Year-long human rights campaign concludes in Kosovo schools
PRISTINA, 7 June 2002 - Around 100 primary school children took part today in Vushtrri/Vucitrn in the final event of a joint OSCE/Council of Europe human rights awareness campaign, based on the production of a calendar that involved 150 school classes throughout Kosovo.
Presenting awards for the best calendars produced during the campaign, Ambassador Pascal Fieschi, Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, said: "Through this experience, you have gained a personal understanding of human rights, which will stay with you wherever you are".
Every month over the past school year 150 classes, representing roughly 1,800 7th and 8th graders from all regions and communities of Kosovo, have been learning and discussing one of the rights guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights. A calendar, with each page illustrating one of these rights, was used as an interactive medium to prompt discussions and activities. At the end of each session, the children reported on the texts and drawings they produced.
The basic idea of the campaign was that children's contributions in building up the calendar would make it successful month by month.
After the last session, all the calendars were collected and those presenting the most creative inputs were selected. The best ones from the regions of Prishtina/Pristina and Mitrovica/Kosovska Mitrovica were commended today on the premises of the Kosovo Police Service School, in the presence of representatives of each participating class.
"Your involvement in this project is an important step in the direction of peace and tolerance", said Ambassador Fieschi. "I hope that you will take what you have learned and let it be the guiding principle in your lives. It is up to each and every one of you to shape the future of Kosovo."
A mobile exhibition of the best designed calendars will be shown in the coming months in local school buildings and municipal town halls.