What if I tell you that young people have a superpower to fight against the discrimination and hate speech problems in the world? If you doubt it, let me prove to you that the power you hold in your hands should not be underestimated.

The Council of Europe has launched a campaign, “Block the Hatred, Share the Love”, in the Western Balkans, expanding this year to the Eastern Partner Countries and the YEAs from the EU NEIGHBOURS east network.

As a Young European Ambassador from Azerbaijan, I was among the first participants of this campaign and the related training, which took place online in the summer of 2023 and in person in January 2024. The aim of this event was to increase awareness about hate speech and discrimination, while empowering YEAs to develop counter-narratives and organise follow-up events in their community.

Let me tell you a bit more about the hybrid training on “Promoting equality and non-discrimination and combating hate speech”, which was multi-layered and interactive. We started with a fun online training course, which lasted for four days where we got a chance to meet the trainers and to network with other YEAs. An interesting e-learning platform made it possible to share our ideas with others, to practice some self-learning and take advantage of precious reading materials and intriguing tasks. Then our journey took a different shape by gathering us in the city of youth, Budapest on 16-19 January, in the European Youth Centre, where we met our trainers and learned from their experiences. 

I realised how the problems faced by communities around the world are similar, but at the same time unique in their own ways. Since the Young European Ambassadors from the Balkans and the Eastern Partner Countries gathered for this training, we saw clear distinctions and surprising commonalities in our societies. Gender-based discrimination, for instance, is a common problem that is faced by all of us, while some issues, such as discrimination against minority ethnic groups are more perceived in the Balkans.

By harnessing the Azerbaijani YEAs’ experience, we gave some event ideas and tips to our friends from the Balkans on how to end discrimination against minority groups, drawing on the experience of Azerbaijan, which has achieved significant progress in this regard. [1]

As this initiative has been operating in the Balkans for several years, it was amazing to see how they were able to reshape their community, block the hatred, and share the love in their unique way, which inspired us to take action in our communities as well. I took notes on some of those event ideas, discussed them with Azerbaijani YEAs, and modified some parts based on the needs of our community.

There were lots of interesting points to mention about this event, such as getting a chance to work with trainers individually, breakout sessions, and the quality of the materials. But if I were to pick one, I would go with the counter-narrative video made for the Roma people, which made me shiver. I think this was the essence of the training: to create empathy between people for one another and force us to tap into our feelings before expressing hatred toward someone.

This project made me realise the importance of media content and how the narrative is shaped so easily. However, it is not a bad thing that the narratives can be influenced by the media. It means that as a young generation, it is in our hands to take the responsibility to choose our words carefully and to end discrimination. Aren’t we the GenZ who are good at using social media and are active on almost every social media platform? Our posts, comments, and likes matter in combating hate speech in our community! We can use media as a tool to reshape those negative narratives!

That is why together with fellow Azerbaijani YEAs we decided to tackle the issue with the help of the Compass: Manual for Human Rights Education with Young People. The Compass was introduced to us thanks to trainers who informed us about human rights education training and interactive ways to organise it.

Our plan is to organise an event by inviting local bloggers who are victims of hate speech and explain the reasons behind hate speech with expert help. Our goal is to encourage people in our community to empathise with others before spreading hate speech, which is the core of ending it.

Previously, I voluntarily created a similar project and got a positive outcome from it, although I doubted my power at the beginning. I took action regardless of my fears and doubts. Now I will be working with a brilliant team, and I have the best trainers in the world, helping me to achieve my goal of blocking hate speech. I hope now you are more aware of the power of youth, and you will be more confident to take an active role in blocking hate speech and sharing love.  

[1] https://rm.coe.int/sixth-report-on-azerbaijan/1680ab9e35