Address: st. Vaka Djurovica bb, Podgorica

Country: Montenegro

 School website

Project: No hate offline, no hate online

Working language during the project:

• Montenegrin
   

Themes of the Council of Europe campaign “FREE to SPEAK, SAFE to LEARN - Democratic Schools for All” covered:

• Addressing controversial issues
• Preventing violence and bullying
• Tackling discrimination
• Improving well-being at school
   

Competences from the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (CDC) addressed and where / how they were integrated:

• Valuing human dignity and human rights
  Teacher and youth training curriculum based on core human rights’ values and respected both offline and online.
  Workshops and other activities for students are based on core values of human rights, respected equally offline and online
• Knowledge and critical understanding of the world: politics, law, human rights, culture, cultures, religions, history, media, economies, environment, sustainability
  Every activity within the project is based on creating an environment free from hate speech in which teachers, parents and young people participate in the activities as well as in creating a safe school environment for children and young people, where they learn and acquire essential human rights values
• Conflict-resolution skills
  In training sessions/peer workshops, students’ learn to recognise and confront violence and hate speech both online and offline using existing mechanisms in the school and the local community;
  Increased awareness and intervention of teachers in cases of hate speech and abuse of children and young people on the Internet
   

Target group age range:

• 15 - 19
   

Level of education:

• Lower secondary education
• Upper secondary education

Short description of the project:

Aims/objectives

Combating hate speech on the Internet means drawing attention to the problem, but also building the capacity of young people and teaching staff to acquire the competences necessary to recognise and act effectively against this kind of human rights violation both online and offline.

Expected results/outcomes

Involving students, parents and teachers, the project was implemented by creating an offline and online platform established in 19 secondary and 4 primary schools in Montenegro:

• over 25 training sessions were organised for peer educatorsstudents and their mentors-teachers (approximately 25 participants per training)
• students’ activities included peer workshops, panel discussions and public debates that made a direct impact on approximately 15 000 students and 1 000 teachers
• research on attitudes and experiences of hate speech in two schools in 2014 and national research in 2018 were both publicly announced and promoted,
• printed and other material was published and distributed throughout Montenegro,
• an online and offline media campaign was organised, in which Facebook and Twitter accounts were created and moderated. It was promoted not only in Montenegro, but also in the region and further afield.
   

Changes

• Creation of an environment in which young people learn and adopt core human rights values
• Creation of an environment free from hate speech in which teachers, parents and young people take part together in the prevention and intervention
• Improvement in relations between teachers and students as they work together on problem solving
• Increased awareness and competences of young people and their teachers to recognise and confront hate speech both online and offline using existing mechanisms
• Teachers and students given concrete tools for combating hate speech
• Increased awareness of parents and teachers about the abuse of children online and how to protect them
• Educational and informational material was produced and serves as a permanent source of knowledge (brochures, leaflets, training material, peer workshops, etc.)
• Cooperation among secondary schools was fostered
• Cooperation between secondary schools and other stakeholders (NGOs, media, institutions of the system) is improved
   

Challenges you faced

• Adopting the activities in a local context (in regard to part of Montenegro). By recognising local problems and focusing on them, it was easier to connect with the problem of hate speech and how to resolve it
• Lack of motivation of parents to attend organised activities
• Lack of free time for organising different activities in school: both teachers and students are overwhelmed with the school year curricula
• Funding the activities: there are not many donors that will fund projects developed by schools/school networks

This project was a new experience for our Volunteers club and we realised that it is very important to carry out similar projects because they provide the opportunity to young people to cooperate with teachers and parents in solving problems. It is also a chance for schools to work closely.
 

Time-frame of the project:

2014-2018
 

Council of Europe materials on citizenship and human rights education used while preparing or implementing your practice:

• Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture
• Addressing violence in schools
• All different – all Equal
• Compass
• Bookmarks