| |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
| UNESCO hosts youth debates on education as a human right |
|
| To commemorate Human Rights Day 2009 and the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child on 10 December 2009, UNESCO hosts youth debates on “Why is Education a Human Right?” from 2 to 5 p.m. in Room I at UNESCO Headquarters. |
|
News 1 of 22
 On 10 December 2009, UNESCO gives a voice to youth to discuss the right to education as a human right. The debates will be attended by teenagers between 13 and 17 years old from secondary schools, children's homes and cultural centers from various cities in France.
The event is organized by the French Council of Associations for the Rights of the Child (COFRADE) in partnership with the Brussels based United Nations Regional Information Centre (UNRIC), and with support of the SNCF Foundation and UNESCO’s Social and Human Sciences Sector.
What are the objectives? The voice of the youth is not always understood or taken seriously. These discussions help young people to reflect on issues which they are not necessarily used to think about. The idea is to put them in a situation where they will hear others’ opinions and to present their own ideas.Dialogue: The lack of dialogue between adolescents and adults is often a source of misunderstanding. The discussions will allow adults to hear the thoughts of young people and to start a dialogue with them.Prevention: Learning to talk, to express different views, to accept the word of other young people, debating and listening help adolescents to not turn to violence for answers, focusing on words rather than violence. The debates are important tools to prevent violence and to promote conduct in favour of living peacefully together.Understand: The discussions have now been in place for ten years. The reflection and dialogue with youth help them understand themselves as well as the world they are living in.For UNESCO the right to education is a key right that unlocks the implementation of many other human rights. It is education that provides people with opportunities to create a better life, and lays the foundations of democratic citizenship. Education is an empowerment right by which economically and socially marginalized people can obtain the means to participate fully in all spheres of life, including culture. The right to education is also closely related to the right to development. It is not by chance that two goals of the Education for All (EFA) are also Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
A key challenge in the effort to advance the realization of human rights is to provide knowledge of human rights, and ways to protect them, to the world’s largest public. For UNESCO, education for human rights is a priority, reaffirmed by its Human Rights Strategy, adopted in 2003. The purpose of human rights education is not only to transmit knowledge about human rights, but, more importantly, to shape attitudes and develop skills to make human rights a reality.
The debates will be held with the participation of:
Barbara Walter, President of the French Council of Associations for the Rights of the Child (COFRADE)
Jean-Pierre Bugada, Communications Officer for France and Monaco, Regional Information Center of the United Nations (UNRIC), Brussels
Vladimir Volodin, Chief, Human Rights and Gender Equality Section, Division of Human Rights and Philosophy, Social and Human Sciences Sector, UNESCO
Danièle Seigneuric, Deputy Secretary-General of the French Federation of UNESCO Clubs
Programme
1.30 p.m. - 2 p.m.
Arrival of the public (125 Avenue de Suffren, 75015 Paris) and participants – UNESCO, Room I
2 p.m. - 5 p.m.Opening of the meeting
Presentation of the documentary film on Human Rights in Europe (2009, 90’) made by students of the 3rd – 4th class of the secondary school André Malraux of Paron, France, in the course of the 2008-2009 school year, as part of the Action Media Project, by Vincent Moissenet, Professor of Letters, Coordinator of the project “Réalisons l'Europe”. Projection of a short version (20’)
Debates
Documentary film about UNESCO and Human Rights (2008 – 11’40) The debates are open to everyone interested in questions related to youth. Priority will be given to the voice of youth participants.
Contact:
Irina Zoubenko-Laplante
Assistant Programme Specialist
Disivion of Human Rights and Philosophy, UNESCO
E-mail: i.zoubenko-laplante@unesco.org
Tel.: + 33 (0)1 45 68 38 22
Related Links
|
|
|
| Author(s) |
UNESCO - Sector for Social and Human Sciences |
| Publication Date |
08-12-2009 |
| Source |
UNESCO |
|
|
| File/document |
invitation.pdf |
|
|
|
|
|
 Email this page  Printable version
|
|
|
|
