The 2024 edition of the North South Centre’s Intercultural Conference took place on 24 and 25 October, in Kotor, Montenegro, under the theme “Digital resilience: youth strategies against racist and xenophobic acts through computer systems”. The discussions focused on trends and threats emerging in this field, specific initiatives to combat these forms of discrimination with the engagement of young people, as well as the standards that support the fight against those crimes, particularly the First Additional Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime (Budapest Convention), concerning the criminalisation of acts of a racist and xenophobic nature committed through computer systems, and other legal instruments from the African Union.

The conference benefited from contributions from experts and representatives from law enforcement, youth organisations, member states, and other stakeholders active in the combat against discrimination in the digital space, coming from 30 countries in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The discussions and interactions resulted in the Kotor Declaration, comprised of a set of recommendations for youth initiatives to combat these issues.

This specialized conference was organised in partnership with the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro, and with support of CyberSouth+ project, a joint initiative of the European Union and the Council of Europe.