In 2024 several workshop have been carried out by Human Rights House Zagreb as part of the Butterfly Effect project, targeting youth and educators.
Empowering Youth: how to react against Hate Speech and Discrimination
Four workshops with young people have been carried. They were organised for students from elementary to university level and focused on hate speech and discrimination, with a total of over 110 students taking part.
For elementary and high school students, the focus was on understanding the specificities of discrimination and hate speech as well as their impact, with significant focus being paid to self-reflection and empowerment towards reacting to discrimination and hate speech online and offline. Students actively participated in the discussions and group work, freely sharing their opinions and experiences, asking questions and exploring examples.
The workshop for university students was held at the Social Work Study Centre, Faculty of Law, as part of the course Social Work and Human Rights. As students expressed interest in disinformation and AI and their impact on discrimination, this workshop offered more in-depth knowledge of human rights in the digital sphere with a stronger emphasis on the legislative framework and challenges in regulating online hate speech, without neglecting self-reflection and empowering students to become active bystanders in the face of hate speech and discrimination.
Building educational workers’ knowledge and skills
Educators had the opportunity to participate in two workshops, one held online and one offline in the spaces of Human Rights House Zagreb.
The offline workshop was aimed at building educational workers’ knowledge and skills in recognising and combating intolerance, discrimination and hate speech in educational settings and among youth. Additionally, it introduced participants to mediation and non-violent communication as invaluable skills in effectively addressing these incidents, giving participants the opportunity to practice in a safe and controlled environment.
The online workshop had the goal of acquainting participants with the growing phenomenon of intolerance, discrimination and hate incidents among young people in schools and online, as well as providing them with the digital and methodological tools that they can use in their work with youth to prevent, address and react to hate speech and support victims.
The overwhelming response by over 160 educators points to a dire need for teacher training in the subjects of discrimination and hate speech specifically, as well as in non-formal education methods that can help them effectively implement these topics in the subjects they teach – and navigate the varying responses to human rights-based teaching from both students and parents.
