Phenomena such as racism, xenophobia, homophobia, and other forms of intolerance, have evolved and gained momentum in recent years leading to the emergence and rising of contemporary forms of radicalism and extremism that the European Union deals with on a daily basis. Various incidents across Europe indicate that many people are harassed, threatened or assaulted verbally of physically, or experience hatred daily because of their ethnicity, skin color, religion, gender and sexuality, physical and mental (dis)abilities or other characteristics. Moreover, public discourses, including online platforms and social media, are steeped in hate speech targeting ethnic, religious, sexual, gender and other minorities. The increasing numbers of reported hate crimes make evident the need to combat bias motivations that result in hate crime and equip people with the skills and information to recognize and respond to signs of bias, prejudice and hate. Youth2Unite project addresses these needs towards the prevention of hate crime and hate speech and aims to develop training materials for youth workers to deploy effective skills to challenge “hate-motivated violence” or “hate attitudes” among young people and to increase young people’s responsibility towards bystander intervention. Participation in project activities and engagement with project’s intellectual products will empower young people who face disadvantages and belong to marginalized communities to speak for themselves and feel proud for their identities and will additionally equip youth workers with competencies to facilitate and deliver quality and innovative workshops that address hatred and promote respect and freedom of expression.
Youth2Unite has been developed and implemented to: 1) Provide knowledge and skills to youth leaders and youth workers so that they can integrate into their work awareness raising and then training in the fight against hate speech and hate crime, especially online, with the young people they work with. 2) Equip young people with knowledge and understanding of the topic, and provide them with avenues for action, so that they do not remain indifferent to online hate for example. The main objective is obviously to participate in the fight against hate crime and hate speech, which are still on the rise in France and across Europe.
The laws and prosecution of hate crimes still differ from one country to another and may even vary between different groups of people. Within the European Union, there is an ongoing debate about the needs for consistent guidelines, as cases of hate crimes have increased over the past few years. A major problem is the phenomenon of hate speech, which is spreading widely on the Internet and especially on social networks. “Hate speech and hate crime poison societies, as they threaten individual rights, human dignity and equality, increase tensions between social groups, disrupt public peace and order and endanger peaceful coexistence. (…) They undermine social cohesion, solidarity and trust between members of a society. Hate speech are hinders rational public debate, without which no democracy can exist; it leads to violation of freedoms that endanger the rule of law” (Thematic Department of Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs, 2020).