Newsletter N° 42, November 2015

Dear ,

The terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday 13 November, which follow the recent bombings in Beirut, in Ankara and the shooting down of a Russian plane in Egypt, have prompted countless reactions of solidarity, sorrow and fear. Fear of becoming a target of terrorism, fear about the reactions and their consequences, fear for the future. These attacks are a brutal expression of hatred and an example of the extreme consequences of hate speech. We cannot counter hate with hate: we must be able to mobilise our courage to respond with humanity, dignity and confidence in the values that unite us all: human rights, freedom, equality and solidarity. Courage to denounce all forms of hate speech and violent extremism; courage to recognise the humanity in all victims of terrorism; courage to work together to make sure that the terrorists and the preachers of hatred do not win. The No Hate Speech Movement campaign is a positive form of engagement that unites young people across national borders, cultures and religions. We need to continue working together, united to bring about all the potential of the campaign and to bring hope to anyone overcome by fear. Dignity, solidarity and courage must lead us forwards, also as a form of honoring the victims – all innocent – of terrorism.

THIRD MEETING OF CAMPAIGN COORDINATORS

The Third Meeting of Coordinators and Activists of the campaign was held in Strasbourg from 9-11 November, dedicated to the preparation of the campaign for 2016-2017. Forty-one countries were represented, hinting that the campaign will achieve a broader outreach than ever before. This meeting has facilitated information sharing of aims, objectives, campaign tools and future plans between the important stakeholders of the campaign, in order to reinforce a network of mutual support among national and European campaigns.

TIME FOR ACTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS DAY

The next European Action Day will focus on advocating for efficient and responsible actions to promote Human Rights online and combating hate speech, especially by the social media companies, online game providers, media regulating bodies and Internet users. We are looking for additional campaign committees and more activists to get involved. We are particularly looking for Articles and blog posts and Memes and creative images. Read the details of the concept of the action day and see how you and your organisation can also get involved.

PACE PRESIDENT CALLS ON SPORT SECTOR TO SUPPORT THE CAMPAIGN

A true activist of the campaign, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Ms Anne Brasseur, in her address to the “Play for the Game Conference” in Aarhus on 25 October, called on members from the sport sector to support the campaign and the No Hate Parliamentary Alliance. “Sport is potentially a powerful vehicle to transmit the values of fairness, respect for others and inclusion, and would therefore be a most valuable supporter to extend our No Hate Speech Movement”. Read more here.

YOUNG JOURNALISTS: NO TO THE SPIRAL OF SILENCE

A group of 19 young journalists and activists met at European Youth Centre in Strasbourg to learn about responsible journalism within the framework of human rights and the No Hate Speech Movement. The participants made a short series of videos named ‘I am the Voice’ giving advice to fellow young media-makers. As said by Hovhannes, young media-makers must be brave and “Don’t go into the spiral of silence”. This group is enthusiastic about the prospect of becoming multipliers to advocate about human rights in order to combat against hate speech. Read more about the study session Young Media Makers for Human Rights - Developing Facilitation Skills for Multipliers on Human Rights Reporting and watch videos in the series ‘I am the Voice’.

FLICKR ALBUMS OF THE MOVEMENT

Check our collection of No Hate images and memes produced for the campaign actions on Flickr. Feel free to download and use them!

NEW VIDEOS

PARTY TIME MESSAGING and BLOCK HATE SPEECH and THE HATER are among the most recent video additions to the Youtube channel of the No Hate Speech Movement, where you can find many videos produced for the campaign. Share them and use them in your activities – watching is also acting!

NATIONAL CAMPAIGNS

Solidarity Lab

“Solidarity Lab” is a cross-country initiative being held from 15-22 November in Ireland with some 43 young participants from 14 different European countries. This is a week on how to create effective and creative campaigns within the framework of human rights and the No Hate Speech campaign. See more here.

Mobile App for Download

Campaigners from “The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” developed a new Android and IOS mobile application to fight against hate speech. The application - in Macedonian - is available for free download for Android and iOS users here.

Also, after translating Bookmarks in Macedonian, a number of educational activities and training sessions have been organized using Bookmarks. From 4-8 November the Centre for Intercultural Dialogue (CID) with the support of the OSCE Mission to Skpje, held a Hate Speech School, for its fourth consecutive year.

Video Competition

The Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth in Albania is organizing a No Hate video competition for young people aged between 13-30 to send videos as part of the International Day for Human Rights (10 December), in line with the NHSM.

#Sintags

The No Hate Speech Movement has been launched in Mexico by CONAPRED and is named #Sintags. It has been announced that a TV series will be aired on national television in January, discussing various issues related to hate speech such as migration. See a clip here. The #Sintags campaign has also won the CIMPI Award for inclusive publicity.

Wediactictivists

The Belgium campaign is organising workshops; including one which took place on 10 November in Namur about the board game WediActivists (you can download the English PDF here). This is an educational tool, which has been designed for young people to deal with issues of hate speech and further develop cyber citizenship.

WORD OF THE MOMENT: Courage

Courage is the choice and willingness to confront agony, pain, danger, uncertainty or intimidation (Wikipedia). Courage is also the opposite of conformity and indifference.

“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of justice is not injustice, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.” Elie Wiesel.