“Your turn to stop racism”

The international project “LIGHT ON – Cross-community actions for combating the modern symbolism and languages of racism and discrimination” focuses on activating the general public, especially the youth, to react to racism across Europe. Challenging the normalisation of racism, hate speech and discrimination – that is their acceptance as “normal” components of everyday life, the LIGHT ON project has constituted a set of tools aimed at raising awareness, empowering people to act against racism, encouraging reporting if they become victims or witness a racially motivated hate crime, and strengthening the capacity of professionals and authorities to denounce hate crimes and discrimination. With targeted activities aimed at encouraging reporting hate speech and racist discrimination to responsible authorities in contrast to the normalisation of racism, the project has aimed to contribute to creating an environment of systemic and individual denouncement of racism.

Video clips and other useful materials are now available online in five European languages: English, Finnish, Hungarian, Italian and Slovenian. The “It’s your turn to stop racism” video comprises five national episodes; you can see the Slovenian, which was produced by the Peace Institute team, here. The video clip had 44 nation-wide television broadcasts in December 2014 and was aired by 5 different Slovenian TV stations (including public television and 2 most watched commercial TV stations).

The LIGHT ON project materials also include a Training Manual on Investigating and Reporting Online Hate Speech, an Anti-Racism Toolkit with a short practical guide Spot Racism Online, a Visual Database of Racist and Discriminatory Symbols and Images and a Glossary of Racist Terms and Expressions that is presented as an online Bliki compendium). All of these materials have multiple applicability; they can be used as teaching aid in schools, adapted to various professional training manuals as needed, as well as serve as useful guidelines to all who wish to contribute to a plural and open society without racism, hate speech and discrimination.

Donors and partners:

Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Program of the European Commission.

Abruzzo Region, Italy (project coordinator);
Progetti Sociali, Italy;
UNICRI – United Nations Interregional Institute for Research on Crime and Justice;
ENAR – European Network Against Racism;
The Ombudsman for Minorities, the Ministry of Interior of Finland;
ISIG – International Institute of Sociology of Gorizia, Italy;
ELTE – The Eötvös Lóránd University, Hungary;
The Forum – The Migrant and Refugee Community Forum in London, UK;
The Peace Institute.