PECAO – Peer Education to Counter Antigypsyist Hate Speech Online

Project leader: ERGO Network

Period: May 2020- May 2022

Nr. of the project: 875137 — PECAO

Budget: 1,2 milion euro

Partners:

Integro Association (Bulgaria)
Nevo Parudimos (Romania)
Federation of Catalan Roma Associations (FAGIC), Spain
Romaversitas (Hungary)
Romanonet (Czech Republic)
La Voix des Rroms (France)
Upre Roma (Italy)
Roma Women Fund Chiricli (Ukraine)
RROMA (North Macedonia)
Roma Active Albania (Albania)

Since May, Nevo Parudimos Association has become a member of a consortium funded by the European Union and Google.Org to combat hate speech (IUD) against Roma.

The consortium is part of an international project carried out by ERGO (European Roma Grassroots Organizations), one of the most active and incisive networks of Roma non-governmental organizations, a constant partner of the European Commission in analyzing and implementing policies on inclusion and Roma rights at European level.

The PECAO project (Peer Education to Counter Antigypsist Online Hate Speech), through which the consortium was established, will take place in 10 European countries (Romania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Spain, Hungary, France, Italy, Ukraine and Northern Macedonia), on a period of 2 years and will develop and implement tools to monitor hate speech in the online environment, through training activities for young people and awareness of the negative impact of this form of aggressive online manifestation. The project has a funding of 1.2 million euros from the European Union and Google.0rg.

In recent weeks we have witnessed with amazement the violent exacerbation of anti-social manifestations towards minorities. In particular, the Roma minority in Europe is one of the ethnic groups visibly subjected to various forms of harassment and violence over time. With a population of about 12 million people, Roma live in poverty in proportion of 80%, and 1 in 3 people do not want to have Roma neighbors.

In this context, anti-gypsumism is a subtle and at the same time intense form of racism that is found in the public space (in the media and on online social platforms), but also in forms deeply rooted in the collective mind through which it is based. actions of discrimination and social exclusion for all age groups, status and gender of the Roma minority.

The Nevo Parudimos Association, through the project manager, Çlaudiu Pamfil, will have the task of selecting and training in Romania a number of 25 young Roma to recognize and condemn the violent manifestations that have a racist basis in the online environment (through training courses, through learning skills for effective recognition, monitoring and reporting to IT authorities and companies, by increasing self-confidence in order to publicly condemn anti-gypsumism). Also, one of the results of the project will be the elaboration of an Evaluation Report at EU level that will substantiate Google’s policy. Org in order to combat the manifestations of online aggression.

This component will be coordinated by the Nevo Parudimos Association by Ileana Rotaru, associate professor. at the West University of Timișoara and involves the development of specific methodology for monitoring and reporting cases of online racism against the Roma minority, comparative analysis for the 10 states involved in the consortium by identifying at least 150 cases / country of instigating discourses hatred of Roma and the reporting of at least 10 of them by each partner involved to the authorities and companies providing online platforms. At the end of the project, in addition to validating a tool for monitoring and measuring online violence with racist references, the Synthesis Report will provide a clear picture of the many facets of hate and discrimination in the online environment and the involvement of a private Google company. together with the European Union, it proves the awareness of this scourge and the need to identify the most appropriate and balanced measures and policies to counter and prevent it.

Funded by the European Union Program for Rights, Equality and Citizenship (2014-2020 and Google.Org Impact Challenge on Safety):

Integro Association (Bulgaria)
Nevo Parudimos (Romania)
Federation of Catalan Roma Associations (FAGIC), Spain
Romaversitas (Hungary)
Romanonet (Czech Republic)

Funding from the Google.Org Impact Challenge on Safety in the framework of ERGO Network’s project Peer education to counter antigypsyist online hate speech:

La Voix des Rroms (France)
Upre Roma (Italy)
Roma Women Fund Chiricli (Ukraine)
RROMA (North Macedonia)
Roma Active Albania (Albania)

Grant Agreement NUMBER — 875137 — PECAO

For more details: http://ergonetwork.org/pecao/ and https://nevoparudimos.ro/