This conference it organised by Youth Human Rights Movement and UNITED for Intercultural Action with the joint support of our partners, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Human Rights House (Voronezh).

The main conference language will be Russian. All information and the e-nomination form in English can be found below. All information in Russian will be available on the UNITED website .

There are many different approaches to anti-racism work, and many different strategies for tackling social problems such as xenophobia, discrimination, the rise of nationalism and rhetoric about the failure of multiculturalism. Within civil society, diverse political, social and educational outlooks have produced a wide variety of ideas and methods for bringing about social change : however, too often, these ideas are developed independently and not shared between organisations. We believe that real change is only possible if we take into account these different perspectives : dialogue can help us to find new and effective solutions in our work, and communicating with others who share our goals gives us inspiration, motivation and strength. Discussing the urgent problems of the modern world together will allow us to better understand the social context we work in, to educate each other, and share strategies and good practices between civil society organizations, authorities, educational institutions, and people who simply want to make a difference in their community.

We would be delighted to see among the conference participants :
 representatives of civil, youth and human rights organizations that deal with racism, discrimination and hate crimes,
 young teachers and representatives of educational departments and youth agencies, student activists and active schoolchildren,
 representatives of groups that stand for minorities’ rights and interests and other people who are engaged with the situation and interested in discussing possible solutions and actions among authorities and the educational/humanitarian community.

The conference programme depends to a large extent on the participants and will include a number of open discussions, working groups, master-classes and experts’ talks. So, when you apply, please, indicate what you can contribute to the content of the conference. Various educational initiatives and working groups will be presented within the following sections :

- Peace-making projects and initiatives - we believe that human integrity is bound up with practices against militaristic ideology. We will present in this block the future and past peace-building initiatives and discuss what we can do in this field in Russian-speaking countries. - Antiracist education for adults - Baustein - an educational concept about how to deal with racism in various communities was translated and published by the YHRM in Russian this year. Human Library is an unusual library where real people replace books and are ready to answer any questions of the "readers". It gives us an opportunity to learn more about the people around us. - Educational actions for young people - using the examples of the Anna Frank House travelling exhibition and educational projects by UNITED and the Youth network against racism and intolerance. - International campaigns and solidarity between activists - by giving examples of the European campaign "Reclaim Solidarity" and Polish "Coalition 11 November" and others. - Educational art projects - by giving an example of the comics project "Respect".

Experts from the European network UNITED for Intercultural Action, International Youth Human Rights Movement, Youth network against racism and intolerance, Moscow Helsinki Group, Anna Frank House (the Netherlands), "Human Library", comics festival "ComMission" and others will be among the conference participants.

Deadline 10 November 2011 Anastasia Nikitina, Alexander Drook, Konstantin Baranov, Lena Dudukina, Irina Aksenova. +7 4732 54 55 29 phone +7 4732 54 55 30 fax. +7 915 548 71 90 mobile phone +7 919 242 87 10 mobile phone.