1. Activities

The South East Europe Summer Academy “Human Rights in Action”
Three weeks ahead of the first SEE Academy to take place in Montenegro (20-28 June), a diverse group of 33 participants has been nominated, including teachers and their school heads from primary as well as secondary schools, representatives from NGOs and from parents’ council.

The training offered by the Bureau for Educational Services, Montenegro, the Council of Europe (CoE) and the EWC, aims to strengthen participants capacity to implement and promote principles and practices of human rights education (HRE) and citizenship education (EDC) in their schools and local communities.

It translates CoE’s policy into practice by offering training in line with the CoE Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education and based on CoE manuals to education professionals and community representatives from South East Europe.


Online Academy 2011-2012
Responding to the great interest in last year's Summer Academy: Democracy at School, one of the trainers, Andrey Ioffe, has been giving online consultations and guidance to the non-selected teams and other invited teams, in order for them to get familiar with the principles of Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights and some of the main material and manuals.

There has been a great diversity in the challenges described and projects developed, ranging from student participation, election processes and different forms of cooperation in and between schools, to air pollution. 17 teams completed the Online Academy, and are in the process of implementing their projects.


Human Rights and Democracy in Action - Looking Ahead
On 29-30 November 2012 a European conference on Citizenship and Human Rights Education takes place in Strasbourg. It will be organised by the Council of Europe in cooperation with the European Commission and the EWC.

The conference will bring together 200 participants, including governments, civil society organisations, international institutions, and education professionals from Europe and from other parts of the world, to discuss how democracy and human rights can be promoted through education, with an emphasis on the use of the CoE Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education. Concrete future cooperation initiatives among national and international institutions and organisations and between formal and non-formal education sectors will also be part of the agenda.


3rd Meeting of Joint Council of Europe/EWC Expert Group
The Group of Experts working on the Implementation of Recommendation CM/Rec (2008) 12 “Dimension of religions and non-religious convictions within intercultural education” held its 3rd meeting in Oslo in May, in order to discuss how Council of Europe member states could be supported in implementing the Recommendation.

The group considered the findings of a survey among representatives of the CoE member states in 2011. Among other issues discussed were schools as safe spaces for dialogue, developing competence for understanding and handling religious and non-religious convictions and the issue of representation of religions in the media.

The final results of the work of the Expert Group are expected towards the end of 2013.


2. Resources

New tool for learning development
We invite you to test this new tool "Recognising intercultural competence: What shows that I am interculturally competent?", supporting you to develop your understanding of yourself in the context of diversity. The tool was developed during a long process coordinated by the Pestalozzi Programme and the Intercultural Cities project of the Council of Europe, and the EWC.

Intercultural competence is a key competence that every individual should work on for the development and maintenance of sustainable democratic societies. The idea behind the tool is to "trace" development of intercultural competence by observing behaviour. What shows that someone is strong or weak in certain aspects of attitudes, skills and knowledge?

Together with the tool, we also launch an online survey, and invite you to share with us your experiences and opinions about the tool.  

Just launched: Survey report on attitudes towards Jews and other minorities within the Norwegian population
On Tuesday May 29, the survey report on attitudes towards Jews and other minorities within the Norwegian population was launched at the Centre for Holocaust studies in Oslo. The survey is the first in Norway to systematically explore Anti-Semitism in Norway. The Centre for Holocaust Studies was responsible for the survey, EWC's head of Research and Development was part of the academic reference group.


Library
EWC's online library offers free access to resources in the field of education for democratic citizenship, human rights and intercultural understanding. Stay up to date on relevant teaching and research materials, CoE Recommendations, papers and literature.

Latest Publications:

• Teaching about religions in European school systems: Policy Issues and Trends - a report published by the Network of European Foundations (NEF). The main focus of the study is teaching and learning about and from religion(s) and not religious instruction as such, ie teaching and learning in religion.
  

• Education for Human Rights... Young People Talking - UNESCO Associated Schools in 10 countries were selected to participate in this film project which aims to raise awareness on key issues related to human rights in schools around the world. The film can be used as a teaching tool to introduce core topics of human rights education and initiate a classroom discussion.

Share & Connect
EWC's online network for professionals working in the field; researchers, teacher trainers, teachers, PhD students, government officials, NGO- and youth workers. Join the network - create your profile, access the mailing list, share and search for expertise.


3. Follow EWC

Facebook: Join EWC at http://www.facebook.com/theewc.org

Twitter: Get updates in the field and follow EWC's activities!


4. Calendar

31 May- 1 June: International Conference of National Commissions for UNESCO "Euro-Arab Dialogue: Contribution to a New Humanism", in Vienna/Austria. EWC's Executive Director will be moderating one of the sessions: "Cooperation with institutional and civil society partners and the youth". 

4-8 June: Estonia/Norway Tandem Workshop "Evaluation of transversal attitudes, skills and knowledge", this first workshop takes place in Tartu/Estonia. The training corresponds with the ongoing work of the CoE Pestalozzi Programme aiming at the development of a tool kit for the evaluation of transversal attitudes, skills and knowledge. The EWC is one of the co-organizers of this workshop.

14-15 June: CoE Preparatory Meeting in Strasbourg for the forthcoming conference "Human Rights and Democracy in Action - Looking Ahead". As one of the co-organizers of this event, EWC will take part in this meeting. 

20-28 June: The South East Europe (SEE) Summer Academy: Human Rights in Action will be held in Cetinje, Montenegro.


Visit the EWC website for more information on our activities and resources