The Euro-Arab Foundation is organising the first meeting of the National Network of Experts of the European research project PARTESS-COM. It will take place online on Tuesday 6 October.
The online format allows participation from different regions. Participants will share their religious needs and discuss how various actors and sectors could support the protection of places of worship.
The session begins at 10:00 (CEST) and lasts approximately 90 minutes. It will present examples of international intercommunity cooperation. Participants will also discuss the current state of security measures and how to update, improve or modify them.
The meeting is aimed at professionals whose work involves religious communities, security in places of worship and faith-based spaces. Its objective is to develop initiatives that are not only responsive to the communities they serve and support, but also led by them. These initiatives should be pragmatic and adapted to the characteristics, circumstances and realities of each space and its users.
Who is the National Network of Experts for?
Local leaders
Community representatives
Security professionals
What topics will be addressed?
Common challenges
Emerging trends
Opportunities for cooperation
Tuesday 6 October 2026, 10:00–11:30 (CEST)
How to register
Places are limited to 12 participants to allow for in-depth discussion. Please register using the form below. The meeting link will be sent once your registration is confirmed.
As hate speech and digital manipulation enter the mainstream, traditional regulations are no longer enough. Discover why education, media literacy, and frontline civil society strategies have become our most powerful tools to build long-term digital resilience.
The rise of political polarisation and algorithmic amplification has normalised discriminatory narratives both online and offline, shaping contemporary public debate and social interactions. This article explores how international and European institutions and networks are pivoting toward educational frameworks—such as prebunking and critical thinking—to empower citizens and frontline practitioners against the toxic effects of online hate and disinformation.
Hate speech is increasingly moving into the mainstream and becoming a growing challenge across many contemporary societies [1]. While social media platforms play a central role in amplifying these narratives, broader phenomena such as political polarisation, the radicalisation of public discourse, and the rise of populist movements have also contributed to their normalisation [2]. Consequently, addressing hate speech requires approaches that go beyond legal regulation and content moderation. International organisations, European institutions, and civil society actors have increasingly recognised that legal and punitive measures alone are insufficient to address a phenomenon deeply rooted in cultural attitudes, emotional dynamics, and social and digital communication practices. In this context, education has progressively emerged as fundamental to raising awareness, challenging prejudices, and fostering resilience against discrimination and hate speech [3]. Rather than focusing exclusively on sanctioning behaviours, educational strategies seek to strengthen media literacy, critical thinking, empathy, and democratic participation in digital environments.
Why Education Matters
Many European bodies, such as the Council of Europe, which has developed key educational manuals on the topic, including Bookmarks: A Manual for Combating Hate Speech Online through Human Rights Education [4], increasingly highlight education as a long-term strategy that depends heavily on the training of professionals who work directly with vulnerable communities and digital issues, such as NGOs, law enforcement agencies, civil society organisations, and others. These actors play a key role in identifying discriminatory narratives linked to hate speech and disinformation and in building resilience against them, especially among users who do not always possess sufficient critical tools to assess online information.
Biases and Challenges in Educational Approaches
Despite its growing importance, education is not free from tensions and limitations. Educational programmes may struggle to distinguish between harmful discriminatory speech and controversial opinions that still form part of legitimate public debate. Perceptions of ideological bias also create challenges for educators and professionals, who must encourage critical reflection without contributing to polarisation or censorship. The rapid evolution of digital communication continuously challenges educational responses. Online hate speech increasingly appears through coded language, humour, memes, and algorithmically amplified narratives that evolve faster than traditional educational models.
Approaches to Educating About Hate Speech and Disinformation
Among existing efforts to introduce hate speech and disinformation training, the majority of the ones reviewed focus on schools and teachers, law enforcement officers and civil society organizations. Moreover, some content and pedagogical strategies appear to overlap across programmes targeting different end-users, suggesting that certain materials originally designed for schools could potentially be adapted for other audiences. When analysing the European arena, in terms of international standards, UNESCO plays a pivotal role in providing international guidelines on how to address hate speech through education.
Although primarily aimed at policymakers, they highlight the importance of addressing inequities, enhancing social and emotional skills, promoting inclusive attitudes, promoting media and information literacy skills and digital citizenship and improving skills in critical thinking [5]. The European Commission also has some toolkits and guidelines, specifically designed for educators. These resources offer definitions about hate speech and different forms of discrimination, as well as teaching about their root causes and suggesting activities to internalise these concepts and explore ways to counter them. They mainly focus on media literacy and analysis and social and emotional learning [6]. Moreover, different initiatives have been developed to introduce hate speech training in national training programmes: these are mainly guidelines for policy makers that call for the inclusion of clear definitions for law enforcement officers and the development of interdisciplinary training [7]. Fact-checking organisations and networks that work on a European scale play a crucial role in this educational discourse. Indeed, these organisations whose goal is to check the veracity of information also offer and coordinate training so people can see for themselves and learn how manipulation works.
The European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) — a network which coordinates fact-checking organisations — offers a range of courses and guidelines for civil society end-users, as well as journalists, educators and policy makers. They approach educational training in different ways, by leveraging several resources, the main ones prebunking, debunking (fact-checking), media literacy training, and information reframing. Pagella Politica and Facta—two fact-checking organisations based in Italy—focus on courses that aim to educate citizens, while they also collaborate in school education. Their overarching approach is centred on grassroot efforts, where they focus on building public resistance to disinformation and hate speech, educating people on media literacy, proper fact-checking, dissemination of correct information, and building counter-narratives [8]. Similarly, Maldita in Spain not only offers courses to educate the general public, but has also developed toolkits and guidelines to train fellow fact-checking organisations and CSOs [9]. Fact-checking organisations, like the ones mentioned, also partner up with other entities — such as universities, civil society, private initiatives and public institutions—to jointly contribute to bigger projects, which focus on developing novel strategies for countering hate speech and disinformation while not losing sight of the educational component. They offer modules or include an “educational toolkit” specifically designed for teachers, educators working in NGOs, and CSOs.
Some of these toolkits include precise and agreed-upon definitions, media literacy training, how-to’s on fact-checking and “lateral reading”, training on how to respond to hate speech, as well as proposed activities to internalise the knowledge offered. A good example of this is Hatedemics [10], supported by the EU and with direct participation of European fact-checking and civil society organisations. Generally, all these initiatives seek to strengthen the role of civil society as a key contributor to preventing hate speech and to provide tools for the general public, particularly young people, to understand how disinformation operates and the impact of harmful narratives in society. The main topics taught are prebunking, media literacy, emotional education, fact-checking and counter-narratives creation. Prebunking, because it builds resistance for later disinformation, and counter-narratives, as they offer a direct contrast to that disinformation, have been mentioned to be particularly effective [11], and as a preventive method, are slightly more common. All in all, digital resilience and human rights education remain essential to face the poisoning effect that hate speech has on societies. While civil society organisations and frontline practitioners must continue to be supported in this regard, political figures must also contribute to not normalising hate with discourse that fuels violence and intolerance, so as to not undermine all these vital efforts.
Note: This article is based on ECLIPSE Deliverable D2.1 “Definition and Methodologies”.
On September 17, the Euro-Arab Foundation hosted the round table of the XIII Conrada Muñoz Memorial, organised by the ACAIP-UGT union (Association of the Corps of the Administration of Penitentiary Institutions) and the ATHENA Foundation.
Under the title “Victims of Terrorism in Europe: Current Situation and Future Prospects,” the event brought together figures from the forensic, judicial, associative, and academic fields, alongside the head of the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) in Madrid. The Euro-Arab Foundation was represented by Javier Ruipérez, director of the Research and Projects Department.
During the session, various speakers addressed terrorism and its victims from multiple angles: Alberto Téllez (ACAIP/ATHENA Foundation) called for recognition of prison staff within the shared narrative of victims and for passing this memory on to new generations; Marzia Arzon (V-Europe) warned of new threats such as digital radicalization and the use of artificial intelligence in terrorist recruitment; Dr. Eva M. Jiménez González (Institute of Forensic Psychology) presented the long-term psychosocial aftermath and the need for care models that respect the heterogeneity of each traumatic process; Ana Rodríguez and Eduardo Mateo both highlighted the aging of historical victims, equity in their care, and the essential role of education in delegitimizing terrorist violence; Maite Araluce (AVT) championed truth, memory, dignity, and justice against attempts at whitewashing; and Mireya Toribio (University of Deusto) analyzed the legal framework following the dissolution of ETA and the rise of jihadism, the limits of freedom of expression, and the protection of victims from public humiliation.
The Conrada Muñoz Memorial has been organised since 2011 by the ACAIP union and the Athena Foundation in tribute to Conrada Muñoz Herrera, murdered by ETA in 1989 with a parcel bomb. The explosive was addressed to her son, Dionisio Bolívar Muñoz, a prison officer; Conrada opened it and died from her injuries, with another of her sons and a niece also wounded.
On Friday, 11 September, the Euro-Arab Foundation welcomed to its headquarters an Uzbek delegation led by Muzaffar Kamilov, Adviser to the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Religious and Educational Affairs and Rector of the International Islamic Academy of Uzbekistan. He was accompanied by the Ambassador of Uzbekistan to Spain, as well as the Deputy Chairman of the State Security Service of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Chairman of the Committee on Religious Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Project Manager of the EU–UN Global Terrorism Threats Facility of the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), and the Officer-in-Charge of the Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism Section of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Centre (UNCCT).
The visit to the Euro-Arab Foundation is one of three study visits scheduled by the delegation in Europe, following earlier visits to Sweden and Belgium, and was carried out as part of UNOCT’s ongoing support to the International Islamic Academy of Uzbekistan in developing the institutional concept and operating model for a specialised Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE) Centre within the Academy. The Euro-Arab Foundation operates as an academic and intercultural research platform, making its experience particularly relevant for exploring how research is translated into practical prevention, education, strategic communications and community engagement, with a view to identifying approaches that may be relevant and adaptable to the context of Uzbekistan.
During the visit, the delegation met with the Executive Secretary of the Euro-Arab Foundation, Antonio Sánchez, who showed them the facilities and explained the work of the institution; with Isabel Pérez, Communications Director of the Euro-Arab Foundation, who detailed the Foundation’s active participation in the European Commission’s EU Knowledge Hub project, where they lead the Communications and Strategic Communications portfolios; and with José María González, Deputy Director of Projects at the Foundation, who elaborated on the institution’s areas of research specialisation. The meeting also included José Luis Salido, Project Coordinator, and Rascha Albaba, Researcher, both involved in projects on the protection of places of worship and combating hate speech.
The exchange covered eight thematic areas: the Foundation’s academic and applied institutional model, its positioning and comparative advantage between academia, policy and practice; the priorities, methods and quality of research on radicalization and violent extremism; the translation of findings into policies, programmes and prevention tools; strategic communications and the design of evidence-based prevention narratives; education and training for students, educators and practitioners; intercultural and interreligious dialogue and the strengthening of community resilience; the integration of human rights, gender equality and ethical safeguards; and, finally, partnerships, international cooperation and the institutional and financial sustainability of research and prevention work, with a view to possible future exchange between the Foundation and the Academy.
The Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies took part in the XVIII Congress of the Spanish Association of Political Science and Administration (AECPA), held on September 9 and 10, 2026, through the participation of three members of its team, who each presented papers within different Working Groups of the congress.
José María González Riera, Deputy Director of Research and Projects at the Euro-Arab Foundation, presented the paper “Judicial Reform in Morocco: Constitutionalization of the IER’s Recommendations and Legislative Development” on Wednesday, September 9. The paper analyses the constitutional reform mandate set out in Morocco’s 2011 Constitution, inspired by the recommendations of the Equity and Reconciliation Commission (IER), and examines the subsequent process of constitutionalization and legislative development of judicial reform, assessing the actual degree to which those recommendations have been incorporated into the Moroccan legal system. The paper was presented within Working Group 11, “Legislative Transformations, Civil Society, and Authoritarianism in the Post-Arab Spring Maghreb.”
José Luis Salido Medina, Projects Coordinator at the Euro-Arab Foundation, presented on Thursday, September 10 the paper “The Spanish Far Right: Analysis Through a Proposed Conceptual Framework,” part of Working Group 6, “The Far Right of the 21st Century: The Genesis of National Populism and the Rise of the Populist Radical Right.” The study proposes an original analytical framework for ideologically classifying the different actors of the Spanish far right, from its most extreme expressions to its radical ones, based on an examination of political platforms, audiovisual content, and parties’ official websites.
Javier Montilla, a researcher at the Euro-Arab Foundation, also presented on Thursday, September 10 the paper “Informational Interference in the Contemporary International System: State of the Art and Analytical Challenges,” in Working Group 4, “World Disorder: New Threats and the Proliferation of Disruptive Actors.” The paper offers a critical review of the strategic use of disinformation as a tool of foreign interference, drawing on analytical frameworks such as hybrid operations, influence operations, and the concept of foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI), with the aim of identifying conceptual gaps and proposing analytical challenges for its study from the field of International Relations.
