NewsLetter - YIHR - December 2013 - ENG

8/13/2019 NewsLetter - YIHR - December 2013 - ENG

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YIHR Activist Spent Three

Months in World Youth

Movement for Democracy

International Human

Rights Day with AsylumSeekers in Obrenovac

The YIHR team discussed the issues, which

National Endowment for Democracy, which has

been supporting the work of the Youth Initiative

for Human Rights since its foundation through

the “Hurford Youth Fellows Program”, admitteda long-term activist of the Youth Initiative for

Human Rights from Belgrade, Anita Mitić, to a

three-month-long training within the World Youth

Movement for Democracy.

During the period from September to December

2013, in the organization of the World Youth Move-

ment for Democracy in Washington, Anita had

an opportunity to research and organize online

discussions relating to topic of the “Importance

of Youth Political Participation in Strengthening

Democracy and Promoting Human Rights”. In

these online discussions, which were broadcast

online in real time, the participants talked aboutactivism and the manner in which youth activists

can contribute to having their voices heard far

and about what their role in the decision making

process is.

International Human Rights Day, December

10th, the team of the Youth Initiative for Human

Rights and members of band called sHpiritus

mOvens spent with a group of asylum seekers,

temporarily accommodated in Hotel Obrenovac.

“Crash Course Against

Hate Speech” in Sarajevo

imposes when it comes to the administration

of content on the Internet with youth activists

from Bosnia and Herzegovina within the “Crash

Course Against Hate Speech” organized by theYouth Initiative for Human Rights in BiH.



Anita in National Endowment for Democracy

Anita moderating an online discussion

YIHR Activist Spent Three

Months in World Youth

Movement for DemocracyNational Endowment for Democracy, which has

been supporting the work of the Youth Initiative

for Human Rights since its foundation throughthe “Hurford Youth Fellows Program”, admitted

a long-term activist of the Youth Initiative for

Human Rights from Belgrade, Anita Mitić, to a

three-month-long training within the World Youth

Movement for Democracy.

During the period from September to December

2013, in the organization of the World Youth Move-

ment for Democracy in Washington, Anita had

an opportunity to research and organize onlinediscussions relating to topic of the “Importance

of Youth Political Participation in Strengthening

Democracy and Promoting Human Rights”. In

these online discussions, which were broadcast

online in real time, the participants talked about

activism and the manner in which youth activists

can contribute to having their voices heard far

and about what their role in the decision making

process is.

Anita moderated the discussions with activists

and young politicians from Senegal, Brazil, Ven-

ezuela, Ukraine, and Nigeria. Maja Mićić, the Di-

rector of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights,

also spoke in the last one of these discussions

dedicated to activism, besides the President of

the National Endowment for Democracy, Carl

Gershman. Apart from research and discus-

sions, Anita also worked on the building of the

World Youth Movement for Democracy networkand she participated in the organization of the

World Youth Day for Democracy celebrated on

October 18th.

During the course of this training, Anita had an

opportunity to present the work of the Youth Ini-

tiative for Human Rights in the National Endow-

ment for Democracy and to students of the New

York University master’s program, who visit the

YIHR every year during their study visit to the

Balkans.

Anita used her three-month-long stay in Wash-

ington to meet with a number of non-governmen-

tal organizations and representatives of the US

Congress, and to attend the marking of the 30th

Anniversary of the National Democratic Institute

and the National Endowment for Democracy.

“It is very important to allow youth activists to

spend three months in Washington because that

is the way for youth to get acquainted with the

work of the organizations, which support the workof organizations in the eld. I used the time I had

in Washington to meet as many people in the

World as possible, people who share the same

or similar problems with the youth in the Balkans.

The exchange of experiences and good practic-

es allows us to learn from each other. Such ex-

periences also serve us as a reminder that we

are not alone in the ght for democracy and hu-

man rights. In this way, youth are allowed to be

part of the problem solution and not the problemin their countries”, Anita said upon her return to

Serbia.

The internship in the World Youth Movement for

Democracy is organized with the support of the

World Youth Movement for Democracy, Nation-

al Endowment for Democracy, and the Hurfurd

Foundation. Over the period of one year, three

activists from all over the World have an opportu-

nity to spend three months in Washington.



Asylum Seekers in Obrenovac

“Crash Course Against

Hate Speech” in Sarajevo

“Crash Course Against Hate Speech”

One of the main challenges in the defense of

human rights online, represents the denition

of borders between the freedom of speech and

hate speech. Besides the content created by

registered web pages, which bear responsibilitybefore the law for the texts they publish (for the

time being only in theory), there is the question

of responsibility for the third party content posted

as comments relating to the content.

Comments represent a great place for the cre-

ation of public opinion, which was noted also

by political parties in Serbia, and they use the

tool of organized commenting of texts as one of

the methods during electoral campaigns. Even

though a great number of popular web pages

hires administrators for pre-administration, it

happens very often that comments, which may

be characterized as hate speech, slip by.

The Youth Initiative for Human Rights team rec-

ognized the problem of the lack of awarenessabout responsibility, especially relating to the

third party content, and it initiated the work on the

creation of a platform “Watch Your Language”,

which is aimed at establishing a clearer bor-

der line between hate speech and the freedom

of speech, at educating people responsible for

posting and removing contents on web pages,

but also at raising awareness about the impor-

tance of the free Internet – free of hate speech ,

but also free of censorship.

The YIHR team discussed the issues, which

imposes when it comes to the administration

of content on the Internet with youth activists

from Bosnia and Herzegovina within the “Crash

Course Against Hate Speech” organized by the

Youth Initiative for Human Rights in BiH.

During this one day course, youth activists ex-

pressed their disagreement with the recent dis-

abling of comments on one web page in Croatia

and expressed their concerns due to the more

and more present hate speech online, which,

as they said, represents the best soil for the de-

velopment of further conicts-whether they are

based on religious, sexual, national or some oth-

er differences.

International Human

Rights Day with Asylum

Seekers in Obrenovac

International Human Rights Day, December

10th, the team of the Youth Initiative for Human

Rights spent with a group of asylum seekers,

temporarily accommodated in Hotel Obrenovac.

Asylum seekers from Asia and Africa were ac-

commodated in the Centre for Asylum Seekers

in Bogovađa near Lajkovac, but a part of asylum

seekers were transferred to the area of Obreno-

vac due to the lack of capacities.

As soon as they arrived in Obrenovac where they

were supposed to be accommodated in aban-

doned laborers’ barracks, the asylum seekers

were greeted by a protest of citizens of Ušće and



Youth Initiative for Human Rights Activist in fornt of Palace of Justice

Skela against the transfer of asylum seekers.

This was followed by the media hunt in which

they were marked as potential thieves and car-

riers of contagious diseases. The culmination of

this media lynch were barracks, in which asylum

seekers were accommodated, which were set on

re, after which the asylum seekers were forced

to spend the night in the cold and in the snow,

and only later, when the state intervened, they

were accommodated in Hotel Obrenovac.

YIHR, expressed solidarity with the asylum

seekers and supported the organization of the

concert of the Belgrade band called sHpiritus

mOvens, who performed several songs from

their repertoire stimulated the asylum seekers

and in an informal atmosphere to join the band

at the stage and spend at least the Internation-

al Human Rights Day in a pleasant atmosphere.Slobodan Manojlović, the band leader of the

sHpiritus mOvens, said that the band came up

with this idea wishing to offer some of the things

they certainly miss due to the conditions they live

in to these people.

Human Rights – Yesterday,

Today, and TomorrowDuring the month of December when the Interna-

tional Human Rights Day is celebrated and when

the retrospective of everything that had hap-

pened over the year is being creted, the activist

network of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights

organized an action “Human Rights – Yesterday,

Today, and Tomorrow” in several cities in Serbia.

The activists organized the action for the purpose

of expressing compassion with people victims of

violence of those who observe diversity as ene-

my and something, which is not welcome, and to

reminNovi Sad, Novi Pazar, Niš, Belgrade took

photos of the places where human rights have

been violated in the past and they reminded the

public of these incidents.

Here you can see the whole album.

Youth Initiative for Human Rights Activist

in fornt of Cultural Centre of Novi Sad

Youth Initiative for Human Rights Activist

in fornt of Palace of Justice in Niš

http://goo.gl/UtkAAR

http://goo.gl/UtkAAR

NewsLetter - YIHR - December 2013 - ENG

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