FOR a FRaTeRNAL eURoPe

In 2018, 120,000 children and young people from more than a thousand schools in Croatia, France, Poland and Spain took part in the ‘Let’s Play the Fraternity Card in Europe’ project.

Organised around the events to mark the “International Day for the Elimination of Discrimination” on the 21st of March, the project was centred around the sending of postcards as messages of fraternity, illustrated by artists from the four countries. In total, 120,000 postcards were sent to people chosen at random in the four countries: 15,000 of them replied with messages of hope and fraternity.

Beyond the sending of postcards, in all classrooms, educational activities around the use of images and writing workshops were organised to raise awareness among children and young people about discrimination, encouraging them to prevent and reject it by inspiring solidarity in spirit and in practice.

Launched in France more than 20 years ago, the ‘Let’s Play the Fraternity Card’ project took on a European dimension in 2018 through the determination of our four organisations1 and thanks to the support of the European programme Erasmus+.

It is in Europe (though other regions of the world also contributed), that over the centuries, democratic and human values were built, as were the rights that guarantee them.

However, Europe has also given birth to the worst evils of humanity, its most terrible regressions, the most horrific barbarities, Nazism and totalitarianism: the very negation of our common humanity.

Today we have national and European constitutions that are among the boldest in guaranteeing the most essential human rights. But we also know that these rights are not always translated into practice and into the daily lives of millions of our fellow citizens. We also know that these rights are challenged and called into question in some European countries.

The outrageous fate inflicted on migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Europe in particular is a worrying sign of an increasing risk that threatens democracy. 130 million people live in poverty in the European Union, the richest region on earth, also illustrating how much progress we still have to make. Hospitality and solidarity are the cornerstones of democratic societies.

We cannot take anything for granted, and we are convinced of the need to create and nurture awareness of human rights and their effective implementation, without discrimination of any kind. To do so, the laws that are there to protect must be understood and upheld.

How we perceive others and the quality of our relations with them, in short, our behaviour, is equally decisive. Fraternity must be lived not imposed. This is the role of education, in all its forms, at school as well as in the family or in clubs and associations.

This is our commitment with ‘Let’s Play the Fraternity Card in Europe’. This is the confidence that we have in the enthusiasm of children and young people to continue the adventure of a world where we can live well and better together. We aim to broaden it through our cooperation in 2019, the year of the new European Parliament elections and the thirtieth anniversary of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.