Partners for Transparency, as head of the Egyptian Network of the Anna Lindh Foundation for Euro-Mediterranean Dialogue between Cultures, organized a multinational virtual youth debate within the framework of the campaign to combat hate speech in the Euro-Mediterranean region to shed light on cultural differences and the importance of taking them into account when enacting laws and legislations to confront hate speech. The argument of the debate was that “the regulations against hate speech should be the same for all countries in the Euro-Mediterranean region.”
A number of 35 young men and women from all over the Euro-Mediterranean region participated in this debate, including Egypt, Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, Tunisia, Morocco, Lebanon, Austria and Palestine. Which led to putting forward ideas in moderation, and the youth presented their views in line with their vision and culture, which led to enriching the audience’s vision of cultural differences according to geographical and demographic differences.
After the debate was completed, the audience participated in the debate of the debaters and the questioning of the points raised by them, and in turn, all the attendees expressed their admiration for the debate as a whole and for the ideas that were presented in particular. Active citizenship and solidarity with the presentation of the United Nations strategy to confront hate speech, which enriched the discussion in light of the interaction between the vision of youth and experts on combating hate speech
In this debate, Mirna Shalash, head of the Egyptian Network of Annalind Foundation, stressed the importance of addressing hate speech is a shared responsibility between individuals, governments, civil society organizations and the media, and stressed the importance of adopting strategies at the national and regional levels to address this phenomenon.
The debate came out with a set of recommendations, the most important of which is the importance of dialogue as an important tool to combat hate speech in the Euro-Mediterranean region, the importance of concerted efforts at all levels between countries in order to promote dialogue and confront the ideas of the extreme right and extremist groups, and the need to pay attention to and take in different cultures Take into account when designing anti-hate speech laws