Moldova: EU4Youth Alumni helping to combat discrimination and promote equality

An EU4Youth project in Moldova is tackling discrimination and inequality in the community, supporting young people to become the actors of change.

The ‘Leaders of Change’ initiative is supported by the EU4Youth Alumni Network and the European Union, working to build the capacity of young people to become promoters of human rights at local level.

As part of the project, ten young people are working to counter hate speech across society, from the political level to the workplace, promoting active involvement in the decision-making process and community life.

On 8 April, part of the team met offline to participate in a training around the topic of ‘Discrimination and equality’, during which they discussed the historical precedents of discrimination, how this phenomenon manifests itself in society, and which are international institutions that protect human rights. The young people thus found out that equality is not the same as equal treatment, and that discrimination is a phenomenon in which several people are in the same situation, but are treated differently.

During the workshop, the participants found that sometimes they involuntarily confused jokes with cases of discrimination. The analysis of a concrete situation in reasonable justification put young people to the test between the dilemma of choosing a competent person or respecting the principle of positive discrimination.

The next workshop will try to make recommendations for combating discrimination among young people at the local level, based on the activities of group members.

The young people have so far taken part in one online and three offline workshops.

The EU4Youth Alumni network aims to streamline into a unified network all the beneficiaries of EU Mobility programmes in the Eastern Partner Countries and existing youth networks. One of its activities is for individual alumni to support local initiatives for disadvantaged youth groups in their respective communities.

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Press release