The last decade has been a turbulent period for human rights and civil society organisations, many European countries show a deterioration of their human rights and democratic scores by multiple pieces of research and indices. Many youth organisations have been reporting on limitations of freedom of speech, assembly and association, censorship, creating consent in funding and restrictions on political dissent.
What should be the role of the human rights educators? HREYN with the partnershipi of Amnestiy International decided to explore the phenomenon of "Shrinking Civil Space," which is especially vulnerable for young people. This project aims to increase our networks’ capacity to address the shrinking space for youth civil society through empowerment, advocacy and campaigning. In addition, enhancing the participation of young people in democratic and civic life, and broaden and deepen political, civic and social participation on various levels.
The projects "Reclaiming civil space" and "Promoting Youth Civil Space through Youth Work and Human Rights Education" consist of four stages:
1. Training-seminar;
2. Blended learning course;
3. Actions implemented in the local context of participants;
4. Evaluation Seminar.
Throughout this actions, the project will directly cover 26 youth workers, and 50 young people. Youth workers and human rights educator participants will have hands-on experience and practice - creating, executing and evaluating the learning experiences in the dimensions of human rights education addressing the shrinking space phenomenon. The project team also intends to create the compilation of relevant practices by the participating organisations.
The training-seminar "synchronising terms" in Turin, planned to be implemented from 12th to 18th of December, 2021, will host 26 participants with youth work or human rights education practitioner background, who will synchronise understanding and dissect of the phenomenon of shrinking space, identify the role of young people and engage in creating the learning experiences, which will be expressed through the Blended learning course (online and residential) in Turin, Italy (tbc) in second half of 2022.
We are looking for participants, who:
are members of HREYN or Amnesty International;
have full understanding of the principles of human rights education and youth work for and with young people;
are motivated to share their experiences and practices and take action against "shrinking spaces" in their contexts;
can act as "multipliers" with young people in their local contexts;
are committed to actively follow the project cycle and planned actions;
have good command in English.
Priority will be given to youth workers and educators who are affected by "shrinking spaces" in their contexts and/or belong to marginalized communities.
Deadline: October 20, 2021.
The project is supported by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe and Agency Nazionale Per I Giovani under Erasmus+ programme of the European Union.
