, journalism, dramatic arts. As a final product of the project itself, the participants will create video content that they will use as a counter-narrative in order to reduce hate speech among young people.

At the training on human rights and hate speech, the participants discussed the work of the Council of Europe Program Office in Podgorica, with the head of the office Evgenia Giakoumopoulou, through ten sessions / lectures. With Stefan Manevski, Education Adviser at the Council of Europe's Youth Sector in Strasbourg, they were able to find out about the Action Plan for Young Roma as well as the No Hate Speech campaign.

 

Participants had the opportunity to inform with Tamara Milas, Human Rights Coordinator at the Center for Civic Education (CCE), about the contemporary concept, generation, culture and mechanisms of human rights protection. The Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms - Ombudsman Sinisa Bjeković, explained to the participants what discrimination is, when it occurs and what the protection mechanisms against discrimination are. Through practical workshops with Tamara Milic, a psychologist, the participants dealt with the topic of prejudice and stereotypes, while with Biljana Maslovaric, a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Montenegro, they discussed the topic of conflicts and their peaceful resolution. Pedagogue Vanja Rakocevic, through a workshop with the trainees, talked about what hate speech is, how we share it, why we should deal with hate speech and how to fight it.

Project MNE Youth against Hate Speech is supported through the action Promotion of Diversity and Equality in Montenegro, which is part of the joint regional program of the European Union and the Council of Europe - Horizontal Facility II for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022.

The project itself will be implemented through three modules - two trainings on human rights, hate speech and media literacy and the practical part of the participants' work through the #REspect campaign where students will have the opportunity to create video material (podcast, vlog, storytelling, etc) on hate speech and human rights of marginalized groups with special emphasis on the Roma community in Montenegro.

 

Translation: Milena Cavic

Edited by: Milos Knezevic