Studying in summer? – Definitely! – Answered more than 110 pro-active and motivated students from all over Ukraine and submitted their applications for the Council of Europe and DRI Summer School “First Steps in Politics”*. After thorough consideration and a range of personal interviews with short-listed candidates, 40 young female and male leaders from 22 universities of Ukraine got the chance to take part in the School and to obtain necessary knowledge and skills to start their career in politics.

18 speakers and 7 days of intensive and productive trainings, discussions, role games, debates, project team work, self-improvement and networking – all marked a good start and a first step towards active political participation. 22 sessions were dedicated to different topics essential for dealing with policies and politics: politics and law making process, critical thinking and media, communications and public speaking, human rights and gender mainstreaming, advocacy and elections, youth politics and self-government. At the end of the School, 4 teams competed for the award “Winner of the Debates at the 2019 CoE and DRI Summer School” and, in lively competition, defended their political parties’ programs developed throughout the School.

Here is just a few of many positive comments expressed by the participants throughout and after the School, and that is the best motivation for the future activities on strengthening and enhancing human rights, democracy and rule of law in Ukraine.

The School took place in village Plavye (Lviv region, Ukraine) on 6-12 July 2019. Here are some photos from the School to remember the moments.

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*The School was organized by the Council of Europe project “Supporting the transparency, inclusiveness and integrity of electoral practice in Ukraine”, implemented within the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine 2018 – 2021, and Democracy Reporting International (DRI) within the framework of the project “Beyond Kyiv: strengthening the potential of regional agents of change for key political reforms” implemented by DRI jointly with the Institute of international relations of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv with the financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany.