OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine trains teachers on educating about human rights principles

More than 60 school teachers were trained on teaching about human rights to children and youth during events organized in Odesa and Kharkiv by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine from 11 to 20 August 2015.

Two intensive three-day train-the-trainer courses were aimed at raising teachers’ awareness of human rights and strengthening their knowledge on how to teach the subject to different age groups in formal and non-formal settings.

The courses covered the theory, history and evolution of human rights, international instruments and mechanisms to protect them. The training methodology was based on interactive techniques and included discussions, case studies, mini-lectures, various exercises and screenings of short documentary films on human rights.

Case studies from the handbook on human rights for children, developed by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine, were also presented. The participants received copies of the handbook and a number of teaching materials to be used at schools in the upcoming academic year.

“OSCE materials on human rights education are very helpful and provide necessary tools and techniques to work with school students,” said Natalia Dnistrianska, trainer and lyceum teacher from Lutsk, north-west Ukraine. “After I completed the course last year, I introduced a course on human rights, based on the methodology developed by the OSCE, which was very well received. I will continue to share my knowledge and expertise with other teachers from all around Ukraine.”

The school teachers from Odesa, Mykolayiv, Kherson, Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk regions engaged in constructive discussions on various human rights issues, including the need to incorporate a comprehensive human rights-based approach into school education.

The courses were held as part of a project aimed at improving legal education and promoting human rights education in Ukraine, implemented upon the request of the Education and Science Ministry, the Justice Ministry, the Office of the Parliament’s Commissioner for Human Rights, the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv and the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy.