Regional conference on attacks on democracy and human rights to take place in Skopje

“Attacks on democracy and human rights: CSOs in support of Western Balkan societies facing disinformation, hate speech and hybrid attacks” is a regional conference, organized by CIVIL in cooperation with the Balkan Forum, members of the Civil Society Platform for Democracy and Human Rights (CSP). The conference will take place on Wednesday, July 28, 2021, 11:00-13:30h, at Hotel Park Residence & Spa, Skopje, North Macedonia.

This conference will be the first in the series to be organized by members of the CSP until December 2021.

CIVIL will host an estimated 150-minute-long conference with a combined participation (online and physical), split in two sessions. Each session invites prominent experts and civil society actors to speak on the topics related to the Conference’s theme, after which discussion will follow.

Participants in the sessions will focus on two questions: How disinformation is distorting the public discourse and encouraging radically offensive rhetoric and hate speech? And: How hybrid attacks are distorting public discourse and endangering democracies.

Panelists will share their knowledge and views on most frequent types and sources of disinformation, hate speech and hybrid attacks; how institutions and societies are dealing with these issues/phenomena, and what are best practices proven to be successful.

The working language of the event is English. It will be streamed online, whilst the media outputs will be translated by CIVIL and the Balkan Forum and subtitled in the languages spoken in our region.