No one is immune from being impacted by hate speech that occurs both in online and offline realms. Hate speech covers all forms of expression that spread, incite, promote, or attempt to justify hatred, stereotyping or discrimination based on intolerance. Social media and the Internet have opened many new arenas for exchanging opinions. Freedom of speech is an absolute value in any democracy, both for the public and the media. At the same time, opinions and debates challenge us as hate speech is spread widely and frequently on new platforms for publishing. Hate speech may cause fear and can be why people withdraw from public debate. As a result, important voices that should be heard in the public debate are silenced. Hate speech may be directed against People based on ethnicity, religion, disability, or sexual orientation. Hate speech has severe consequences for individuals, groups, and society. Taking a stand and showing that this could not be tolerated was important. We all had a responsibility and had to actively work against hate speech. The problem with hate speech was that most people were unaware of it. With this project, we wanted to combat ignorance and take a concrete step in making young people (and the citizens affected by the project) understand what could be done against the spread of this negative phenomenon. With this project, we wanted to combine the following elements: - Creating awareness of hate speech. - Spreading the message of the defense of Human Rights. - Boosting creativity. - Giving young people instruments to combat the phenomena, which would meet in the activities carried out by the project. For these reasons, we planned a project on this topic, focusing especially on creating awareness among the local community and the people affected by the project results. The project focused on and involved young people from refugee backgrounds and those who fled the war in Ukraine, as often, they were the target of hate speech. Objectives of the project: - Create awareness among the participants and the local community on the topic of No Hate Speech; - Fight ignorance on Hate Speech and its consequences among the local community; - Encourage young people to take concrete actions in defense of Human Rights; - Support young people in finding instruments, boosting their knowledge and awareness of what institutions did on the subject; - Foster active youth participation, helping young people become agents of positive change in their society and in Europe; - Develop a better understanding of the concepts of democracy, citizenship, and participation. The project "Young People Against Hate Speech" had three phases: Phase 1: Youth Exchange #1 in Yerevan, Armenia (17-26 November 2023) Phase 2: Organizing No-Hate Speech campaigns in local communities Phase 3: Youth Exchange #2 in Kaunas, Lithuania (25-30 May 2024) We aimed to reach all of our goals through the genuine involvement of young people participating from four countries and a well-developed dissemination plan which included an audience in all participating countries, thanks to the support of our project partners. Young people participating in the project were involved in the design phase, and the learning outcomes of participants were: - They understood the consequences of Hate Speech and its gravity on society. - They understood why it was important to learn about Human Rights. - They were more able to address human rights and social topics seriously. - They learned about Human Rights and how to take action in developing a project/campaign to defend them. - They improved their level of competence in graphics and visual arts. - They were more committed to working against discrimination, intolerance, xenophobia, or racism. - They were more willing to take action to change the things that did not work in their surroundings. - They were more aware of the situation of those who had to flee the war in Ukraine. - They were more willing to express their opinions to others and stand for them. - They were more receptive to Europe's multiculturalism. Nowadays, one of the issues in the EU was promoting diversity and intercultural dialogue as the project focused on developing attitudes on the EU's social issues. The project prioritized increasing young people's critical thinking and sense of initiative.