Human Rights Education as Part of the Legal Culture

Transcription

1 Learning the Key Principles and the Functioning of the Human Rights Protection System 1 Strasbourg, 25 May 2012 DGII/EDU/EAHR (2012) 4 NATIONAL ROUNDTABLE: Human Rights Education as Part of the Legal Culture 7 May 2012 Hotel Kokra (Brdo pri Kranju), Report by Dr Mitja SARDOČ Educational Research Institute Ljubljana, 1 Project title for public use: Explore and Act for Human Rights - A Project for European Students.

2 Summary of the National Roundtable Human Rights Education as Part of the Legal Culture The National Roundtable Human Rights Education as Part of the Legal Culture 2 which took place on 7 May 2012 was carried out in the framework of the project Learning the Key Principles and the Functioning of the Human Rights Protection System 3 by the Council of Europe 4 between It was organized with the cooperation of the Slovene National School of Leadership in Education. It brought together scholars, policy makers and practitioners in the area of human rights education and education for democratic citizenship in what is to become one of the new areas of inquiry in both theory, policy and practice of human rights education. In particular, it aimed to link human rights education to the key principles and the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights. The National Roundtable addressed the broad topic of human rights education and its role in the legal culture not only in the classroom and in the education context but also more generally in helping spread awareness of and respect for the standards and values expressed in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and other standard-setting bodies of the Council of Europe. This report presents the documentation of the national roundtable together with some preliminary conclusions and recommendations The National Roundtable Human Rights Education as Part of the Legal Culture was organised and hosted by the Directorate of Democratic Citizenship and Participation of the Council of Europe in cooperation with the Slovene National School of Leadership in Education. The Directorate of Democratic Citizenship and Participation has launched in 2010 a new project Learning the key principles and the functioning of the European system of protection of human rights ( ) aiming to encourage an effective implementation and respect of Human rights in the education sector (of 47 member States) through a better understanding of the principles of the European Human Rights system and the functioning of its mechanisms. For more information about the project Learning the Key Principles and the Functioning of the Human Rights Protection System and the various activities, resources and partnerships, see the project s website 2

3 Opening session of the national roundtable (plenary session) ( ) The opening session of the National Roundtable Human Rights Education as Part of the Legal Culture was opened by Dr Andrej Koren, the Director of the Slovene National School of Leadership in Education. He welcomed the participants and thanked the Council of Europe for initiating the national Roundtable in Slovenia. In his opening address, he pointed out the various activities undertaken by the Slovene authorities in the area of human rights education and education for democratic citizenship over the last decade with the support of the Council of Europe. He then gave the floor to Mr Villano Qiriazi, Head of the Education Policy and Rights Unit, from the Council of Europe. Mr Qiriazi welcomed the participants and thanked the Slovene National School of Leadership in Education for organizing the national Roundtable. He started his presentation with an overview of the various activities in the area of human rights education and education for democratic citizenship the Council of Europe has been carrying out during the last two decades. At the same time, he raised the importance of the Council of Europe Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education and the link between education for democratic citizenship and human rights education. Dr Mitja Sardoč presented the Council of Europe s project Learning the key principles and the functioning of the European system of protection of human Rights. He started with the presentation of the basic objectives of the project, i.e. - to achieve implementation and enforcement of the human rights in the education sector through a better understanding of the principles of the European system of protection of human rights and the functioning of its mechanisms; - to enable European secondary school students to become familiar with the key principles of European human rights law and to understand how the European Court of Human Rights and other important CoE monitoring bodies function; - to increase awareness about the work done by the Court and its impact on their societies; encourage participation, dialogue and synergies in the process of implementation among all actors involved; - to develop the teachers role and responsibilities as key actors in ensuring an effective implementation of the principles of the European human rights system; and - to offer member countries policy guidance on fostering teachers freedoms and responsibilities; enhancing capacity of education sector staff. He then presented the project s target groups in chronological order that include students and students teachers at the different levels of education, i.e upper secondary schools; upper elementary schools; and undergraduate programs. As he emphasized, other target groups of the project include education policy makers, experts and other persons in charge of training curricula for teachers, school principals and heads of universities, teachers in charge of human rights education and teacher educators in all Council of Europe member states. He then introduced Ms Kornelija Marzel, the deputy Slovene Human Rights Ombudsman. In her plenary presentation, she stressed the importance of human rights education at the various levels of education and in different educational environments. At the same time, she also presented some of the cases that the Office of the Slovene Human Rights Ombudsman is dealing with in as well as some basic statistical data on the work of the Slovene Human Rights Ombudsman. The opening session of the national Roundtable was followed by a coffee break. 3

4 Keynote presentations (morning plenary session) ( ) This part of the national Roundtable was organized and carried out in the form of keynote presentations delivered by Prof. Jernej Pikalo (Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana) and Prof. Miro Cerar (Faculty of Law, University of Ljubljana). Dr Jernej Pikalo gave an overview of the discussion in the area of education for democratic citizenship and human rights education in Slovenia with a particular emphasis on the challenges and problems globalization puts in front of educators as some of the issues, e.g. ecology, migrations etc. cannot be reduced to a single political community. It is here that he introduced the importance of human rights education and the importance of educating students as fully cooperating members of a polity that is characterized by democratic deficit, pluralism and the circumstances of multiculturalism. In particular, he raised the importance of broadening the understanding of traditional notions used in education for democratic citizenship and human rights education, e.g. democracy, rights, citizenship etc. In his keynote presentation, Dr Miro Cerar introduced the link between human rights education and the legal culture. He focused on the role of law, the importance of human rights as a mechanism of protection. In particular, he raised the importance of a comparative perspective in this area of scholarly research. He touched on some of the most pressing and challenging controversies in the area of education and human rights that have been examined over the last two decades, e.g. religious symbols in public education etc. At the same time, he also pointed out some of the critiques addressed against human rights. He concluded his presentation by emphasizing the role of raising awareness of and respect for the standards and values expressed in the Case Law of the European Court of Human Rights and other standard-setting bodies of the Council of Europe. Keynote presentations (afternoon plenary session) ( ) The afternoon session was carried out in the form of three keynote presentations delivered by Dr Peter Kirchschlaeger (University of Teacher Education Central Switzerland Lucerne), Mr Bernard Dumont (France) and Dr Vedrana Spajić-Vrkaš (University of Zagreb). Dr Kirchschlaeger started off his presentation by inviting the participants to raise question addressing human rights education issues. He then focused on the various aspects of human rights education and the role of teacher training in supporting a sustainable system of human rights education in everyday pedagogical practice. In his presentation, Mr Dumont presented in detail the process of finding the resources in the area of citizenship education, human rights education and the Case Law from the European Court of Human Rights, and the role of the metadata. In particular, he raised the importance of various strategies how to find the resources including the metadata and the process of identifying the educational resources. The central part of his presentation was revolving around the educational metadata and the various examples of how to find data in this area of scholarly research. He also presented examples of repositories of educational resources and the various stages of building up such repositories. 4

5 Dr Vedrana Spajić-Vrkaš presented the results of a regional survey on human rights education and education for democratic citizenship. In particular, she raised the importance of various issues that have a lasting influence of civic culture of a contemporary democratic societies, e.g. trust in the institutional framework of a political community, what the role of a citizen should be, what rights, virtues and obligations should each and every member of a polity have etc. The participants at the national Roundtable reacted positively to all three presentations and have raised several questions addressing the most pressing problems facing this area of scholarly research. Closing session and summing up ( ) The closing session of the national Roundtable was aimed at the summing up of the work carried out during the national roundtable. It was moderated by Dr Mitja Sardoč who summed up the presentations delivered during the national Roundtable Human Rights Education as Part of the Legal Culture and the most important points raised throughout the national Roundtable. He thanked the participants for their participation at the national Roundtable, the speakers for their effort in raising a number of important questions, the Council of Europe for its steady support of Slovenia in the area of education for democratic citizenship and human rights education. He also presented the various future activities planned to be undertaken during the duration of the Council of Europe project Learning the Key Principles and the Functioning of the Human Rights Protection System both in Slovenia and in other participating countries. He concluded his summing up of the Slovene national Roundtable Human Rights Education as Part of the Legal Culture by raising the importance of how issues related to the human rights protection mechanisms by the European Court of Human Rights are to be progressively introduced at the various levels of the education system. 5

6 7 May 2012 APPENDIX 1 Agenda Venue: HOTEL KOKRA (BRDO PRI KRANJU) 8h30 Arrival and Registration 9h00 10h30 Opening addresses & Session 1 10h30 11h00 Politics and programmes of the Council of Europe in human rights and citizenship education Mr Villano Qiriazi, Council of Europe Presentation of the Council of Europe project Learning the Key Principles and the Functioning of the Human Rights Protection System Dr. Mitja Sardoč, Educational Research Institute, Slovenia Human Rights in Education Between Theory and Practice Ms Kornelija Marzel (MSc), deputy Slovene Human Rights Ombudsman Coffee break 11h00 12h30 Session 2 12h30 14h00 Human Rights Education as Part of the Legal Culture Dr Miro Cerar, Faculty of Law, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Human Rights Education in a Globalised World Dr Jernej Pikalo (Slovene national EDC coordinator), Faculty of the Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana Lunch Break 14h00 15h30 Session 3-15h Ms Mojca Škrinjar, Secretary of State at the Ministry of education, science, culture and sport, Slovenia Human Rights Education and Teacher Education Dr Peter Kirchschlager, Centre of Human Rights Education, University of Teacher Education Central Switzerland, Lucerne, Switzerland Making Citizens in SouthEast Europe: Tokenism or Empowerment? Dr Vedrana Spajič Vrkaš, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia How can I find the resource that I need to teach Human Rights? A repository of pedagogical resources based on the publications of the Council of Europe Mr Bernard Dumont, France Closing Session & Summing up 6

7 CROATIA Dr Vedrana SPAJIĆ-VRKAŠ Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences University OF Zagreb CROATIA FRANCE APPENDIX 2 List of participants Mr Bernard DUMONT Consultant in Training Engineering, e-learning and Quality in Education Hameau Lalabel F ND DE LA ROUVIERE Dr Mitja SARDOC Education Research Institute Dr Andrej KOREN Dr Miro CERAR Faculty of Law, University of Ljubljana Dr Jernej PIKALO Faculty of Social Studies, University of Ljubljana Ms Kornelija MARZEL (MSc) Office of the Slovene Human Rights Ombudsman Ms Pavla KARBA (MSc) The National Institute of Education Mr Vojko KUNAVER The National Institute of Education Ms Tanja POPIT The National Institute of Education Ms Simona KEMPERLE Amnesty International Slovenia 7

8 Mr Dejan KOKOL Gornja Radgona Elementary School Ms Natalija PANIĆ Sostro Elementary School Ms Sabina MELAVC Ministry of education, science, culture and sport Ms Saša Zabukovec (MSc) Ministry of education, science, culture and sport Ms Katja ARZENŠEK Lucija Elementary School Ms Brigita URH Office of the Slovene Human Rights Ombudsman Ms Martina JENKOLE (MSc) Office of the Slovene Human Rights Ombudsman Ms Jana MATKO Office of the Slovene Human Rights Ombudsman Ms Nataša Hozjan Breznjik Kašelj Elementary School Ms Andreja NOVŠAK Bled Kindergartens Ms Martina VIDONJA Beltinci Kindergartens Dr Stane ANDOLŠEK Poljane Gimnasium Mr Uroš CANKAR Kočevje Gimasium Mr. Sebastjan Čagran (MSc) 8

9 Ms Polona PEČEK (MSc) Dr Tatjana AŽMAN Ms Anja USSAI Ms Barbara Kuk Žgajnar Mr Timotej ŠTRITOF Ms Manica Jakič Brezočnik Ministry of education, science, culture and sport Ms Polona KENDA Simon Kos Elementary School, Podbrdo Ms Metka Temlin Dobrilovič Poljane Elementary School, Ljubljana Ms Daniela Orsag Poljane Elementary School, Ljubljana Ms Liljana BELE Gornji Grad Elementary School Ms Mojca STROPNIK Kozjansko Developmental Agency ITALY Dr Marianna KOSIC Institute Mandala, Trieste ITALY SWITZERLAND Dr Peter KIRCHSCHLAEGER Co-Director- Centre of Human Rights Education (ZMRB) University of Teacher Education Central Switzerland Lucerne CH-6003 LUCERNE 9

10 COUNCIL OF EUROPE Mr Villano QIRIAZI Head of Education Policy and Rights Unit Education Department Directorate of Democratic Citizenship and Participation DG II - Directorate General of Democracy Council of Europe F Strasbourg Cedex Interpreters Ms Branka BOŽIČ Ms Meta KOŽUH 10