Presentation to the EU Parliament of the Project “CyberIncluding Goes Europe”
From 11th - 15th July, 7 participants from the UK had an opportunity to present the legislative proposal "Bullying, cyberbullying and hate speech: phenomena to prevent and fight", together with 4 other partner Organisations to the European Parliament.
Despite not being part of the EU we still feel united in diversity with our European friends under the common cause of cyber bullying advocacy. It has been both a pleasure and privilege to take a transnational approach with young people to advocate changes that disproportionately affect the youth.
We, as young people, understand that cyber bullying is an important social issue and we felt accomplished to be able to share our thoughts on the phenomenon. We are hoping to get somewhere with what we have shared and hope to make a change for the younger generations within Europe. Some of us have struggled with bullying before and this topic hits close to home, so it is important for us to be heard. From a personal experience, bullying affects your confidence, well-being and spirit. We don’t want other young people to go through the turmoils some of us have experienced without consequences towards the bully.
Having the tragic realisation that we can no longer take part in European projects is extremely disheartening as we feel that we have made changes in the right direction and we wish to continue to do so. However, we look to the future with great hope, knowing that the EU has young representatives who strongly advocate for future policies.
We would like to think that this is not a goodbye, rather a Bon Voyage!
Authors: Anja Marojević, Sabin Mares, Sana Gubari, Rodolfo III Abedejos, Ellie Leacy, Annabelle Marsden, Samarh Gubar