Tim za socijalno uključivanje i smanjenje siromaštva

The National Youth Council of Serbia and the Media Diversity Institute for the Western Balkans gathered a group of young activists from different parts of Serbia who were interested in freedom of speech and hate speech and provided them with training for peer educators. The three-day training organised with the support of the European Youth Foundation is part of the No Hate Speech Serbian National Campaign and aims to raise the awareness of young people about hate speech and its consequences. The Stop the Hate project aims to help young people in Serbia to recognise, understand and combat hate speech online and offline.

The participants talked about human rights and responsibilities, and especially about freedom of speech and its limits, about responsible use of the Internet, hate speech and ways one can stand up to it. During the training, the participants were introduced to Tips on how to fight against hate speech, a series of short and effective tips which could help those confronted with hate speech to evaluate what would be the best reaction. The idea behind these tips is also to promote a culture on nonviolent dialogue.

Every participant will conduct at least one follow-up activity, he/she could: organise a lecture in a local school, write a blog reflecting some of the topics discussed during the training, or organise some kind of street activity. This will represent their contribution to the spreading of values discussed during those three days, and we hope that this would only be the beginning of their fight against hate speech and their efforts to build a society where diversity is respected.

Source: koms.rs