OSCE online training aims to strengthen capacities of youth leaders in North Macedonia to prevent violent extremism
Seventeen young men and women from across North Macedonia participated in an online capacity-building training course for youth leaders on preventing violent extremism and radicalization that lead to terrorism (P/CVERLT). The OSCE Mission to Skopje organized the course, held from 19 May to 2 June 2020, with technical support provided by the Action against Terrorism Unit of the OSCE Transnational Threats Department. The course builds on a module delivered in February.
This second module focused on the online dimension of preventing and countering violent extremism, and media literacy. It was designed to expand youth leaders’ skills gained from the first module, which explored topics such as understanding and addressing violent extremism and human rights.
The training, co-funded by the EU, forms part of the OSCE’s Leaders against Intolerance and Violent Extremism (LIVE) initiative, which seeks to promote efforts against violent extremism across the OSCE area developed and led by civil society at the grassroots level to address local specifics.
"The OSCE’s LIVE initiative is one of the rare projects that offers lifetime learning,” said Risto Saveski, participant of the LIVE Project. “Perhaps one cannot change the water current, but drop by drop one can make a change. LIVE focuses on those local initiatives, which together can bring a new wave. By putting youth leaders at the helm against radicalization and extremism in our society, a domino effect can be initiated, that will one day in the future break the chain in the ecosystems of violence and extremism."
The Head of the OSCE Mission to Skopje Clemens Koja said that the Mission is committed to contributing to prevention and countering violent extremism in North Macedonia.
“I strongly believe there is no better investment in building community resilience to violent extremism than empowering young people, the best advocates and promoters of the ideas of peace, tolerance and mutual understanding. And that is what the LIVE Project stands for - investing in young people’s knowledge and building trust,” he said.