This training course will support the role of youth organisations and develop the competences of trainers and multipliers to apply and develop quality human rights education with young people, especially at national and local level and to advocate for the further mainstreaming of human rights education ion youth policy and youth work.

Objectives:

• To strengthen participants’ understanding of key concepts of human rights education with young people
• To review and address the essential competences, skills and attitudes for trainers working with human rights education in non-formal learning settings
• To familiarise participants with the approaches and activities of Compass (the manual on human rights education with young people) and with how to best use it and adapt it to local contexts and realities
• To analyse current developments in human rights education, including dimensions of digital citizenship and online activism
• To develop knowledge and skills in advocacy for human rights education at local and national level based on the Council of Europe Charter on Education for Democratic Citizen and Human Rights Education
• To motivate and enable the participants to actively use information and communication technology as part of their own learning and in their human rights education activities
• To associate the participants and their organisations with the priorities of the Youth Department of the Council of Europe related to human rights education especially in the follow-up to the No hate Speech Movement campaign
• To contribute to the development of networks of trainers on human rights education with young people and to the mainstreaming of human rights education in youth work and non-formal learning.

The course is designed to give participants the opportunity to experience and reflect upon activities and concepts central to human rights education based on experiential learning approaches. It is also designed as a mutual learning situation, where participants can compare their approaches to training and to human rights education across Europe in a dialogical intercultural approach and environment.
Contributions from experts in the field of human rights will establish a theoretical framework and a common reference point for learning and communication, and there will be opportunities to try out and evaluate activities from the 2012 Compass edition.

The course is also built around the expectation that participants will put in practice their learning by developing and implementing a human rights education project throughout the course. The e-learning and follow-up phases are a full part of the course structure and approach, even if the training seminar at the European Youth Centre remains the most important and visible phase.

The three main phases of the training course are:

Phase 1 – E-learning - getting ready for the course and developing a common knowledge basis (June/July 2017 - and September 2017)

The main aim of this phase is to support participants acquire core knowledge on human rights and human rights education which will be further addressed in the residential seminar. This phase includes also work with self-assessment of competences and learning planning, but as well clarification and build-up of the human rights education project that participants are expected to develop and implement throughout the course.

Phase 2 – The residential training seminar (2-12 October 2017)

The seminar is an important moment for learning and skills developments within the training: the trainers and participants work together face-to-face. Participants will experience activities from Compass and use them as a starting point for learning about training. The seminar will finish with the finalisation of the planning of the human rights education projects to be implemented by the participants after the course. The seminar will take into account the evaluation of phase 1 and set the common learning objectives for phase 3.

 Draft programme of the Residential Seminar

Phase 3 – Follow-up (October-December 2017)

This phase is mainly for consolidating learning, supporting participants in their follow-up (projects, learning) and enabling networking between participants and trainers. Some new learning units will be proposed as well based on individual needs of participants. Particular attention will be devoted to the follow-up of the projects of participants in view of securing their feasibility.    

The course contents and methodology are designed so that the participants will be able to develop (or begin developing) core competences for trainers in human rights education with young people. While the list below might not include all competences of a human rights educator, it is the learning compass for learning planning and measurement in the course:

• Knowledge on different instruments for the protection and promotion of human rights and the ability to connect them with the lives of individuals and communities;
• Understanding of current situation and challenges to human rights, with a special focus on the national and local levels and the capacity to initiate and lead debates on it;
• Critical thinking skills and the capacity to have multiple perspectives on contemporary human rights issues and dilemmas;
• Competence to plan, develop, implement and evaluate HRE activities;
• Knowledge of educational approaches in HRE and the ability to apply them;
• The ability to use COMPASS edition 2012 in HRE, including the adaptation of its activities taking in consideration local realities, different contexts and the needs of target groups.
• The ability to network and cooperate with other people and organizations/institutions involved in HRE.
• Understanding of the key principles of non-formal education and its links with HRE;
• Ability to competently plan own learning.
• Knowledge of the Council of Europe and its work in the area of human rights and human rights education;
• The ability to work co-operatively;
• Intercultural learning competence, including empathy, tolerance of ambiguity and distance to social roles in professional contexts;
• The ability to recognize and translate human rights value framework into personal, social and professional actions;
• The ability to advocate for HRE.

The course is gathering 36 participants who are active as trainers or facilitators in non–formal education, especially within youth organisations and associations, in youth work activities and in other NGOs concerned with human rights education.

List of participants and their supporting organisations