Newsletter "Participatory Theater 4 Human Rights"

PARTİCİPATORY THEATER 4 HUMAN RİGHTS

Of The Activities

From August 6th to 16th, the Erasmus+ youth exchange

“Participatory theater for human rights and hate of speech”, organized by PROvision International, took place in Bansko. Participants from six different countries across Europe (Bulgaria, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Spain, and Turkiye) gathered to discuss the topic of discrimination and social justice and find solutions to counter hate speech episodes. The activities were focused on raising awareness about human rights violations (e g racism and violent attacks targeting the LGBTQIA+ community and refugees) by using interactive learning methods involving theatre representations workshops.

The aim of such activities was to shed a light on human rights violations and hate of speech, as well as to share more information on the situation in the different national contexts and to find practical solutions for fighting such discrimination Finally, as the project is under the Erasmus+ Key Action 3, a session dedicated to Erasmus+ and the other European opportunities for youth was held in order to promote and foster participation in these projects and encourage that to share them with their peers throughout and after the project

SUMMARY

LEARNING OUTCOMES

WHAT DİD WE LEARN?

This project provided a safe space to share different experiences and points of view on hate speech. Thanks to this unique opportunity, young people addressed and discussed discrimination issues that are often overlooked by the traditional education system, and deeply understood the hidden problems behind the different types of discrimination By also sharing real personal experiences, participants learned the meaning of respect in all its forms

Coming from diverse countries and with various backgrounds and mindsets, they cooperated to better know each other's cultures and the national contexts’ situation on discrimination, while overcoming stereotypes and prejudices. Moreover, awareness increased through theatre activities and other workshops on discrimination, racism, and prejudices.In this sense, acting helped to express feelings without necessarily using verbal language. While for some it may seem trivial, for others these activities improved presentation and communication skills: it is not merely about making presentations and public speaking, but it is about overcoming fears and shyness and expressing own opinions in a climate of mutual understanding Lastly, thanks to these non–formal education activities, thought-provoking discussion and development of critical thinking led to personal growth.

HATE SPEECH & PREVENTİON

Time for ACTion is now!

WHAT İS HATE SPEECH?

In recent time, society is becoming more and more hostile towards specific communities because of the prejudices created around them As a result, hate speech – meaning offensive discourses and violent nonverbal actions targeting vulnerable and minority groups, based on inherent characteristics (e.g. race, religion or gender) – occurs and it is dramatically increasing. Hate speech emerges in various forms and sometimes is not even expressed, thus young people do not see it or realize it. In order to change this trend and enhance social cohesion, there is a necessity for a collective action to raise awareness on this pressuring issue – as the project aims to achieve

HOW CAN İT BE COMBATED AND PREVENTED?

Throughout interactive workshops on human rights and discrimination, participants proposed potential solutions to stop hate speech episodes based on their sharings and knowledge First of all, constructive dialogue on the roots and the consequences of hate speech by taking into account some of the most targeted groups (e.g. Roma community, refugees, LGBTQIA+ community) enabled exchanges of thoughtprovoking ideas directly from targeted people and actively listening to them to know how to halt unfortunate episodes Moreover, gaining indepth knowledge about the communities affected by these discourses, as well as in legislation on human rights both at national and international level, is needed in order to understand

how we can tackle social injustice

In relation to that, a urgent necessity to radically change the education system and introduce the topic of human rights and hate speech since elementary school

E R A S M U S +

& OTHER OPPORTUNİTİES

The Erasmus+ project ‘Participatory Theather 4 Human Rights’ is a youth exchange that falls under Key Action 3, aimed at stimulating innovative policy development, policy dialogue, and implementation of the exchange of knowledge in the fields of education, training youth, and sport

01 WHAT İS ERASMUS+ AND HOW DOES İT WORK?

Erasmus+ is the EU programme launched by the European Commission in 2014 to support education, training, youth and sport across Europe and in neighboring countries. Education, training, youth and sport are key areas that support citizens in their personal and professional development. The programme supports priorities and activities set out in the European Education Area, Digital Education Action Plan, the European Skills Agenda, and the European Pillar of Social Rights

Erasmus+ offers mobility and cooperation opportunities in:

Higher education

Vocational education and training

School education (including early childhood education and care)

Adult education

Youth ans Sport

& OTHER OPPORTUNİ

ES E R A S M U S +

The general framework of Erasmus+ programme is constituted by the three Key Actions (KA) for the education sectors (formal, non-formal and informal):

KA1 - individual mobility (e.g. youth exchange, addressing specific themes with innovative and non-formal methodologies and aiming to stimulate acquisition of new knowledge & promoting dialogue between young people; Erasmus Mundus, master's degrees that includes mobility between the various locations of the partner universities and achievement of a joint, double or multiple degree, Erasmus Traineeship, traineeships abroad for students enrolled in higher education institutions in Programme countries at Bachelor/Master/Doctoral level, as well as to recent graduates, from 2 to 12 months)

KA2 - strategic partnerships among organizations and institutions

KA3 - support for policy reform

02 WHAT ARE THE OTHER EU OPPORTUNİTİES ?

Other interesting opportunities young people can take part in are:

The European Solidarity Corps (ESC), offering an inspiring and empowering experience for young people who want to help, learn and develop and provides a single entry point for such solidarity activities throughout the Union and beyond The programme promotes inclusion and diversity, aims to incorporate green practices in projects and encourages environmentally sustainable and responsible behaviour among participants and participating organisations. It supports the digital transition through projects and activities that boost digital skills and fosters digital literacy. The programme also promotes participation of young people in democratic processes and civic engagement

The supported programme actions are:

- ThVolunteering projects (individual or in teams of 1040 volunteers)

- Solidarity projects (youth-led national innitatives)

- Humanitarian Aid volunteering

& OTHER OPPORTUNİTİES E R A S M U S +

E R A S M U S +

OPPORTUNİTİES

Erasmus for Young Entrepeneurs is a stay abroad program, funded by the European Commission, that can take you on a unique business experience in more than 45 countries spread over 4 continents: Europe, Asia, America and Oceania The purpose is to bring the younger generation closer to the world of business and provide them with the tools and knowledge they need to successfully create and manage a startup in Europe. The young men and women thus have the opportunity to embark on a journey of up to 6 months where they will be hosted by entrepreneurs and businesswomen, key players in already established businesses with solid experience behind them, ready to mentor them and exchange their know-how along with valuable advice

03 WHERE CAN I FİND DETAİLED

İNFORMATİON AND APPLY FOR THESE OPPORTUNİTİES?

Here are some useful websites where you can find information and apply:

Erasmus+ programme in detail: What is the structure of the Erasmus+ Programme?

Erasmus intern: https://erasmusintern.org/

European Youth Portal: https://europa.eu/youth/home en Salto Youth: https://www salto-youth net/

Mladiinfo: http://www.mladiinfo.eu/

“I learned we must never forget that we are all human beings. We should respect each other and never be afraid to be who we are”

BERAT

ROMANİA

“I have gained knowledge on human rights violation through the project, first of all thanks to all of my new friends that made this project more funnier

MARCO

“This experience helped me for my personal growth on the topic of human rights. I confronted my own opinion with many young people different European countries and the outcome is amazing”

HORİA

ROMANİA

“I really enjoyed learning about human rights violations by acting”

EXPERİENCES OFPARTİCİPANTS

“What I will take with me from this experience is listening to the others’ experiences and always being empathetic with them”

ALPEREN IRİNA

“Thanks to this project, I gained knowledge that I could not access in my daily life and I grew up with the ideas Also I made new friendships with international participants from more than one country and collected unforgettable memories”

BULGARİA

“Through this project, I experienced different sides of myself and the world that constantly changes my mindset. I am grateful for all different perspectives shared and good pursposes of participants who did want to find solutions for improving our society”

EXPERİENCES OFPARTİCİPANTS

GUİDELİNES TO BE A BETTER GLOBAL CİTİZEN FOR A BETTER FUTURE

By Irina Gancheva Ganeva

The citizens of the world are connected. Their thoughts and actions affect the way every single one of their fellow citizen experiences life I personally think society should be more responsible and caring about people’s lives, particularly the most discriminated ones, because intolerance and hate speech are rooted in it and injustices are systemic. Instead of contributing to biases, us as the youth and the future, we must take action: fight and protect human rights for all human beings, starting from our own habits and stereotypes we have about people

From my personal experience, the social system is not contributing for the wellbeing of all people –especially those who are victims of hate speech –, instead, it is increasing to their unwellness.

Thanks to this project, we learned problems and solutions related to the violation of human basic rights. Here are some thoughful points on what human rights are and how we as young people can contribute to raise awareness on human rights violation and hate speech, advanced by participants:

“Human rights are important but we are not paying enough attention. Education is the most important thing for our rights We should raise awareness with educating children from the beginning”

-

Umut, Turkiye

“What every single one of us do defines us, the community that we live in and the life we are building for ourselves and others. And that also includes standing up for our rights”.

- Nickola, Bulgaria

“Despite our world becoming more globalized, the distance between communities inside our society is growing If we don't fight back this trend will ruin our social interactions completely”

- Marco, Italy

THROUGH THE EYES OF THE PARTİCİPANTS

“We all have the right to freedom, but your freedom should not interfere with the others .live and let live”

- Lila, Spain

“The problem is that we conceive human rights just from a theoretical point of view, but we are not respecting them in the real life”

- Alessia, Italy

As Erasmus+ aims at fostering social cohesion and inclusion, according to the participants, the project enabled them to be more aware of how powerful they can be and empowered them to be more responsible global citizens.

THROUGH THE EYES OF THE PARTİCİPANTS

YOUTH İN LİGHT OF PERFORMATİVE ACTİVİSM: THEATRE AND HUMAN RİGHTS

By Achraf Guennouni Idrissi

Within the kaleidoscopic diversity covered by Erasmus+, human rights emerge as one of the paramount concerns which orients the purposive vision of the European Commission towards youth particularly in the spheres of formal, non-formal and vocational education. The crystallization of Erasmus+’s interest in youth participatory action is carried out through various means and includes variegated demographic strata dispersed over almost the totality of Europe, plus third countries associated to the program such as North Macedonia, Serbia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Turkey. This article highlights one of the creative approaches adopted by Erasmus+ to foster the values of human right in European Youth

It will shed light on the value of performative arts, particularly theatre, in generating an artistic environment where youth learn as well as act their vision of human rights, and as such cultivate an atmosphere of empathy and intercultural understanding.

Over the past fifty years, performative arts have been deployed as key metaphors to rethink normative notions of selfhood, gender, masculinity, minorities, marginal communities, fine arts, culture and many other socio-economic and political issues. The brilliancy of adopting a theatrical approach to such issues resides in the fundamental principle of exposition i e , the exposition of the case at hand, from a variety of different angles, leaving enough breathing space for the actors and the audience (in our case the participants) to build their own opinion s and decisions. The value of theatre as a medium to foster human rights in youth is manifested in its performative ability to break down and expose uneasy and complex matters (such as the speech, racism, gender discrimination, Islamophobia ) into lucid and understandable series of acts which can be easily fathomed, and whose effect could immediately be detected through changes in mood, emotions, bodily gesture and so on.

THROUGH THE EYES OF THE PARTİCİPANTS

Additionally, the theatre constitutes a place where questioned are asked, ideas are formulated and embodied, assumptions, prejudices and stereotypes are critiqued, without reaching conclusions or judgments. As such, it is an effective tool fostering human values without being restrained by ideological bias In its pursuit of the solidification of human rights, theatre can be seen as a means of stressing differences rather than dissolving similarities; it should emphasize civil confrontation rather than unwarranted agreement because it is by having the uneasy and difficult discussions that we, as a community, as a society, we progress towards real multicultural diversity. The experience of multiculturalism in Europe is struggling because, the push of multiculturalism happens merely at the legislative and political level, the theatre can be a means of advancing the values of diversity of the artistic and cultural level because the latter dimensions constitute a significant part of the fabric of society.

Human rights can reach people through theatre in ways which remain unattainable to the highfalutin discourse of politics.

Last but not least, one of the cardinal elements which characterize performative arts such as drama, plays and theatre was conceptualized by the Greeks as Catharsis To define it simply, Catharsis is the purification or purgation of the emotions (such as pity, fear, hatred ) primarily through art to brings about spiritual renewal or release from tension

In other words, the participants (performers and audiences) get to experience what is it like to be targeted by hate speech or racism vicariously; they get to see the detrimental effect of the prejudices and stereotypes which loom in their minds; and by the culminating end of the act, their feelings, attitudes and presuppositions are challenged through the variety of perspective which participatory theatre expose them to through performative narratives. The audience and performer are given a chance to purgate their consciousness from the prejudices they might have by means of witnessing and visually experiencing the consequences of such biased beliefs.

THROUGH THE EYES OF THE PARTİCİPANTS

The utilization of theatre and performative arts in general to establish strong and educated youth communities which are driven by the pursuance of human rights unravels the philosophy which animates the totality of Erasmus+. It is a noble cause which pursued by various national agencies through various participatory means such as youth exchanges and training courses where various participants are brought together under the supervision of a facilitator or a trainer who enable them to generate self-learning from within their positive and negative past experiences, and by fostering and embodying an environment of safety and human civility.

THROUGH THE EYES OF THE PARTİCİPANTS

P A R T İ C İ P A T O R Y T H E A T E R 4 H U M A N

ERASMUS+

PROVISION INTERNATIONAL

R İ G H T S

Alperen Yavuz Çelebi

Amira Salama

Berat Baydu Sadik

Horia-Andrei Almășan

Irina Gancheva Ganeva

Marco Lunati

Michela Gaudiano