This year CID is continuing its work on education of young people and citizens on the topic of hate speech and hate crime. In the first trimester of the year, two actvities were already implemented, in partnership with OSCE: a conference in Shtip and a training in Tetovo.

The first activity was done in cooperation with participants from the 6th School against Hate Speech and as part of their proposed follow-up activities; it took the shape of a 1-day conference held on the 17th of April 2018 in Shtip, on the topic Hate Speech and Media. Students, professors and representatives from civil society joined the conference, in a total number of 42 participants. The group was welcomed by Nami Isaki, member of CID, and by the 3 speakers who had an input on the topic: Mr. Strashko Stojanovski – Professor at the University “Goce Delcev” Shtip, Mr. Angelche Stojanovski – Head of Department of Prevention Unit, MOI Shtip, and Ms.
Marija Krstevska – Center for Intercultural Dialogue. The conference also included a session of dicsussion and contribution from participants.

The second activity was held on the 10th of May 2018 in Tetovo, as a training on the topic “Hate Speech and Recognition of Hate Speech”. In total 11 participants, representatives of different civil society organizations took part in the training.  Both the conference and the training focused on understanding the concept of hate speech, what are the elements for identifying hate speech, and how to differentiate hate speech from similar concepts such as slander and insult. The methodology included interactive presentations and discussions, as well as small group work.

The main aim of this project is to raise awareness on the topics of the hate speech and hate crime, especially among youth workers and youth leaders working with young people, to build knowledge on how to recognize hate speech narratives and to explore different tools and methods for prevention and combating of hate speech.