Project background
One of the fields that CDN, as a capacity building network, prioritises to tackle in the Central and Eastern Europe is gender: gender roles, patriarchy, sexism, women emancipation, LGBTQ+ rights, queer theory, these are some topics on which gender working group aims to raise awareness and empower the youth on. The importance of Gender issues are especially vital in the Central and Eastern Europe. Gender working group has been active for almost a decade now and this project is an idea of the members.
The Central and Eastern Europe is still very conservative and patriarchal compared to Western Europe. According to the data of countries that make their data available through Eurostat, the worst domestic violence and femicide situations across Europe is Montenegro, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Hungary, Bosnia and Croatia. Countries like Serbia, Ukraine, Poland, Turkey or Caucasus countries are not included in the data set but it is a very well know fact, that the situation is not any better in those countries. The public and private spaces are not safe for women. Looking at the political representation, only 6 of the 52 leadership positions in Eastern Europe are occupied by female leaders as of 2019. The progress towards gender equality is so slow that even Council of Europe only recently adopted guidelines to its 47 member states on tackling sexism, including the first internationally-agreed definition. Looking at the LGBT+ rights, members of the LGBT+ community in Eastern Europe don’t have safe public spaces to express their gender and sexual orientation openly. The Gay Pride is mostly banned in Eastern European countries and where it is not banned, it can only take place under heavy security, limiting the LGBT+ access to political spaces as well.
What will we do and why?
This project has the goal of tackling the gender issue and representation in private and political spaces in Eastern Europe from both female and LGBT+ perspectives. However, with this project we would like to firstly enlarge the local, closed safe spaces with young activists of different genders and sexualities from the Central and Eastern Europe. Through international youth activities we will provide a bigger, intercultural space for young people of various genders and sexualities to interact with each other, share struggles and learn from each other. In the last phase of the work plan, we will carry the safe space to public space. We will enable the activists to interact with wider public through using art as a communication tool.
Our AIM with this workplan is to to understand power dynamics in patriarchal and cis-heteronormative societies in order to empower young women, LGBT+ youth, transgender, non-binary, agender, gender queer and intersex people to broaden the safe space and claim more private and political space through non-formal education and art.
By providing the platform to discuss the shared experiences and counteracting strategies, we would like to:
- Build understanding in the group about the different ways in which power can operate in society and reflect on possible unaware perpetuation of the existing power relations;Â
- Create safe space for young Eastern European women, LGBT+ youth, transgender, non-binary, agender, gender queer and intersex activists where they share experiences of daily private and political struggles from different contexts;Â
- Consider different strategies for challenging dominant power relations and equip them with tools and techniques to vigorously stand up in their respective struggles;Â
- Explore using art as a tool to expand the safe space in providing visibility to young women, LGBT+ youth, transgender, non-binary, agender, gender queer and intersex people;Â
- Explore and establish cooperation with the initiatives / organizations / individual activists on international level dealing with the same issues locally.
Project summary
This project consists of three activities, with which we would like to stress the importance of art, inclusivity and human rights. The project target group are the young people from the Central and Eastern Europe (Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo*, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine).
1st phase – Art as a shelter: A room of our own
The first event of the Work plan is a 5 day international training aiming to understand power dynamics and how power operates in patriarchal societies in order to empower young women to broaden safe space and claim more private and political space through art.
Date: 7-11 April 2020, (6th arrival, 12th departure)
Duration: 5 full working days
Location: Tirana, Albania
2nd phase – Good, Bad or Queer
The phase two is an organic continuation of the phase one and draws attention at challenging cis- and heteronormativity as a dominant power and aims at engaging and mobilising LGBT+ young people in taking ownership in advocating for their rights in their national contexts; We want to contribute to overcoming the binary understanding of gender and sexuality and maintstream this discourse in the (Green) youth organisations.
Date: 30 June – 4 July 2020, (29th arrival, 5th departure).
Duration: 5 full working days
Location: Istanbul, Turkey
Call for Prepteam
Call for Participants
UPDATE:
1st + 2nd Stage – Online course “Art for the Young, the Queer, the Feminists of Eastern Europe”
Due to COVID-19 pandemic, first two international activities “Art as a shelter: A room of our own” and “The Good, the Bad, the Queer” are moved to online space. Online course “Art for the Young, the Queer, the Feminists of Eastern Europe” aims to understand power dynamics in patriarchal and cis-heteronormative societies in order to empower young women, LGBT+ youth, transgender, non-binary, agender, gender queer and intersex people to broaden the safe space and claim more private and political space through non-formal education and art.
Date: 10 October – 28 November 2020.
Duration: 8 weeks, 4-6 hours per week
Location: Online
3rd phase – Art for freedom: Free Yourself and the Rest will Follow
The final phase which comprises of Local Actions in the project countries, that will be partially developed during the previous phase aims to broaden the closed safe spaces of young women, trans-persons, non-binaries and LGBT+ community by visibilising their identities and the struggles to wider public using non-formal methods (i.e. art) as a communication channel in order to challenge the normativity in the society.
Date: December/January 2021
Duration: Optional
Location: Participating countries
Call for local actions
Methodology
The program will be based on the principles of non-formal education and intercultural learning. We strive for active, inclusive and direct communication and transfer and sharing of knowledge. Sessions will be balanced between theoretical inputs, training, workshops, discussions, reflection, planning, brainstorming and other interactive methods of learning.
This project is organised by the Green European Foundation with the support of Cooperation and Development Network Eastern Europe, with the financial support of the European Parliament to the Green European Foundation, and supported by the European Youth Foundation of Council of Europe.
*All references to Kosovo, whether to the territory, institutions or population, in this text shall be understood in full compliance with the United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1244 and without prejudice to the status of Kosovo.