CZECH LAUNCH OF COMPASS

CZECH LAUNCH OF COMPASS

A MANUAL ON HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION WITH YOUNG PEOPLE 

On the 10th 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.