Be yourself, respect others

Nowadays most of the EU and neighboring counties accept the equality of men and women before the low; their freedom of choice, equal opportunities and access to job market are strengthened by several universal laws and declarations. At the same time, when we have a deeper look in Europe's different countries and communities we obviously see the difference between declared laws and constitutions and today's realities. Even in most progressive EU countries employers higher more men and prefer to pay them more than their female counterparts. Very often we witness open, discriminating opinions and jokes about women. In several Eastern European countries and South Caucasian countries bullying and hate speech, sometimes even violent/aggressive activities against homosexuality and transsexuals are ignored or shadowy supported by local/national governments.

One of the reasons why Gender equality strengthening laws are do not guarantee gender equality in our realities is the traditional mainstream of mass-media(TV, Radio, Press, Internet) that generally underestimates gender equality in its news feed and advertising policy. Very often we see sexist notes and rigid gender role obtrusion in TV/Radio and press, internet mass-media is repeatedly full of comments with bullying, hate speech towards homosexuality and transsexuals. We also observe that Media workers(journalists, editors) justify their activities with "Freedom of speech" and the importance of good selling of the product. From our point of view the violation of human rights can't be called "freedom of speech" and Hate speech or bullying against someone can't be an acceptable means for good selling.

The Training Course “Be yourself, respect others” will bring youth workers together from the EU (Estonia, Poland) and Neighboring Partner Countries (Armenia, Ukraine)to Yerevan, Armenia. The project aims to support youth workers in promoting gender equality in their working process with youngsters. Different scale of activities as simulation-games, role-plays, group activities, discussions, presentations, field visits will give participants opportunity to get skills and exchange experiences on gender mainstreaming, gender discrimination, gender violence and gender perspectives in different Mass-Medias of European states to know more about realities in Eastern Europe and Caucasus region.
The objective of the Training Course are following:

-To get to know the concepts of Gender and Sex
-To understand the definition of gender equality in the frames of EU, CEO and Universal Human Rights acts.
- To develop participants knowledge and understanding on gender equality protecting issues intersecting with various spheres of mass-Media products(Films, Advertisement, news, subscriber comments and etc)
- To exchange experiences between youth workers and media representatives on the difficulties to find a gender equality and Freedom of speech balance in Mass-Medias.
- To facilitate networking process among participants and promote new common projects related to gender equality;