MIJARC Europe

In 2017 MIJARC Europe has redefined its vision, adopting new strategic objectives and an action plan for the period 2018-2021. With the new strategy, three new thematic focus points were set and in 2018, MIJARC Europe chose to focus on promoting its European vision in an interconnected world in an attempt to answer the challenge of building a peaceful world. Peace is indeed the annual topic chosen by our member organisations (MOs) and in line with our strategic focus, the topic will be pursued with a view to: promote cooperation with our neighbours and to promote and build a peaceful vision towards the others and the world.

On 11th November 2018 the world will celebrate 100 years since the end of the First World War (WW1). As the first major global conflict, the WW1 saw unprecedented levels of carnage and destruction but also massive social upheaval for women who entered the workforce. The young people in MIJARC Europe what to mark this historical landmark by focusing on peace and using the memory of the war as a warning signal that we should never take peace, stability and security for granted and always work to promote and maintain them. Also, we should not forget that our continent and our world are still affected by conflict or continue to bear the consequences of past hostilities. Peace is far from being reached in many parts of the world and young people are one of the main actors that can rebuild their societies, maintain peace and promote it so that present and future generations do not have to bear the consequences of conflicts.

This is why in 2018 we will work together towards making young people in MIJARC Europe’s network and beyond aware of the important and positive role they play in the maintenance and promotion of international peace and security. Our annual work plan includes one local activity, two international activities backed by follow-up measures and a peace festival hosted by our member movements MRJC-France and KLJB-Germany. The activities work towards one common concrete output – an educational travelling photo exhibition and a booklet with activities.

Our first activity will be a local activity. Under the title – “Peace and conflict” – this local activity invites volunteers from all our MOs to do a research about the situation of migrants and refugees in their countries, write one article about it and make efforts to meet at least two migrants or refugees and find their personal story. With the agreement of the people and following all legal prescriptions they will take a portrait of them and caption it with that person’s personal story of conflict. These portraits will be included in a photo exhibition that will become an educational travelling exhibition in the end.

Our first international activity will be a youth peace camp – “We are the others”. The camp will focus on participants’ personal relation to peace and conflict and on equipping them with intercultural competencies. The conclusions of their discussions and work will materialize in a second section of the exhibition – portraits and stories of conflict – and a booklet with educational activities that can be done around the exhibition.

The call for participants has already been launched. You can find it here. The deadline to apply is 20th May 2018. So, if you are interested to join our youth peace camp, download and send the registration form before the deadline.

The international peace festival “Rendez-vous” will the perfect place for young people to meet and attend workshops, open sessions and moderated discussions on peace and conflict. The event will gather about 5,000 people from all over Europe and people from other continents and it will truly be a festival of friendship and openness.

Our last international activity of the year will be a simulation – “Messages from the future”. An unconventional activity that will make the participants travel through time and join a youth meeting which takes place in 2068.

During the meeting they will have to look at what went wrong in the past and why global peace is still not achieved. They will transform their ideas into meaningful messages and photos creating the third section of the exhibition. The activity will be hosted by APSD-Agenda 21 in Buzau-Romania and it will be co-financed by the ERASMUS+ Programme of the European Union.

As a follow-up measure, the exhibition will travel in 10 different countries with the help of the pax at the two international activities.

Did we manage to make you curios and interested in joining us?

If so, contact your national organization or write to our Secretariat to find out how to join our activities!

Our members from France – MRJC – and Germany – KLJB -decided to organize the local round table together, taking advantage of the annual joint meeting of the French-German Inter-Commission. So, on 25th November 2017, in Becanson-France, they joined forces and brought 45 people working in different commissions in their movements for a nice official dinner to present the results of the seminar and discuss about the current political situation and about what comes to their mind when they think about extremism, discrimination and hate. The organizing team started by explaining why MIJARC decided to deal with the subject of extremism and continued with the presentation of what happened during the study visit and the seminar. Next, they explained the most important points of the position paper “Extremism in Europe”.

As a result of the round table, the participants realized how extremism, hate and discrimination affect our daily life. They are some of the main topics in our newspapers and the reason for terrorism, wars and the #metoo-debate. They concluded that extremist attitudes have increased since a lot of refugees came to Europe. A very important point of the position paper as highlighted by the participants was that we should continue to give young people a sense of democracy by following democratic rules in our events and supporting them in developing citizenship.

Another important point was to support the idea of a shared European project, built on cooperation. The discussion were also very deep and personal and the participants discovered that everyone had been affected more or less by extremism, racism or discrimination. The members of KLJB and MRJC felt strengthened in their planning of the peace-festival “RENDEZVOUS!” in 2018. One hundred years after the end of the First World War, they want to leave a mark for peace and justice and a common European vision.

The round tables are the third and final phase of our work plan “Radically against extremism”. The work plan is supported by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe, a unique foundation supporting activities developed with, for and by young people.

Our member organization from Romania, Assistance and Programmes for Sustainable Development – Agenda 21 (APSD-Agenda 21) managed to bring to their round table 18 participants representing 15 public institutions and local authorities from all over the country: Bucharest School Inspectorate, Giurgiu County School Inspectorate, National Agency for People with Disabilities, Bucharest 4th district City Hall, National Authority for the Protection of Child Rights and Adoption, Prefecture Institution Giurgiu, Cornu City Hall, National Agency of Civil Servants, General Directorate for Social Assistance and Child Protection 6th district Bucharest, General Directorate for Social Assistance and Child Protection 1st district Bucharest, County Council Prahova , Ploiesti City Hall, Calvini Region City Hall, Ramnicu Sarat City Hall, Teachers Training House Buzau. It was an impressively diverse group of civil servants, local elected decision-makers, teachers, schools inspector, social workers and young people. The young participants who had attended the seminar used a Power Point presentation to present the Position Paper and started a moderated discussion on the points raise.

One of the main conclusions of the meeting was the importance of education, in formal and non-formal contexts, for both victims and authors of extremist acts. The representatives of the school inspectorates who were present at the meetings suggested that the topic could be approached by the Master teachers during the counselling classes. Another conclusion was that it would be very important if there were funds dedicated to organizing proper information/awareness-raising sessions or workshops/seminars with students of all ages.

The representatives of public institutions underlined that in public administration there were a series of documents and codes that comprise the principles of the Position Paper, but nevertheless these codes are not always respected by the letter. So, it would be good to find push-factors that could help in creating a non-discrimination and hate free environment at the level of civil servants.

All participants agreed that social media is a very powerful influencing factor that can easily shape opinions and behaviours, especially of young people. Young people need to learn how to critically analyze a text/post and how to recognize hate speech and discrimination.

On 18th October 2017, our member organization System&Generation from Turkey held two round tables with students and staff of the T.C. Gazi University and with members of their own organisation.

The round tables started with a presentation of MIJARC Europe and the projects it had developed with S&G and it continued with a session in which those attended had the chance to reflect on their own knowledge, attitude and general feelings towards extremism and radicalization. Next, the attendees were involved in a discussion with a professor for Gazi University, trying to find an answer to the question “What can be done in order to prevent or reduce the frequency of these acts?”. The SWOT analysis method was used for the suggested solutions. The entire event enabled the participants to enrich their knowledge on the topic of extremism and to use it in order to bring about a change in attitude in their communities.

Federation of Youth Clubs of Armenia, the biggest youth organization in Armenia, and a full member of MIJARC Europe, held round-table discussions devoted to the fight against extremism and violence. The round tables were organized by the young FYCCA volunteers who attended the international seminar “Open minds, open doors”.

There were two events: the first discussion was held with the members and volunteers of organisation on 16th September 2017, while the second event was held with representatives of local youth NGOs and of the municipality of Yerevan city on 20th September 2017 – a day before the International day of Peace. During the round-table discussions, the following points were targeted: the results of the international seminar devoted to the fight against discrimination and intolerance that was held in Germany, and the position paper created at the end of the seminar.

In addition, discussions on the manifestations of intolerance, spreading of hate speech, and extreme violence in a number of European countries, including Armenia, were conducted and some roleplays were demonstrated. The coordinators also initiated a social media campaign against extremism and hate speech and started a photo competition devoted to peace and solidarity.

The final stage of our annual work plan, the local round tables with local NGOs and public authorities started in September and gave the participants to our international activities the chance to present the result of their work: the Position Paper. With the help of their members movements, the participants contacted public authorities and local NGOs and set a round table, based on the follow-up plan they drafted and assessed together at the end of the seminar. The participants presented the tools developed during the Study Visit and the International Seminar and initiated a discussion from the points raised in the Position Paper. The aim of these round tables is to raise awareness at the local level and to start a discussion on the manner of addressing the issues of radicalisation, extremism and inclusion. Federation of Youth Clubs – Armenia (FYCA), System&Generation – Turkey (S&G) and Assistance and Programmes for Sustainable Development-Agenda 21 – Romania (APSD-Agenda 21) held their round tables and drew interesting conclusion on youth involvement and extremism. More round tables will be held in November and December. Read about them in the “News” category.

In 2017 MIJARC Europe is running an annual Work Plan on the topics of radicalisation and extremism. The main aim of the work plan is to reach out to young women and men living in rural areas in Europe and support them in resisting and countering radicalisation and violent extremism.

This annual work plan will include a series of three activities which are interconnected and build on each other:

1. “Visiting at the speed of radicalisation” – a study visit in Brussels for a group of 12 young people. The aim of the visit is to create a group of multipliers that will be the Think Tank preparing and facilitating the next activity, the seminar. The idea is for the participants to have meetings with representatives of European institutions involved in the prevention of and fight against radicalisation of young people, encounters with experts on the topic of social inclusion and extremism and with European and international NGOs who run projects in the field. This activity will set the context for having a unified and prepared team able to run a quality seminar but it will also contribute to building the capacity of our member movements. It will give participants the chance to develop competencies that reduce their vulnerability to extremist views and at the same time it will motivate them to invest their energy in addressing these issues in their organisations and communities.

2. “Open Minds, Open Doors” – an international seminar prepared and facilitated by the people who attended the study visit which will be built on the knowledge and skills acquired during the first phase. The seminar will be centered on the issue of vulnerability of rural young people to radicalisation, focusing on sharing the realities of each country, on the exchange of opinions and on concrete solutions at local level. The seminar will use the traditional MIJARC Europe methodology of “See-Judge-Act” looking first at the contextual, personal and ideological factors that increase the vulnerability to radicalization of young people living in rural areas, then analyzing which of these factors have the greatest influence and finally deciding what measures to take and what tools to use in order to increase their resilience. The seminar serves to enable the critical thinking of participants and the reinforcement of our shared values. It helps participants develop competencies that reduce their vulnerability and it motivates them to take all these to the next level to inform and inspire others.

3. “Think European, share locally” – local round tables gathering rural NGOs, representatives of local public authorities and young people in order to present the results of the international activities and use the position paper as a starting point in analysing and re-discussing the local strategy on preventing radicalisation, fighting extremist attitudes and building resilience.

Our annual work plan in 2017 is implemented with the financial support of the Council of Europe through the European Youth Foundation.