PROJECTS

Education is set to have a powerful role to play in the long-term prevention of violent extremism (VE) by equipping learners with the right skills and competencies and empowering youth. With the rise of social polarisation, extremist movements and foreign fighters returning from Syria and Iraq, the violence in schools happening in North Macedonia, but also regionally, the prevention of radicalisation and VE through education should be understood as a natural part of the school’s agenda. Systematic and holistic efforts to prevent VE and build resilience are only possible by understanding the outcomes produced by P/CVE interventions and the impact they have on the target groups and the broader community.

The project is implemented by NEXUS Civil Concept with the support of the National Committee of RNM for CVE and CT (NCCVECT), the Ministry of Education and Science (MES) and the Bureau for Development of Education (BDE).

In line with NATO’s 75th Anniversary and North Macedonia’s accession to NATO in 2020 marks a 4-year significant milestone for the country, it is solidifying its commitment to shared democratic values and regional security. Additionally, NATO membership fosters cooperation in security matters, enabling North Macedonia to engage in joint military exercises and contribute to crisis management efforts, including peacekeeping operations.

The presence of hybrid attacks aggregated from Russia’s aggression in Ukraine was the unprecedented intention to destabilize the peace and the stability of the country, hence the necessity of permanently raising public awareness on the role of NATO and the benefits of North Macedonia’s membership. Namely, the hybrid attacks by Russia on North Macedonia could have profound implications for the trust and integrity of NATO.

Disengagement, Rehabilitation & Reintegration (DRR) practices are processes that involved not only professionals and institution but the entire community. For this reason inter-institutional cooperation as well as community and networking are fundamental element for the deradicalization and reintegration process.
In this perspective DRIVE is targeted to a several group of actors including:
• national and local policy-makers,
• institutions
• CSOs organizations
• social workers,
• youth organizations;
• security and religious actors
• correctional and probation service staff

Multiculturalism is based on the rejection of various forms of discrimination (ethnic, racial, religious, economic, gender, and others) in all social spheres, and practices respect for cultural diversity and acceptance of different and new lifestyles.

Cultural diversity is also a political problem and redefines the conflict over what is just and what is unjust in democracy. In this context, there is not and should not be an integration of “US” versus “THEM”, but a new common space must be created, in which the public sphere in every society enjoys much greater respect than the private sphere. In this sense, susceptible to assimilation by the dominant culture, members of smaller ethnic groups, especially the young, internalize their inferior statuses and lead confused lives or withdraw into their communal ghettos. Tolerance is necessary, but not sufficient to maintain diversity in the private sphere.

The possibility of conflict with violence and challenging the social consensus through the use of force is much greater in ethno-religious identity differences among groups than in other multitudes. A multicultural environment usually emphasizes conflicts, social differentiation and division, assimilation, restrictions, difficulties in communication and cultural erosion. Thus, tensions and conflicts usually accumulate and arise from the local context, the particularity and closure of cultural identities. This describes the process of radicalization among young people as the most vulnerable category of persons by a certain group of people who indoctrinate them to the extent that the use of violence is the only way to achieve the desired goal.