OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine holds Second Annual Human Rights School for Children

More than 60 school children from all over Ukraine participated in the Second Annual Human Rights School from 2 to 3 June 2016 in Odesa.

The event is a joint initiative of the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine and the Office of the Parliament’s Commissioner for Human Rights aimed at creating a human rights communication platform for children and youth to raise awareness of fundamental human rights and rights of the child, as well as mechanisms to protect them.

The participants broadly discussed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and received copies of child-friendly editions of the document. The Office of the Parliament’s Commissioner for Human Rights presented informational human rights materials, developed jointly with the OSCE Project Co-ordinator, and provided guidance on major tools in human rights protection. Issues such as security and conflict prevention were also discussed.

The training methodology was based on interactive techniques and included discussions, case studies, various exercises and games, quests and screenings of short films on human rights. Case studies from a series of handbooks on human rights for children, developed by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine, were also presented.

The Human Rights School has been held annually since 2015 and is 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 and the Justice Ministry.