UNESCO sets stage for a hate free Cameroon

By Bakah Derick just back from Douala

A three day workshop on Prevention of violent extremism online and offline with focus on building a hate free Cameroon has ended in Douala.

Organised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO Multisectoral Regional Office for Central Africa, the workshop brought together 60 youth leaders and youth representatives from political parties, online influencers, bloggers and journalists with the objective “to prevent violent extremism and defy hate speech among youths and media on and offline. 

Participants at the Workshop displaying certificates of participation in closing family picture

 

Speaking at the start of the Workshop on Wednesday April 6, the Regional Director for the Multi-sectoral Regional UNESCO Office for Central Africa in Yaounde explained that the workshop aims at mapping out current challenges and creating strategies to tackle the difficulties encountered by the young people who consume information in Cameroon. Salah KHALED expressed the need for participants and the rest of Cameroon to cultivate the skills needed for creating a healthier and safer online experience devoid of violent extremism ideologies, hate speech, misinformation and fake news. 

Yvonne Matuturu Program Specialist Coordinator of the Social and Human Sciences Sector Central Africa Multisectoral Regional UNESCO Office in Yaounde who will later spend the rest of the days with the workshop participants in her opening remarks explained that it will create conditions that make it difficult for violent extremist ideologies to thrive and help the participants to build resilience to violent extremism and hate speech. While announcing the launching of a Defy Hate Now Campaign during the workshop, the Program Specialist Coordinator added that Media and Information Literacy MIL will be used as an approach to enable young people in Cameroon to prevent inciting hate violence. 

After participating in the three days training that focused daily on capacity building and knowledge sharing through presentations and practical exercises on the #defyhatenow campaign, roles in talking hate speech and radicalisation and impact creation, the participants have committed themselves to starting action that can mitigate hate speech and violent extremism.  

The workshop comes on the backdrop of a serious breakdown in social-cohesion in the NW/SW regions of Cameroon and other regions of the country with increasing socialisation in information and communication. The current security context, the recent past presidential election atmosphere and the forth coming regional, municipal and legislative elections all provide breeding ground for ethnic polarisation, hate speech, radicalisation and extremism both online and offline with key players taking lead roles in the posting and sharing of all these including propaganda, incitement to violence on any space available. 

Nelson Kwaje IT Specialist and Kim Suzan Journalist both from South Sudan used their experiences of long time war and armed conflicts and the #defyhatenow training gained since 2004 to facilitate the workshop and have been appreciated by the participants. 

“In my opinion the workshop was timely and the resource persons had a mastery of the subject matter. Both trainers came from South Sudan, a country which is just recovering from a similar crisis rocking the Southwest and Northwest Regions of Cameroon. The participants too were well selected. I also want to think that UNESCO has made a right choice to join the fight against hate speech which is being used to fuel conflicts the world over. It is our hope that as participants, we could be able to fight hate speech both online and offline from our different zones of influence” Tayang Tabe Limbe based journalists and participant at the workshop told hilltopvoices representative. 

As per the theme, it is expected that conditions to hinder the spreading of hate and violent extremist ideologies will be created by developing the resilience of learners to violent extremist and hate messaging on social media.