FORUM is part of a coalition of non-profit organizations that implements a European project called “Challenging online and offline Roma discrimination in Europe (COORDE).” The project connects volunteers with lawyers dedicated to defending victims of discrimination and hate speech. It therefore has the potential to strengthen the Roma community’s trust in the rule of law and to mobilise people to take active action against discrimination and hate speech. The project runs for two years from April 2022 to March 2024.
The aim of the project is to mobilise volunteers and members of the Roma community to fight against discrimination and hate speech on the internet, as well as discrimination and hate speech in everyday life that Roma face in accessing public services and exercising their fundamental rights. The volunteers will be tasked with collecting evidence of hate speech on and off the internet, which will form the basis for subsequent legal action against the perpetrators or other responsible actors.
Our project partners are:
- European Roma Rights Centre (Brusel)
- Equal Opportunities Initiative Association (Bulgaria)
- ROMAJUST (Romania)
A group of volunteers ROMAntici (the name can be translated as ROMAntics) has been formed withing the project. The volunteers from Roma and non-Roma community regularly monitor and report hate speech against the Roma community on social media.
Within the framework of the project, a group of volunteers, ROMAntici, has been created. The volunteers regularly monitor and report hate speech against the Roma community on social media. ROMAntici also create media content to draw attention to the growing hate on the internet.
Follow ROMAntici on their Facebook page !
On 16 and 17 September 2022, we organized an introductory training for ROMAntiks at the University Library in Bratislava. The training was attended by ROMAnticists from different parts of Slovakia and abroad who are interested in getting involved in the fight against hate on the Internet. At the training they met with experts from Konexe, digiq and the #somtu initiative., who shared their experiences from their work.
As part of Science Week in November 2022, we held a workshop with our volunteers and students regarding cyberhate and burnout prevention while monitoring hate speech.
Thank you to the researchers from the Social Science Institute of the CSPV SAS for a great workshop.
The project is supported by the European Commission under the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme (CERV-2021-EQUAL).
The training of volunteers took place on 16-17 September 2022 in the premises of the University Library in Bratislava. We sincerly thank the University Library in Bratislava for providing us the premises free of charge.
