Printer-friendly version The three-day conference was held from April 21 till April 23rd in the Voronezh Regional Youth Centre. Its main organizer was the Youth Human Rights Movement (YHRM), the international secretariat of which is located in Voronezh, together with the UNITED for Intercultural Action network. The event in Voronezh gathered together over 40 participants – teachers, youth activists, students, administrators of Nonprofit Organizations and others from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Germany and Poland. Some experts and instructors of master-classes could not arrive at the conference because of the situation with the air traffic in Europe. Andrey Yurov, the director of Voronezh Public reception at the Mission for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, the Honorary President of the YHRM; Gennadiy Kirechenkov the deputy head of Voronezh Department for formation, science and youth policy, and as well Dirk Hebekker, the senior adviser of the Representative Office of the Supreme Commissioner of the United Nations for Human Rights in Moscow, who came with a two-day visit to Voronezh, gave complimentary speeches to the participants at the opening of the conference on April 21. The evening of the first day was dedicated to A. Yurov's lecture “Youth of Europe between fascism and indifference” during which the opinion of the organizers of the conference was expressed on what modern humanitarian antifascism is and what elements antiracism, anti-totalitarianism and peacemaking/nonviolence include. On the second day (April 22) attention was paid to counteracting ultra-right violence and xenophobia among youth. Alexey Kozlov (the GROZA movement) gave a lecture on ultra-right tendencies in modern Europe. Lena Dudukina (Network against Racism and Intolerance, YHRM) elucidated the issues of state youth policy, and also presented the results of the last year’s Human Rights monitoring. After the experts’ speeches, the participants got the opportunity not only to discuss existing problems but to exchange experience in possible actions on changing the current situation in our countries, during the master-classes: “Monitoring of Xenophobia”, “Movies against Fascism”, “Journalists and Racists: Who will Win?”, “Work on the Subject of Antiracism in School”, and also “Practical Aspects of Refugees and Migrants Rights Protection”. The second half of the day was dedicated to various tactics of counteracting racism based on practical experience of the participants of the conference, and also to elaboration of joint projects while discussing the several problematic issues in workgroups, concerning: “Antifascist Publishing Projects”, “Educational Programs against Racism”, “Protection of the Rights of Foreign Students”, and also “Informational and Web Projects”. A contentious discussion flared up in the workgroup on educational and enlightenment programs in the sphere of antiracism. The controversy was about who can conduct lessons on this subject, and how to do it without any harm; whether the traditional methods are admissible or it’s better to leave place for informal education in this case… On April 23 the participants and the organizers gathered to summarize the results of the conference: the discussion of the workgroups’ results, exchange of ideas on joint projects, presentations of initiatives open for joining, and also estimation of successfulness and effectiveness of the past event. Despite the conference is over, the organizers hope that it has become the beginning of many new joint projects and programs, has encouraged acquaintance of the participants with each other and consolidation of uncoordinated efforts to counteract racism in our countries. This event was held within the project “Building Partnership for Successful Nonviolent Youth Action to Promote Human Rights Culture, Tolerance and Inter-cultural Dialogue” under support of the Representative Office of the European Commission in the Russian Federation, and the project “Civil Organisations Serving Society: Youth Actions against Racism, Nationalism and Xenophobia and for Human Rights and Inter-cultural Dialogue” as well, supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the framework of MATRA program. For detailed information: +7 4732 90-66-82 Irina Aksenova Elena Dudukina Alexandra Nazarova