From
the 4th to 11th of March 2012, the Organising Bureau of European
School Student Unions (OBESSU) will organise, in cooperation
with the Council of Europe, a study session entitled “Special
Needs”: education, participation and social inclusion at the
European Youth Centre in Budapest. The study session will gather
together approximately 40 participants from more than 15
different countries from all over Europe. The Study Session aims
to explore and further develop tools and methods for social
inclusion for school students with special needs in youth
projects. Besides young people from OBESSU also young persons
from the European Union of Deaf Youth (EUDY), Ceva de Spus, the
Norwegian Association of Youth with disabilities and Surdus
Loquens will participate in the Study Session. Moreover the
President of the International Federation of Hard of Hearing
Young People (IFHOHYP) will be a guest speaker at the event.
Read
more...
06/02/2012
Training course
for trainers in human rights education
38 young trainers
and youth workers from 30 countries meet from 7-14 February for
the ‘Training of Trainers in Human Rights Education for young
people’ at the European Youth Centre Budapest. The Training
seminar was preceded by a seven month long e-learning phase.
During the 8 day seminar participants will develop their
competences in human rights education, intercultural learning,
and promoting through education the charter on democratic
citizenship and human rights education.
Following this seminar all trainers and youth workers of the
course will implement local and/or national training initiatives
in their respective communities. You can download the programme by clicking here.
25/11/2011
Study Session
‘Why do not change prejudices into experiences’ organised by
‘Loesje International’ in cooperation with ‘Loesje Armenia’
Between 22 and 26
November 30 young people from many European countries are
exploring the relation between stereotypes and prejudice
and are developing idea’s on how to work with young people
in helping them to overcome their stereotypes and learn to live
in diverse and multicultural societies and to respect human
rights.
The organisers are
using creative tools developed by the
organisationLoesje, such as poster creative
writing.
Some of the
inspiring examples of the posters developed during the week can
be found below.
4/11/2011
Enter! Youth
Meeting movies
Access
to Social Rights for Young People from Disadvantaged
Neighbourhoods
The movie clips from
the Enter! Youth Meeting that was held in the European
Youth Centre Strasbourg from 14 to 18 September 2011 are now
available.
The meeting was
organised within the Enter! project on access to social rights
for young people.
Roma Youth
Conference - Terne Romengiri Konferencija in the EYC Strasbourg
Voicing
the aspirations and projects of Roma youth in the Council of
Europe - Dejpe krlo/glaso e aspiracijenge thaj projektonge katar
e terne Roma ande Europako Konsilo
The Roma Youth
Conference (26-30 September 2011, EYC Strasbourg) is a follow
up activity to the Strasbourg Declaration, adopted in October
2010. It will gather representatives and active leaders of
Roma youth organisations and young Roma active in other
organisations and projects from the Council of Europe member
states.
Between
August 12 and 14, and after a year of hiatus in 2010, the
Living Library project returned to the annual Sziget
Festival, one of Europe’s largest and best-known musical
festivals.
Organized by the European Youth Centre Budapest of the
Council of Europe, the Living Library has been a staple
of the Sziget Festival since 2003, attracting hundreds of
festival goers of many nationalities and showcasing its unique
approach to challenging harmful and widespread stereotypes
about various social groups, such as gays, immigrants, Roma,
Jews, women, policemen or alcoholics, among many others.
This year, the Living Library was open to visitors on the three
final days – Friday, Saturday and Sunday – of the weeklong
festival and it was open to all interested visitors
who were ready for the sometimes challenging, sometimes
surprising, but always interesting and illuminating
discussions with our books.
For a selection of photos and a short video,
please go to the
EYCB Facebook page .
24/05/2011
Council of
Europe announced 2011 Youth Media Award
The
Directorate of Communication of the Council of Europe
together with the European Youth Press has announced a
journalism prize - Youth Media Award 2011 for
young media makers and journalists in all 47 CoE member
states and Belarus.
There are four categories open to contestants between 18
and 30 years old: photography, video, radio and print
journalism.
Entries are expected to illustrate aspects of
media freedom in 21st century Europe and have to be uploaded
at the
Youthmedia.eu Award page.
The Award is open
from 7 March until 1 August 2011.
More info
>>>
04/05/2011
Human Rights
Education and Advocacy Activism – Learning for Change
The
Human Rights Education Youth Network (HREYN) held a
study session entitled "Human Rights Education and Advocacy
Activism - Learning for change" between 1-7 May 2011 in
European Youth Centre Budapest.
The study session aimed to mainstream advocacy and actions in
defence of human rights as a crucial component of human rights
education with young people in Europe
The study session brought together 35 young human rights
activists and educators from all over Europe with different
levels of expertise in advocacy, activism and education in order
to contribute to the development of human rights education
methodologies and methods on activism.
The study session also benefited from the input of Ralf René
Weingartner, the Director of the Council of Europe’s
Directorate of Youth and Sport and of Dmitri Makarov,
a human rights activist from the Youth Human Rights Movement
from the Russian Federation.
On 5 May, a round table was organised featuring
Hungarian civil society representatives:Györgyi Tóth (NANE),
Anca Sandescu (European Roma Rights Centre), Marton Liszka
(Amnesty International), Eszter Kovács (Védegylet), Mircea
Cernov (Haver Alapítvány).
Human Sentenced
to Death - A Meeting with Joaquín José Martínez
Friday, April 1, 2011 17.00-19:00
As
a young man, Joaquin José Martinez supported the death
penalty. But the Spanish-Ecuadorian man was sentenced to
death by a Florida court for a dual murder in 1987. He
could not afford his own lawyer and was supported by a
public defender and the court committed serious
procedural errors during the trial.
Many people lobbied on behalf of Martínez, including the
Spanish government and the pope. The campaign for his
release was also supported by the Sant’Egidio community.
After four years on death row, Martínez’s death sentence
was repealed by the appellate court and he was acquitted
of all charges. Today, he is one of the chief
international advocates against the death penalty
Guests had the opportunity to ask their own
questions from Mr. Martinez after the moderated
discussion.
The study session aimed to provide school student
representatives with knowledge about HRE and with tools
to act as multipliers in their local realities. OBESSU
believes that Human Rights Education is not given enough
space in school curricula around Europe and for this
reason they want to offer school student unions the
opportunity to learn more about HRE and acquire concrete
means to transfer this knowledge to their peers.
The participants will follow up the study session by
organising peer-to-peer Human Rights Education sessions
at national level with the support of their home
organisations and will feed-back their experiences in
the living manual they are creating on their website.
A short film about the study session, realised by
the participants is available
here.
The study session contributes directly to the
Human Rights Education
Youth Programme, run by Directorate of Youth and
Sport since 2001, in order to contribute to the
promotion of the core mission and the values of the
Council of Europe related to human rights and democracy.
To follow the study session latest
developments and their discussion take a look
here.
To learn more about study sessions and how your
international youth organisation/network could benefit
from them take a look
here.
M.A.
European Youth Studies Project - Short seminar in
Budapest
The
M.A. European Youth Studies (M.A. EYS)Project
organised a residential seminar at the EYCB in February 2011.
The seminar is a core component of the 2011 Short Course,
itself a pilot for the upcoming transnational and intercultural
postgraduate degree in interdisciplinary European youth studies.
The development process is currently funded by the
Socrates-Erasmus chapter of the EU Lifelong Learning Programme
and supported by the Council of Europe’s Directorate of Youth
and Sport and the EU-COE Youth Partnership.
This degree course aims to set the quality reference point and
benchmark for improving and sustaining the development of
European youth research as a distinct field of education and
scholarship. The only specialist degree of its kind, it aims to
fill an education and qualification gap at national and European
levels.
The Secretary General’s visit to the European Youth
Centre Budapest
The
Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjorn
Jagland, visitedBudapest on January 14th for a
series of official meetings with the Minister of Foreign
Affairs, the President of the Constitutional Court and members
of the Hungarian government and Parliament.
Mr. Jagland also visited the EYCB where he opened an
information session of the
Intercultural Cities Programme of the Council of Europe,
attended by a small select group of representatives of Hungarian
local authorities and various ministries.
The Secretary General also held a meeting with the EYCB staff
to discuss the ongoing reform process and to answer
questions by staff members.
Photos from the Information Session on the
Intercultural Cities Programme
>>>
14/01/2011
1st EU-Level Thematic Conference for the European Year
of Volunteering at the Council of Europe’s European
Youth Centre Budapest
The
official launch of the European Year of Volunteering 2011
took place on January 8th in Budapest as part of the series of
events linked to the inauguration of the Hungarian presidency of
the EU.
Accompanying the launch was the 1st EU-level thematic
conference for the EYV 2011 entitled “Recognising the
contribution of volunteering to economy, society and the
individual – where are we now, and where do we want to go?”.
The event, held at the European Youth Centre Budapest, brought
together more than two hundred of the main stakeholders in the
field of volunteering in Europe and was opened by the keynote
speeches of the Vice-President of the European Commission,
Viviane Reding, and Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Public Administration and Justice, Tibor
Navracsics.
The plenary panel discussion was moderated by the Executive
Director of the EYCB, Antje Rothemund and it included
contributions from Mr Staffan Nilsson, President of the
European Economic and Social Committee, Ms Flavia Pansieri,
Executive Coordinator of the United Nations Volunteers
Programme, Ms Marian Harkin MEP, and Ms Gabriela
Civico representing the EYV 2011 Alliance.
During the panel discussion, attention was brought to the
recent resolutionby the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe on the promotion of volunteering in Europe
as a relevant and useful guide for the achievement of the ambitious
goals of the thematic year.
For more information visit the EYV 2011 Alliance website
>>>
10th December - Human Rights Festival at the EYC
Budapest
The
Festival's mission was to celebrate the
Human Rights Day which marks the anniversary of the
adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by
the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948.
The Festival offered a wide range of activities such as
presentations, round-table discussions, concerts and theatre
performances, as well as interactive workshops, exhibitions and
an NGO-fair.
The
2nd meeting of the Group of Eminent Persons took place in
the European Youth Centre Budapest on 2 December , the
discussions focused on the situation of Roma in Europe .
The Group is chaired by Joschka Fischer and works on
preparing a report within the context of the Pan-European
project ''Living together in 21st century Europe''.
The picture shows the Group of Eminent Persons meeting
spontaneously with participants of the study sessions taking
place at the Centre.
Asian and European youth representatives meet on
Environment and Human Rights
The
Council of Europe – Directorate of Youth and Sport - and the
Asia-Europe
Foundation (ASEF) gathered 30 young people from Asia and
Europe to participate in the Asia-Europe Training Course on
Environmental Human Rights. The training course was organised in
cooperation with the
International Workcamp Organization (IWO) in Korea. It took
place in Paju, Korea, from 9 to 15 November and focused on
the challenges for Youth Work in relation to the Environment and
Human Rights. Read more
>>>
November 2010
2nd residential seminar of the ENTER!
Long Term Training Course
From
27th September- 6th October, 26 participants gathered in the
European Youth Centre Budapest fort he 2nd residential seminar
of the Long Term Training Course (LTTC) on theAccess
to Social Rights of young people from disadvantaged
neighbourhoods.
The LTTC is part of the tri-annual project ENTER!
organised by the Directorate of Youth and Sports of the Council
of Europe and aims at developing youth policy responses to
exclusion, discrimination and violence affecting young people in
multicultural disadvantaged neighbourhoods.
This second seminar in Budapest hold the purpose of
consolidating participants’ learning so far and evaluate their
project development. It also helped participants to further
develop their expertise on Social Rights and to explore how
youth policy can influence their work at local level.
Within the programme of the seminar, participants had the
opportunity to visit a local organisation, Kesztyugyár. They
were introduced to the educational programme of the community
centre and had a chance to explore the neighbourhood and see how
urban regeneration can contribute to social inclusion.
Participants further developed the next steps of their projects
and will meet again for a final seminar in Strasbourg in May
2011.
For detailed
information visit the ENTER! project's
website
>>>
The
colloquy, entitled “Bridging the Gap” brought
together over thirty practitioners from the Youth Information
field to discuss the development of Youth Information in recent
years and in particular since the adoption of Recommendation
(90) 7 in 1980 by the Council of Europe Committee of
Ministers on information and counselling for young people in
Europe.
The meeting was also occasioned by the adoption of
Recommendation CM/ Rec (2010)8 by the Committee of Ministers
on youth information in June.
The participants – both governmental representatives and youth
information workers – discussed a broad range of issues, among
them the current state of youth information, the consequeces of
new youth cultures on youth information services, the possible
practical implementation of the new recommendations, and the
promotion of the
Youth Information Starter Kit.
One of the primary aims for the colloquy was he sharing of local
and national experiences among the participants and the transfer
of knowledge and expertise from countries with well-established
youth information structures and systems to countries where this
area is still in its early stages of development.
Social Platform's networking visit in
Hungary
In
the framework of the networking visit in Hungary, the
Platform of European Social NGOs (Social
Platform) held its conference entitled “Impact of
the crisis on people, civil society organisations and
social policies” at the EYCB on 15-16 September.
The conference – including panel debates, field visits
and different workshops – aimed at assisting the
delegations in gaining deeper insight into the impact of
the crisis on Hungary. Special attention was paid to the
question of civil dialogue in Hungary and the situation
of the Roma and LGBT communities.
Four key
messages to decision makers by the present social civil
society organisations came out during the meeting:
1) Ensure partnership in Europe 2020 process
2) Underline the quality employment, not only ‘jobs’
3) Act in favour of compromise-based financial
mechanisms for civil society organizations
4) Give a recognition to volunteering
Roma Rights Summer School
at the EYCB
The European Roma
Rights Centre held its annual Roma Rights Summer School from 25
July to 4 August 2010.
The intensive 10-day course involved 22 young Romani and
Traveller participants who learnt about international human
rights legislation and Romani issues.
Read more >>>
Print 
Send 
From
the 4th to 11th of March 2012, the Organising Bureau of European
School Student Unions (OBESSU) will organise, in cooperation
with the Council of Europe, a study session entitled “Special
Needs”: education, participation and social inclusion at the
European Youth Centre in Budapest. The study session will gather
together approximately 40 participants from more than 15
different countries from all over Europe. The Study Session aims
to explore and further develop tools and methods for social
inclusion for school students with special needs in youth
projects. Besides young people from OBESSU also young persons
from the European Union of Deaf Youth (EUDY), Ceva de Spus, the
Norwegian Association of Youth with disabilities and Surdus
Loquens will participate in the Study Session. Moreover the
President of the International Federation of Hard of Hearing
Young People (IFHOHYP) will be a guest speaker at the event.
38 young trainers
and youth workers from 30 countries meet from 7-14 February for
the ‘Training of Trainers in Human Rights Education for young
people’ at the European Youth Centre Budapest. The Training
seminar was preceded by a seven month long e-learning phase.
During the 8 day seminar participants will develop their
competences in human rights education, intercultural learning,
and promoting through education
Access
to Social Rights for Young People from Disadvantaged
Neighbourhoods
Voicing
the aspirations and projects of Roma youth in the Council of
Europe - Dejpe krlo/glaso e aspiracijenge thaj projektonge katar
e terne Roma ande Europako Konsilo
Between
August 12 and 14, and after a year of hiatus in 2010, the
Living Library project returned to the annual Sziget
Festival, one of Europe’s largest and best-known musical
festivals. 
The
Directorate of Communication of the Council of Europe
together with the European Youth Press has announced a
journalism prize - Youth Media Award 2011 for
young media makers and journalists in all 47 CoE member
states and Belarus. 
The
As
a young man, Joaquin José Martinez supported the death
penalty. But the Spanish-Ecuadorian man was sentenced to
death by a Florida court for a dual murder in 1987. He
could not afford his own lawyer and was supported by a
public defender and the court committed serious
procedural errors during the trial. 
The
M.A. European Youth Studies (M.A. EYS) Project
organised a residential seminar at the EYCB in February 2011. 
The
official launch of the European Year of Volunteering 2011
took place on January 8th in Budapest as part of the series of
events linked to the inauguration of the Hungarian presidency of
the EU. 
The
Festival
The
2nd meeting of the Group of Eminent Persons took place in
the European Youth Centre Budapest on 2 December , the
discussions focused on the situation of Roma in Europe . 
The
Council of Europe – Directorate of Youth and Sport - and the
Asia-Europe
Foundation (ASEF) gathered 30 young people from Asia and
Europe to participate in the Asia-Europe Training Course on
Environmental Human Rights. The training course was organised in
cooperation with the
International Workcamp Organization (IWO) in Korea. It took
place in Paju, Korea, from 9 to 15 November and focused on
the challenges for Youth Work in relation to the Environment and
Human Rights.
From
27th September- 6th October, 26 participants gathered in the
European Youth Centre Budapest fort he 2nd residential seminar
of the Long Term Training Course (LTTC) on the Access
to Social Rights of young people from disadvantaged
neighbourhoods.
