Human Rights - Responsibility to Care!

Aims & objectives

Seminar (action 4.3) brought together 21 participants (active youth, youth leaders, young teachers) from 7 countries (Estonia, Lithuania, United Kingdom, Italy, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia) to Kuressaare, Saaremaa for 8 days to share experience in the field of human rights, debate on different related issues and to find solutions to abuse of rights and develop new projects and initiatives to raise awareness about human rights in our societies.

Seminar had following objectives:
-to raise awareness of human rights among youth
-to explore issues connected to human rights in participating countries
-to promote creation of equal opportunities to everyone
-to be aware of different types of discrimination resulting human rights abuse
-to debate on conflict of human rights / abuse of rights
- to know how to find help in case of human rights violation
-to be aware of different level of protection of human rights
- to understand the role of civil society organizations in protection of human rights
-to develop new projects and initiatives connected to human rights issues

Target group & international/intercultural composition of the group & team

Participants were active young people, youth workers and teachers from seven different countries: Estonia, Lithuania, Italy, Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania and United Kingdom, totally 21. Organizers and facilitators were composed of mixed team from Estonia and Lithuania:

Triin Kivimaa (organizer - Estonia)
Bret Paas (organizer - Estonia)
Andrius Plindinas (organizer - Lithuania)

Heleri Alles (trainer - Estonia)
Ignas Dzemyda (trainer - Lithuania)

Training methods used & main activities

Among 8 days spent in Kuressaare, participants worked on the aims of the seminar, facilitated by two facilitators and got involved in topics through non-formal methods. We used different methods such as group discussions, role-plays, open space, world cafe, simulations, activities involving local community, presentations, quizes, brainstorming, learning buddies etc. Human Rights Compass was used as valuable tool. Participants also carried out Human Library in local youth centre and human rights workshops in two local schools involving more than 130 students. After the seminar competences gained will be put into practice in participants' organizations and schools in their countries.

Outcomes of the activity

As the result of this seminar:
- Participants are more aware of the issues connected to human rights in their countries and in Europe and world in general
- Participants have basic background about universal human rights and history of human rights
- Participants are aware of complexity of human rights and possible conflicts between human rights
- Participants know the local reality in Estonia in the field of human rights
- Participants know about violation of human rights and discrimination resulting it. They have basic knowledge of groups who rights are violated most
- Participants know how to use non-formal methods to provide education on human rights to young people
- 130 students in Kuressaare Regional training centre and Kuressaare Gymnasium were involved in non-formal workshops about human rights
- Young people got to know about human rights and minority groups via human library in youth centre
- Several new inititiatives and project ideas were developed and network formulated between participants and organizations from participating countries
- Ideas for follow-up activities were developed in each participating country and concrete action plans created for raising awareness on human rights issues

Your tasks and responsibilities within the team

I was involved in preparation, implementation, evaluation and follow-up of the seminar. I was 8 days full-time trainer during the seminar.

I worked on this training for 8 days as a full time trainer.