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Transatlantic Dialogue Initiative: Elevating the Role of French Cities in Preventing Hate, Violent Extremism and Polarisation, Strengthening Social Cohesion and Safeguarding Local Democracy

Publication Date:

10/06/2024

Content Type:

Event Reports

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Climate ChangeGlobal Crises Local ImpactsMigrationSocial CohesionSTRIVE CitiesTransatlantic Dialogue Initiative

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Event Details

Description: Held under the Strong Cities Transatlantic Dialogue Initiative, this workshop convened deputy mayors and other city officials, as well as representatives of national governments, civil society and city-focused initiatives from Europe and North America to discuss the role of French cities in preventing and responding to hate, extremism and polarisation.

Where & When: 14-15 May 2024, Strasbourg (France)

Cities Represented:

• Belgium: Liege
• Canada: Edmonton
• France: Cernay, Dijon, Mittelhausbergen, Montpellier, Paris, Strasbourg
• Greece: Kalamaria, Kordelio-Evosmos
• Portugal: Braga
• Spain: Fuenlabrada, Madrid, Murcia
• The Netherlands: The Hague
• United Kingdom: Luton
• United States: Athens (Ohio), New York City (New York), Overland Park (Kansas)

Partners Represented:

• European Committee of the Regions
• European Forum for Urban Security
• European Parliament
• Global Cities Hub
• Global Parliament of Mayors
• United States Consulate (Strasbourg)
• United States Department of Homeland Security’s Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships

Key Takeaways

For Mayors & Cities

• Mayors and other city leaders should invest in building relationships with residents in times of stability, rather than waiting for crises to engage communities. This can be achieved through town hall meetings open to all residents and in neighbourhood / ward-specific meetings, where the mayor and other city officials go to residents to discuss concerns and needs.
• Mayors and the local governments they lead should partner with credible community-based institutions, from community-based organisations to cultural institutions to local sports clubs, to raise awareness of hate and extremism and promote tolerance, diversity and inclusion. These non-governmental partners can be particularly effective amplifiers of campaigns to strengthen social cohesion. By virtue of their credibility and influence within the city, they may be able to reach communities that local governments find hard to engage (e.g., due to barriers in trust).
• To provide citizens with a sense of belonging, cities should actively work on ensuring a welcoming and secure environment through local migrant and other integration programmes, implementing anti-racism policies and initiatives, and by speaking out consistently against hate and discrimination in all forms and manifestations. Cities should also seek gender balance within government bodies and enact codes of conduct that promote gender equality.
• To address the impact of online harms, cities should collaborate with schools or local civil society organisations to deliver digital literacy programmes that teach residents about safe online conduct, online hate and extremism and to empower them to identify false narratives or misleading information.

For National Governments

• National governments should ensure that local government perspectives are incorporated into new and existing prevention policies. National authorities can elaborate prevention principles to guide city-level and other local prevention efforts and should make resources available to local stakeholders to contextualise and implement such principles.
• National governments should facilitate two-way information-sharing between national and local actors, with some city officials sharing that while they regularly share information with national counterparts, they rarely receive information back.
• National governments should work with local governments to address threats against local elected officials. This could include partnering with private security companies to arrange and roll out personal security and/or digital hygiene training for local officials.

Next Steps

The dialogue introduced multiple French cities, such as Cernay, Dijon, Mittelhausbergen and Montpellier, as well as other European cities, such as Kalamaria and Kordelio-Evosmos in Greece and Murcia in Spain, to the Strong Cities Network, with several expressing interest to stay involved and participate in future city-city learning opportunities.

Further, key findings from this workshop will inform upcoming transatlantic dialogues such as Columbus (Ohio), US in September 2024, as well as the Strong Cities’ Fifth Global Summit in Cape Town (South Africa) in December 2024.

Practices that were shared at the workshop and captured in this event report will also be integrated into the Strong Cities’ Resource Hub, a living library of guides and toolkits on mayoral leadership and city-led action to prevent and respond to hate, extremism and polarisation. In addition, to build on the Resource Hub’s growing City Spotlights Library, city officials from the workshop will be partnered with to create spotlights capturing their own inspiring and innovative prevention efforts.

Finally, in line with Strong Cities’ commitment to respond to the needs of cities as shared directly by cities, findings from the workshop will be used to drive forward a) the upcoming Women’s Leadership Caucus, placing the spotlight on women leadership, and b) two new resources: one on digital literacy and digital resilience-building and the other on how cities can prevent and respond to hate speech.

Additional Resources

• City Spotlights: Edmonton (Canada), The Hague (The Netherlands)
• Global Crises, Local Impacts, including latest findings and recommendations, April 2024
• A Guide for City-Led Response, Strong Cities Network, April 2024
• Preventing and Responding to Election Disruption and Violence: Ten Considerations for Cities, Strong Cities Network, March 2024
• A Guide for Mayors: Preventing and Responding to Hate, Extremism and Polarisation, Strong Cities Network, September 2023
• A Guide for Cities: Preventing Hate, Extremism and Polarisation, Strong Cities Network, September 2023

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