The Association for development of children and youth- Nis Open Club implemented a six month “Against hate speech” project in co-operation with the Association for development of creativity from Aleksinac, Directorate for strategy and Roma integration from Knjazevac, Citizens' association “Djurdjevdan” from Bela Palanka and the Roma Association from Prokuplje. The project was marked by a series of field activities in these cities thanks to the grant which the organisation received within the joint European Union and the Council of Europe action “Promotion of diversity and equality in Serbia”.

A special focus of the project was to strengthen capacities of activists from partner organisations who later played a crucial role in collecting graffiti with hate speech messages in these cities, primarily towards members of Roma and LGBT+ population. Over 70 graffiti were captured and those selected were used in all promotional materials, including roll-up banners which were used for the purpose of organising mobile graffiti exhibitions.

These exhibitions which were organised in cities of Nis, Aleksinac, Knjazevac, Bela Palanka and Prokuplje undoubtedly represent a culmination of their activist work in this project. Both general population and primary and secondary schools students were key target groups and that is the reason why exhibitions were organised in two places in each of these cities- both in schools and public spaces. Project team emphasised that youth, especially primary school students, were particularly interested in discussing the topic of hate speech with them; between 300 and 400 students in each city attended exhibitions. A number of visitors among general population varied between 100 and 200.

Finally, public advocacy meetings with representatives of local-self-governments in all five cities aimed at presenting European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) recommendations and finding concrete solutions for their implementation. Development of better and more functional anti-discrimination mechanisms at local level in order to contribute to higher employment of Roma population, more effective support to their education as well as higher inclusion of Roma civil society organisations in developing local action plans were also a subject of discussion during these meetings.

More detailed information about the project are available herе.