#Unite4Heritage

This project works to support youth civic engagement and participation in peacebuilding and the promotion of cultural diversity and intercultural/interreligious understanding by empowering and mobilising youth organisations, youth online communities and networks, and other relevant stakeholders (policymakers, researchers, media professionals, and social workers). The idea is to bring together relevant civil society organisations (CSOs) and other collaborators who could invest their productive energy into addressing hate-related issues that impact their societies and their communities. This action will allow for sector-specific and cross-sectoral interventions, aiming at empowering youth and building their resilience against hate speech, radicalisation, and violent extremism. #Unite4Heritage strategies are being fine-tuned in cooperation with key regional institutions, such as the Anna Lindh Foundation (ALF) and the Council of Europe (CoE), and is engaging national networks of youth organisations coordinated by regional institutions to promote intercultural dialogue. Discussions are being taken forward with UN agencies and the UN Secretary-General Special Envoy on Youth to explore modalities of collaboration, including in the framework of the Global Forum on Youth, Peace and Security (Amman, Jordan, August 21-22 2015) and in the context of the UN Decade for the Rapprochement of Cultures and the UNESCO partnership with the UN Alliance of Civilizations. This will take into account existing Action Plans (UN, CoE, the European Union (EU), etc.), as well as the outcomes of major conferences and events organised worldwide on the issue of youth online radicalisation. For example, since its introduction in 1999, the UNESCO Youth Forum (October 26-28 2015; October 2017) is meant to provide an ongoing opportunity for youth to work with UNESCO, to shape and direct the organisation's approach, and to present their ideas to Member States

#Unite4Heritage uses a variety of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and face-to-face experiences in an effort to draw attention to the importance of cultural diversity and strengthen knowledge of world cultures. Core actions are implemented mainly at the national and local levels, with gender sensitivity mainstreamed throughout all activities. Interventions are happening around 4 axes:

1. Supporting multidisciplinary research on linkages between youth, the internet, radicalisation/de-radicalisation, as well as research-informed policies and actions - sample activities:
   • The International MIL [media and information literacy] and Intercultural Dialogue University Network is supporting global research focused on young people's competencies to deal with intolerance online and offline, as well as their attitude towards radical and extremist content online and ideological content in the media, while applying a gender-sensitive approach. Moreover, MIL assessments of country readiness and teacher competencies are being conducted. This MIL-focused research will contribute to the formulation of Information Society Policy modules based on the National Information Society Policy Templates developed within the framework of UNESCO's intergovernmental Information for All Programme (IFAP). National adaptation of these modules will be conducted through consultations.
   • Involving a wide range of youth stakeholders, UNESCO is advocating for shared policy positioning and evidence-based messaging between key regional/international institutions (e.g., UNESCO, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), ALF, CoE, etc.) highlighting the positive role of young women and men in countering radicalisation and in building lasting peace - while promoting intercultural dialogue, freedom of expression, and universal access to information and knowledge via the internet.
   • Through IFAP, specific efforts aimed at providing avenues for dialogue and collaboration between youth representatives and other stakeholders involved in the national, regional, and global policy debate in the Knowledge Societies space (click here to learn more) are being supported. Attention is given to supporting capacity-building of youth across the 6 strategic priority areas of IFAP (information accessibility, information for development, information ethics, information literacy, information preservation, and multilingualism in cyberspace) to empower them to articulate concerns in policy fora and to participate in these processes. Emphasis will be on the needs of youth in developing countries and within marginalised groups (with specific attention to gender, youth with disabilities, and youth in rural and remote areas).
2. Empowering youth online communities and key youth stakeholders on topics relevant to counter-radicalisation by building their competencies and skills and by equipping them with creative tools and knowledge - sample activities:
   • #Unite4Heritage is developing capacity-building online tools, empowering selected community managers and young web administrators to become central actors (and key multipliers) in preventing, reporting, and responding to online radicalisation messages (allowing self-monitoring and awareness of threats related to violent extremism). The tools will be available in several languages and can be used by a variety of youth organisations and stakeholders. The project will include various online youth-friendly massive open online courses (MOOCs), edu-tainment (education and entertainment) videos, and specific visuals/messaging on social media oriented towards human rights education. Materials will be based on these thematic entry points: MIL, education on cultural diversity and shared cultural heritage, intercultural competencies, global citizenship, peace-building, conflict resolution, and critical thinking.
   • A youth-friendly paedagogical online and face-to-face programme about the importance of safeguarding cultural heritage and promoting cultural diversity is being implemented among existing UNESCO youth networks to promote mutual understanding and a sense of common belonging to universal heritage and values, as well as intercultural dialogue and peace. Of particular relevance will be the World Heritage Volunteers Initiative. Within its framework, 5 Youth Action Camps will be held for 150 young national and/or international volunteers in 5 different locations directly related to World Heritage sites worldwide in collaboration with local youth organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and communities.
   • Face-to-face training is being offered to key youth stakeholders in order to equip them with creative tools, knowledge, and skills, thereby facilitating the identification of hate-based behaviours, with a focus on vulnerable youth groups. Priority is given to stakeholders in contact with youth at risk of radicalisation (social workers, educators, healthcare workers, police, religious leaders, etc.)
   • Based on the evidence gathered through the MIL assessments (see above), the UNESCO YouthMobile project is building capacities for teachers and learners to become aware and exercise their roles as global citizens. The assessments will contribute to the adaptation of tools for educators, youth, and religious leaders in order to build resilience against hate speech and various forms of intolerance online. Another goal is to strengthen capacities for the formulation of national MIL policies and strategies, as well as for their implementation. Towards these capacity-building goals, the use of relevant open educational resources (OER) is encouraged. Furthermore, YouthMobile will be leveraged for teaching young women and men to develop smart mobile applications that promote global citizenship and youth entrepreneurship. This is supported by partnerships being set up with national ministries of government - Education, Youth, Labour - in an effort to facilitate long-term integration of the YouthMobile ICT training materials into critical points of the established curricula. Multi-level competitions will be held to provide incentives, recognition, and sales/employment, and winners will be highlighted at events such as the UNESCO Youth Forum. It is also foreseen that a new smart device application on MIL will be developed in multiple languages and launched for different mobile operating systems.
3. Strengthening mobilisation and cooperation between media professionals and practitioners to combat radicalisation and online hate speech, with a focus on countries suffering tensions and conflict situations - The Bureau of the IPDC will launch a call for proposals, consider and select the best ones on areas that are closely linked to the issues covered by the UNESCO June 2016 conference "Cultural Diversity under Attack" and identified for follow up, including: countering hate speech in media and social media; promoting conflict-sensitive journalism practices; promoting cross-cultural dialogue among journalists; and safety of journalists.
4. Supporting creative media campaigns and outreach strategies designed to reach policy-makers and opinion-makers as well as the general public (including young audiences) - This component will facilitate the involvement of young leaders, young ambassadors selected among past participants of the ALF project Young Arab Voices, recipients of ALF's Mediterranean Journalist Awards, trainees of the planned capacity-building programme (as in #3 above), and other key stakeholders. There will be a communication campaign and outreach actions designed to reach both Northern and Southern youth communities through: a combination of internet and social media use, partnerships with traditional media (e.g., for the dissemination of campaign content, the organisation of televised debates, etc.), engagement of experts, and offline activities (e.g., cultural performances and spaces for artistic expression). The aims are to: generate counter-discourse and to share stories of young victims of radicalisation; create and disseminate new counter-narratives that would undermine the appeal of extremist messages; harness the power of social networks to mobilise young people to raise their voice and to take action for the safeguarding of heritage under threat, providing a counter-narrative to sectarian propaganda; promote a vision that highlights the relevance of combating the root causes of radicalisation through positive measures fostering dialogue and understanding, youth development, and a culture of peace - putting young people at the centre of the solution; and share the results of new studies focusing on radicalisation, counter-radicalisation, and de-radicalisation through infographics and other engaging and youth-friendly formats (to be published in English, French, and Arabic). In order to strengthen this component, workshops helping young women and men to develop skills to communicate through media are planned.

To cite a few examples of the way #Unite4Heritage is working in practice: As part of #Unite4Heritage, UNESCO supported Wiki Loves Monuments, a photography competition giving people in 41 countries the opportunity to share their built cultural heritage, on social media through September 2016 by using images entered into previous competitions. Photographs entered into Wiki Loves Monuments are available under open licenses so that they can be used by everyone, celebrating and raising awareness of built heritage with the 500 million people who visit Wikipedia each month. Another example comes from October 5 2016, World Teachers' Day, when - under the #Unite4Heritage umbrella - UNESCO's Pedagogical Supports on the African Cultural Heritage in Post-conflict Situation Project distributed 20,000 notebooks with covers promoting heritage to public schools and institutions across Mali. that encourages youth engagement in social and cultural activities school notebooks promoting heritage and the work that one of the project's partners, Solidarité Laïque, is carrying out in Mali. As part of this effort to develop reconciliation through the promotion of cultural heritage, one of the project's numerous partners, Solidarité Laïque, worked with UNESCO to develop a list of cultural assets in order for the children to take ownership of their heritage and interact with it - for example, in the form of multiple-choice questionnaires.

People are encouraged to get involved in the campaign, such as: posting support to social media using #Unite4Heritage; downloading and printing out posters, banners, and kakemonos (Japanese unframed paintings made on paper or silk and displayed as a wall hanging), and displaying them in visible places; talking with school groups and engaging them in a conversation about the importance of cultural heritage; and organising a special event or exhibit, inviting the local media to cover the activities and posting it to social media. Among the different initiatives to support #Unite4Heritage, the campaign #faces4heritage can be mentioned, which invites people to change their profile on social networks to raise awareness about heritage destruction. For more information about ways to get involved and upcoming project events, visit the #Unite4Heritage website.

Youth, Conflict, Democracy and Governance

Launched on March 28 2015, #Unite4Heritage was triggered by the programmatic destruction of cultural heritage conducted in Iraq and Syria by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) since 2014 - in particular after the circulation of videos of looting at Mosul Museum, destruction in the city of Nimrud, Iraq, and the UNESCO World Heritage site of Hatra in Iraq.