Education and raising awareness of youth are essential in the process of fighting hate speech and racism because they play a central role in countering hateful narratives and of group-targeted violence! The Summer Seminar on Combating Discrimination and Hate Speech, organised with the support of the European Union and Council of Europe, gathered in Ohrid 16 young participants from all over North Macedonia. They had the opportunity to learn more about the main concepts about anti-discrimination and combating hate speech, as well as the concept of antigypsyism, as a specific form of racism directed towards the Roma community.  

The young boys and girls were also provided with various tools which will help them recognise and challenge these concepts. During the activities they learned about how to submit a complaint to the Commission for Prevention and Protection against Discrimination, how to recognise different forms of discrimination, how to detect hate speech and how to take a stand against hate speech using the available Council of Europe mechanisms. Through concrete exercises and best European practices in the field during the seminar the participants discussed how to identify and address cases of discrimination and hate speech.

The Summer Seminar on “Combating Discrimination and Hate Speech” was jointly organised by the actions on “Combating Hatred and Intolerance in North Macedonia”, part of the joint EU and Council of Europe Programme Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye, and the joint EU and Council of Europe ROMACTED Phase II Programme on “Promoting good governance and Roma empowerment at local level”.