For three days of debates at the invitation of the Central and Eastern European Countries office of the OIF “International Organization of La Francophonie”.
Academics, experts and civil society leaders from several Central and Eastern European countries met at the premises of the Bulgarian Ministry of Youth and Sports; on the discussion agenda: exchanging experiences concerning youth policies and the prevention of radicalization and violent extremism among young people.
From these exchanges, debates and brainstorming, several salient recommendations emerged.
We have chosen to share with you the one concerning the use of a digital strategy in education and prevention against exclusion, discrimination and radicalization.
Interventions by experts in the fields of youth and sports, security, sociology, Information and Communication Sciences helped set the stage and provide a global understanding of the radicalization phenomenon. Civil society actors from countries such as Armenia, Moldova, France, Romania, the Republic of Macedonia exchanged their points of view and compared experiences and results obtained so far in their respective countries.
Thus, one of the flagship recommendations of this seminar was the mobilization of skills in the field of social networks, with a transversal digital strategy aimed at encouraging the creativity and engagement of young people in cultural, social and societal projects.
A strategy which, according to experts, could eliminate the barriers of stigmatization and exclusion, break free from dogmatic enclosures and prevent the fragility of minds.
“Libre ensemble”: diversity is a strength.
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Launched at the initiative of Mickael Jean, Secretary General of La Francophonie, the “libre ensemble” campaign mobilizes thousands of young people across the French-speaking world with one philosophy: diversity is a strength.
This campaign was presented by the director of education and youth within the OIF Ma-Umba Mabiala and Rennie Yotova: director of the OIF office for Central and Eastern European countries. The two officials invited participants to make “libre ensemble” a viral campaign via social networks to unite as many people as possible around the world. This campaign is still in its infancy; hundreds of videos and initiatives have been shared on the “libre ensemble” platform across the four corners of the world.
Awareness at national and regional levels
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The handling of the issue of radicalization by the International Organization of La Francophonie and the support of the Bulgarian authorities for this first seminar on the prevention of radicalization are strong signals: first of all, the prevention of this scourge is everyone’s business: all countries are concerned, even those not directly affected by this phenomenon. Thus, the Bulgarian public authorities seem to want to take the lead through a programmatic vision that calls upon three strong links: education, youth and ICT for effective prevention.
And what about the web giants?
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After the Dublin recommendations in 2011, after pressures, warnings multiple and effective from several European States and governments, the web giants seem increasingly cooperative; indeed, as Twitter follows Facebook’s lead in controlling hateful, racist and extremist publications, Youtube goes even further by financing prevention campaigns against the radicalization of individuals in several European countries, notably through the RAN Radicalisation Awareness Network group.
Finally, all well-studied and feasible initiatives have a chance of materializing provided that the will of their proponents is unwavering, for let us not forget that obstacles are made to be overcome.
