Awakening: Human Rights Education

-Daisaku Ikeda, Japanese philosopher, activist, author and educator

"Awakening: Human Rights Education" was an 8-day training course focused on introducing and developing skills in human rights education (HRE).

Twenty-four youth workers, youth leaders and educators explored this topic, as well as useful tools to be a facilitator and disseminator of HRE in their communities and beyond.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES:

• increase the knowledge and skills of youth workers in the HRE field

• train participants in the use of non-formal HRE tools

• develop future HRE projects and activities

• increase the international dimension of HRE and youth work

• encourage empathy, inclusion and non-discrimination

• establish the importance of HRE in youth work

But what is "human rights education?" The Council of Europe (COE) defines HRE as:

In essence, human rights can only be achieved through the informed and continued demand by people for their protection. HRE, therefore, develops an understanding of everyone’s common responsibility to make human rights a reality in each community. Informing people of their rights early will make human rights more effective for everyone.

ISSUES ADDRESSED:

Participants discussed and debated a variety of human rights issues and questions, including:

• Are human rights inherently political?

• Basic human needs

• Pros and cons of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

• Obstacles to creating a society characterized by fairness and justice

• Understanding systems thinking

• Brainstorming the 4th Generation of human rights

• Breaking down modern human rights issues (climate change, AI, poverty, etc.), their causes and solutions

• Exchange of impactful tools for promoting human rights issues

• Case studies

• And much, much more

ACTIVITIES:

Our training course used non-formal education methods and experiential learning to train youth workers in human rights education. According to the UN, HRE could be defined as any learning, education, training, or information efforts aimed at building a universal culture of human rights. HRE encompasses:

• learning about human rights and human rights mechanisms

• developing values and reinforcing attitudes and behavior which uphold human rights

• acquiring skills to apply human rights in a practical way in daily life and taking action to defend and promote human rights

In this project, participants learned about these basic principles and how to incorporate them into their youth work through a variety of non-formal activities. To achieve this, we planned activities that:

• required the active involvement of participants

• were adapted to the demonstrated needs of participants, partner organizations, and youths

• were hands-on with opportunities for reflection, following David Kolb’s experiential learning cycle

• incorporated participants’ own skills, experiences, and knowledge

• incorporated open-ended learning so that multiple and complex answers to problems were not only possible but expected

These established HRE methodologies were combined with the pedagogical basis of COE's “Compass” manual:

• holistic learning

• open-ended learning

• values clarification

• participation

• cooperative learning

• experiential learning

• learner centeredness

All activities progressively built on each other so that by the end, participants had a grasp of human rights education and how they could apply it to their own youth work.

DISSEMINATION:

To ensure the project's impact was far reaching, ONDE, the project partners and the participants implemented diverse dissemination activities both online and locally. Some of these include:

• local workshop in Lecce for 22 youth workers, highlighting human rights education and a sample activity from the project

• 30-minute podcast hosted by the participants, highlighting Erasmus+ and the "Awakening" training course

• workshop for students in a Greek school led by one of the participants

• 5 digital stories/awareness campaigns addressing diverse human rights issues; they were created and filmed by participants during the project

• a project video

• digital booklet highlighting the project, activities, participants' dissemination, sample activities, tools and resources, and the Erasmus+ Programme

PODCAST:

Watch project participants discuss their experience in the project and the value of the Erasmus+ Programme.

HRE DIGITAL STORY:

This is one of five digital stories promoting human rights issues created by participants during their time in Lecce. In this video, participants from Germany, Greece and Netherlands, raise awareness about poverty and disability. Watch the rest of the stories on our YouTube channel.

PARTICIPATING PARTNERS / COUNTRIES:

Officina Nuova Dimensione Europea (ONDE) APS - Italy

Migrants & Minorities Network - Germany

DreamTeam AMKE - Greece

ILA - Netherlands

Inspira! - Portugal

ILÊWASI - Spain

To learn more about this training course, sample activities and follow-up results, please download the official booklet below.