Human Rights Education Youth Programme

ASSERTING CITIZENSHIP AND HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION TODAY

A Consultative Meeting to follow-up on the 2022 Turin Forum on Citizenship

 and Human Rights Education and the 3rd review of the 

Council of Europe EDC/HRE Charter

 The Council of Europe is organising the Consultative Meeting Evaluation and Follow-up to the 2022 Turin Forum on Citizenship and Human Rights Education to take stock of the results of the Review of and the Turin Forum. The meeting will discuss the results and conclusions of the Review of the Charter and the Forum and based on this will contribute to proposals for a roadmap for Council of Europe’s work in the field of human rights education and education for democratic citizenship.

 The meeting takes place in a social and political context that is possibly less favourable than before and dominated by the ongoing armed aggress of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, the climate crisis and growing levels of inequalities which undermine the foundations of democratic societies.

 To quote the participants of the Turin forum:

 Practitioners and learners need to be supported and guaranteed the freedom to define and address the most burning issues within their communities, rather than authorities cherry-picking the most comfortable and appealing topics for them. These harsh realities, as well as emerging opportunities, galvanize and raise our voices in support of human rights and EDC/HRE. If there were setbacks and impediments previously, now we have to strongly assert our values.

 It is also in this context that the 4^th Summit of the Council of Europe will be held in Reykjavik on 16 and 17 May. The summit presents itself as a “historic opportunity for the Council of Europe to refocus its mission, in the light of new threats to democracy and human rights, and to support Ukraine”. The summit should reflect and address the challenges above-mentioned and assign an important role to citizenship and human rights, and to the agency of young people. The consultative meeting is thus an opportunity to take into account the outcomes of the summit in relation to EDC/HRE.

 Objectives of the consultative meeting:

• To reflect and analyse the results, conclusions and recommendations of the 3^rd Review process of the Council of Europe Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education and of the Forum on the Present and Future of Citizenship and Human Rights Education in Europe with Young People while taking into account the results of the 4^th Summit of the Council of Europe;
• To make proposals for follow-up for the Council of Europe’s work in the field of EDC/HRE for next 5 years and connect them to priorities and programme of the Youth and Education departments of the Council of Europe;
• To discuss ways to renew the Human Rights Education Youth Programme, as one of the ways to further action at national and international level to improve the provision and quality of citizenship human rights education in member states.

The meeting should result, among others, in the proposal to the Joint Council on Youth of a roadmap to implement the conclusion of the 3^rd review of the Charter through the Youth for Democracy programme and in similar proposals to the programme of the Education Department of the Council of Europe.