The youth exchange gathered 42 participants from Croatia, Serbia, Spain, Denmark, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and Turkey. It was held in Zadar in November 2018. Goals of the project included was improved understanding of gender and sexuality issueas, as well as increasing their ability to form meaningfull, fulfilling and respectful relationships with other people.
Lately, the world has been rocked by scandals of sexual harassment against women, which even reached the White House. Discrimination against women is nothing new, what is new is that women are fighting back through social movements like #timesup and #metoo. At the same time, conservative counter revolution in Eastern Europe is trying to roll back women’s rights, especially abortion, as well as fighting against adopting Istanbul Convention for the protection of women and children from violence.
LGBTI people are fighting for equality and they have come a long way in the last few decades in Western and Northern Europe but their progress has been much slower in Eastern Europe. Often a threat to the traditional family by same-sex marriages is highlighted as the main opposition point by the conservatives yet traditional marriages are in crises in Europe – far more people get divorced, far more opt for cohabitation and civil partnerships and there is a rise of single-parent families.
The participants discussed the following topics:
gender roles and gender discrimination
social views of sex and sexuality
sexual and gender minorities (LGBTI)
responsible sexual behaviour, including contraception and consent
