Campaign launched in France

[inline:1=Poster Detail]France officially launched the campaign on October 25th, a day which gathered all the partners of the national campaign committee.

Young people, voluntary youth organisations, voluntary organisations against discriminations, ministries and public institutions decided unanimously to invite groups and individuals to submit  projects  and to organise national and regional events promoting the values of the Campaign.

An artistic contest open to young people under 26 was also announced. Feel free to participate and discover the French campaign at www.tousdifferentstousegaux.fr !

(In attach the official poster of the French campaign)

CZECH LAUNCH OF COMPASS

CZECH LAUNCH OF COMPASS

A MANUAL ON HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION WITH YOUNG PEOPLE 

On the 10^th of October in the main hall of Goethe Institute in Prague the Czech launch of Compass - a manual on Human Rights Education with young people, was held as an accompaniment to the FORUM 2000 Conference and in the framework of Campaign in the Czech Republic.

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The organizer was the Czech National Agency YOUTH, National Institute of Children and Youth and the main partners were the Council of Europe, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and OPIM. The aim of the event was to officially present the manual to the public and in a panel discussion give the opportunity to ask experts questions related to the manual. The event was conducted in both Czech and English languages with simultaneous translation.

The moderator for the launch was Ms Jana Tikalová, Executive director of OPIM – Organisation Supporting the Integration of Minorities. Ms. Jana Tikalová participated actively on the creation of the manual as the editor for the Czech version of the Compass Manual and is an experienced human rights education trainer. Jana Tikalová introduced the manual for the first time in 2002 when she brought it from training in the Council of Europe. Later during the conference, she explained briefly why presentation of Compass manual was taking place.

At first a special guest from the Council of Europe, Ms Antje Rothemund, Executive Director of the European Youth Centre in Budapest was introduced. Ms Rothemund has been involved in the youth field for many years. Her background is from NGO work especially dealing with human rights education for young people. 

Ms Rothemund stressed a close connection between Compass and the Council of Europe’s philosophy based on the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms

Young people have an important role to play in Human Rights. Human Rights depends on legal systems, information flow etc. That is why the Human Rights Education Programme was introduced by the Council of Europe to bring awareness and knowledge about Human Rights into young people. The manual should help to get involved those who want to be active in this field but have no experience yet. Compass is also an important means how to promote non-formal education in the youth field with emphasis to the Human Rights Education.

Ms Rothemund sees Compass as a balanced combination of practical and theoretical information including practical explanation and framework of disciplinary work. Compass gives the opportunity for various sides to cooperate together in the filed of human rights. It is closely connected to everyday life, like cohabitation of different cultures in the same classroom for instance.

Ms Rothemund stressed Compass is a non-political tool. It can be adaptable in various cultures, ethnological groups and environments and is timeless. It is because the Council of Europe has references and co-operates with experts all over the world. Its aim is to help people promoting Human Rights Education namely through the Campaign All Different-All Equal.

Ms Rothemund thanked at the end everyone who participated on the translation of the manual into Czech and this way contributed to building of democracy in the Czech Republic. She also thanked Mr Václav Havel who expressed his appreciation to the manual at the opening of the Forum 2000.

Next contribution was made by the head of the Czech National Agency YOUTH and the project co-ordinator of the Czech version of the Compass Manual, Mr Josef Boček. He presented in details, the challenging process of translating Compass. In autumn 2004 the former head of the Agency, Ms Adámková came back from the national agencies’  meeting in Holland where they were given an issue of the manual. They soon found Compass such an important tool that they decided to translate the document into Czech. They applied for the author rights, which they were granted, then put together a coherent team of people and started to work.

 

Translator family Potužník ensured that the language of the document was very homogeneous. Expert and trainer Jana Tikalová has experience directly from the field. For the language expertise Blanka Svadbová was hired.  Proof reading was done by Karolina Naimji from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport.

Got inspired by the Hungarian example who trained people to use the manual and put it into practice, the Czech National Agency ran a training session in summer 2006 and will run another one in autumn 2006.

Mr.Boček spoke about the fundraising. Budget assigned from the CoE appeared not to be enough. The Czech National Agency therefore applied for a grant for the training at the EU programme Culture 2000 for translation was successful. Money for issuing of the document was finally donated from the CoE. The overall sum was 13000 EUR. Presentation of the manual was primarily planned for November 2006. But then they got a possibility to use the conference Forum 2000 which required finishing the work much earlier.

Mr.Boček informed that a version of Compass will be available on the internet thanks to the internet publisher Kosmas. It will also be distributed through book shops. Those who are interested can buy the manual at the Czech national Agency Youth. It will in future be available on their web site. 

 

The next speaker was Ms Jolana Dočkalová, training and project manager and International Co-operation Coordinator of the Czech National Agency, who is in the Czech National Agency responsible also for coordination of training strategies and human rights education training in the Czech Republic. Her aim is to distribute Compass throughout NGOs. The objective is not only to work with young people and youth workers but also to build a bridge between the non-formal and formal education in the Czech Republic.

She presented the 5 parts of the manual: presentation of Human Rights - “Human Rights Education and Compass, a Brief Guide for Practical Understanding Human Rights Education”, practical exercises - “Practical Activities and Methods for Human Rights Education”, plan of action - “Taking Action”, international documents on Human Rights - “Background Information on Human Rights” and explanation of Human Rights related issues - “Background Information on the Global Themes”. According to her the main advantage of Compass is that it can be used by anyone no matter how educated he or she is in the field of human rights.

Jolana Dočkalová presented a series of one day seminars where people can get to know about Compass, try and learn some activities. On the international level the Czech National Agency co-operate with other national agencies and give young people a chance to go abroad and take part in international trainings. 

As Compass is also a powerful tool in formal sphere the last word was given to Ms Zdena Mašková, Expert official at the Youth Department of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic who is responsible for international activities within the department and closely co-operates with the CoE. Ms Zdena Mašková is Head of the National Coordination Committee of the Campaign „All Different – All Equal“, which views Compass as a powerful tool. By some planned activities that Ms Mašková presented the Committee will assure that Compass will be widely used. As a chair a working group on Education within the Committee Ms Mašková introduced a system of trainings on Human Rights Education which will be launched in autumn 2006. Based on her rich personal experience in formal education and teaching in human rights at schools Ms Mašková intends also to promote Human Rights Education at schools.

German Campaign online

[inline:1=German Logo] For the German speakers among you and all the others interested as well, we invite you to have a look at the German website www.jugendkampagne.de that just went online. You will find pictures of the first networking event in Berlin and from July on we will deal monthly with one of the themes of the campaign in depths . Have a look!  

International Day of Tolerance in Portugal

[inline:1=poster]The Portuguese Campaign was launched on the International Day of Tolerance, the 16th November. The Program consisted of a Forum (in Aveiro), a book presentation about Tolerance with the Author Zaghloul Morsy
and the presentation of the campaign, in Lisbon, with the presence of the Minister of the Presidency (PCM), the Secretary State of Youth and Sport (SEJD), the President of the Portuguese Youth Institute (IPJ) and the President of The National Youth Council.
The focus of the Campaign is to fight prejudice based on race, belief, race or physical or mental disability.
«When you see nationality, race or belief, you don't see the person.
Go to juventude.gov.pt and see the persons by your eyes and not by the prejudice eyes»

News from Luxembourg

[inline:1=sculpture]Luxembourg continues its campaign and invites you all to visit the website where you can find lots of pictures!

One of the projects of the official programme is the “Youth Forum for a multicultural Europe” which took place from the 15th to 18thOctober 2006. 100 young people from 11 European countries came together in Luxembourg to discuss about issues such as diversity and human rights.

They worked hard, laughed a lot and promised to keep in touch…..

Click here to tell view some tale telling pix!

Special Newsletter - "From Multicultural to Intercultural Communities"

Acording to its strategy Initiative Group Alpbach Brasov will develop and implement projects and activities in the framework of the new "All Different – All Equal": European Youth Campaign For Diversity, Human Rights and Participation of the Council of Europe at a local and regional level. The newsletter is about the: International Seminar “FROM MULTICULTURAL TO INTERCULTURAL COMMUNITIES” Increasing South - Eastern European Youth Organisations' Capacity to Engage with Issues of Conflict Management Brasov, Romania 22 – 26 May 2006 Initiative Group Alpbach will keep you in touch with its activities under "All Different – All Equal" Campaign using newsletters. Form more information please contact us at igalpbach_brasvo@yahoo.com or phone us at +40 727 914325

Welcome Spain!!!

[inline:1=Sapnish Flag]Spain joined the all different - all equal network. There will be a launching event in December during the International Day of Human Rights in several cities in Spain. For further information get in touch with the Spanish Coordination .
Let's all follow their example and make the Campaign visible on the 10th December!

Yes, it is a struggle - applause for Serbia!

[inline:1=Serbian Flag]After dozens of e-mails written, heaps of numbers dialed, by a quirk of fate and some chance meetings we finally managed to gather together and set up the basis for running the “All Different – All Equal” campaign in Serbia.
The event took place in Belgrade on the 10th of November 2006 with representatives of different NGOs and support from Ministry of Education and Sports. The Foundation is laid, now the house needs to be built.  We hope that more young people and organisations in Serbia will get inspired and add their brick of creativity to make the campaign visible and successful. If you want to hear more about this experience get in touch with  the Serbian NCC