How can youth organisations create safer and more inclusive spaces for everyone?
This is the focus of the study session Rights in Practice: Fostering Human Rights Education for Youth Work and European NGOs to Combat Sexual Harassment, taking place at the European Youth Centre in Strasbourg from 21 to 25 September 2026.
Organised within the Council of Europe’s Youth for Democracy programme, in co-operation with ESTIEM – the European Students of Industrial Engineering and Management – the study session brings participants together to explore human rights education, gender-based violence, safeguarding and sexual harassment in youth work and international youth organisations.
The programme combines expert contributions with practical activities and open discussion. Participants build a shared understanding of human rights and gender-based violence, examine how sexual harassment can develop, and work through real-life-inspired cases to consider how they can respond. They also explore active bystanding, safeguarding and the responsibilities and limits of safety contact persons.
Expert sessions include contributions from Françoise Kempf, from the secretariat of the Istanbul Convention, on violence against women and the Istanbul Convention, as well as an introduction to sexual harassment by Krista Orama from the Council of Europe’s Gender Equality Division. Zara Todd, an expert on safeguarding and inclusiveness in youth work, supports participants in looking at risk and ways to make youth activities safer.
A central part of the study session is the development of practical tools and guidelines for safety contact persons and organisers. Working together, participants identify common mistakes, consider how to prevent and respond to harassment, and turn their ideas into resources that can be used in future events.
The study session is designed as a human rights-based safety intervention and harassment prevention activity. It aims to give participants both a deeper understanding of the issues and the confidence to take action when harassment occurs. The results are intended to support safer, more inclusive and more thoughtful environments within ESTIEM, as well as in partner youth organisations.
The week concludes with participants creating a shared vision for safety, presenting the tools they develop and agreeing on next steps. By the end of the session, they are better equipped to prevent harassment, support people affected by it and contribute to a stronger culture of safety in youth work.
