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e-DARE
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Dear friends and DARE members,
We are approaching the end of another active year in the lifetime of DARE (Democracy and Human Rights Education in Europe) with meetings and seminars in Vilnius, Bucharest and Sonnenberg, with the joint effort of a new proposal, with high expectations - but also disappointments.
DARE was invited to the EYCE (European Year of Citizenship through Education) evaluation conference in April 2006 in Sinaia, Romania - and contributed with recommendations together with EAEA, the European Association for the Education of Adults, to the topic “Learning and Living Democracy: the way ahead”. We underlined the important role of non-formal learning in a lifelong learning concept of education for democratic citizenship and human rights and tried to draw attention to the contributions of NGOs in this field of education.
In September our second publication appeared at last: “DARE in Action - Vision and practice for democracy and human rights education in Europe”. In the first publication “Why DARE?” we introduced the network, its members and its mission. This new book introduces some of the current practices of member institutions prefaced by theoretical reflections. Human rights and democracy are key concepts for just and active citizenship. Every society interprets and implements these concepts in its own cultural context, bearing in mind social background, institutional framework, economic status, political history and geographical location. This publication will offer you a flavour of this diversity.
All members have been sent will get a memory pack - featuring pictures covering the last four years of networking, the video clip and powerpoint presentation from the evaluation meeting in Sonnenberg, and the new edition of our flier with revised addresses and an update on the list of members. In addition we are working on our so-called “blue series” with short reports and documents on all DARE events of the last 2 years. You will find it on the website.
What are we going to do next? First of all we invite you to attend a meeting of DARE members in Berlin from 8-11 February. You will receive a personal invitation with detailed description in the next few days. It is an opportunity to meet under the system of “Preparatory Visits” for Grundtvig centralised actions. The new generation 2007-2013 of educational programmes starts in January 2007. Grundtvig 4 networks offer an opportunity for funding. The deadline for proposals will probably be in March or April. We hope that all of you will use this opportunity to reach agreements for further steps of action highlighting DARE’s political and educational priorities.
In June there will be a second meeting, combining the annual general assembly and a training programme, hosted in Sofia by Partners Bulgaria. Our meeting will take up the topic of the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All, designated by the European Commission 2007 as part of a concerted effort to promote equality and non-discrimination in the EU. The four core themes of the European Year are:
These core themes match with daily challenges in the practice of education for democracy and human rights. Gender issues and the non-discrimination strategy of the EU for instance are integral parts of EDC and HRE. The year’s proposed budget of €13,6 million will cover preparatory actions as well as various activities taking place during the European Year 2007 itself.
So, during our meeting in Sofia and as a common initiative on behalf of DARE, let’s check for opportunities - at home and through transnational partnership projects – which will enhance the profile of EDC and HRE.
With best wishes for a relaxing, peaceful Christmas and a successful New Year!
Hannelore Chiout, DARE chairperson, Arbeitskreis deutscher Bildungsstätten
In order to explore the concept of democracy we compiled some texts on this issue, taken from various internet sources.
From Wikipedia
“Global citizenship is a person's obligation to respect and protect their environment and people around them while thinking on a global scale. This can be related to globalization. In terms of international relations, global citizenship refers to a nation-state's responsibility to act with awareness of the world as a global community, by both recognizing and fulfilling its global obligations, and recognizing the rights of global citizens. Global citizenship is related to the idealist school of thought, that states should include a level of moral goodwill in their foreign policy considerations. Whilst a judgment of 'good' global citizenship is a subjective one, some widely agreed upon examples of cases requiring a level of good global citizenship include the signing of the Kyoto Protocol, and the upholding of the UN Charter for Human Rights. Many states struggle to strike a balance between being a 'good' and 'effective' global citizen.”
“What is Global Citizenship? You may well have come across the notion of 'Global Citizenship', but what does it mean? It is a term being used increasingly in educational circles, and consequently there are a variety of views about what it is. These range from the idea that everyone is a citizen of the globe to the standpoint that in a legal sense there is no such thing as a global citizen.
At Oxfam Education, we believe that Global Citizenship is more than the sum of its parts. It goes beyond simply knowing that we are citizens of the globe to an acknowledgement of our responsibilities both to each other and to the Earth itself.
Global Citizenship is about understanding the need to tackle injustice and inequality, and having the desire and ability to work actively to do so. It is about valuing the Earth as precious and unique, and safeguarding the future for those coming after us. Global Citizenship is a way of thinking and behaving. It is an outlook on life, a belief that we can make a difference.We see a Global Citizen as someone who:
- is aware of the wider world and has a sense of their own role as a world citizen;
- respects and values diversity;
- has an understanding of how the world works economically, politically, socially, culturally, technologically and environmentally;
- is outraged by social injustice;
- participates in and contributes to the community at a range of levels from local to global;
- is willing to act to make the world a more sustainable place;
- takes responsibility for their actions.
- …”
From Compass, “the assumed positive aspects of globalization”:
“There is a new dimension of citizenship that is emerging and which is called global citizenship. It combines with the traditional concept of citizenship linked to the exercise of political and legal rights and obligations such as voting. Indeed, to be a global citizen nowadays means to be more critical of what we consume and in which conditions products have been produced, and to be more aware of global issues such as poverty affecting the world, environmental problems or violence. Additionally, some people argue that social and cultural globalization means the opposite of homogeneity; that, on the contrary, new practices and identities are created as a result of the processes of interaction."
”The Old-Persian religious Bahá'i community on the concept of world citizenship:
“The concept of world citizenship implies a sense of responsibility for the planet and all its inhabitants. It begins with an acceptance of the human family and the interconnectedness of the nations of the earth, our home. It includes:_the necessity for social and economic justice, both within and between nations, non-adversarial decision-making at all levels of society, equality of the sexes, racial, ethnic, national and religious harmony, the willingness to sacrifice for the common good.”
Compiled by VORMEN
In December 2006 the first stage will be reached and evaluated. 25 participants per region of the Caucasus worked together with four trainers from OWEN on the personal, cultural and structural dimension of the gender aspect in conflict dynamics, and fifteen participants were trained in Berlin. The overall goal of the Omnibus 1325 project is to establish international/intercultural training teams who are able to work in crisis regions on these topics and to enlarge the scope of action for men and women in this field.
More information: Katrin Wolf, www.owen-frauennetzwerk.de, Joanna Barelkowska
5. The new educational programmes 2007-2013
On October 25, the European Parliament adopted the Commissions proposals for this new action programme in the field of education and training. After long negotiations and many twists and turns the programme finally seems ready to roll.
The package, entitled the Lifelong Learning Programme is much less in terms of funding than originally planned and hoped for, although EU funding for education overall is now increased. Critics point to the fact that the EU has many new members, and thus would need a substantial increase in funding in order to lessen the many gaps in educational provision in all member states. The recently published Adult Education trends and issues study identifies some of the gaps in policy, in provision, and in funding. The official stance of the Commission is to highlight that for the first time a single programme will cover learning opportunities from childhood to old age. The Lifelong Learning Programme will cover the period 2007-2013, and is the successor to the current Socrates, Leonardo da Vinci and eLearning programmes. It has a budget of € 7 bn to support projects and activities that foster interchange, cooperation and mobility between education and training systems within the EU. The suggested mobility targets for adult education are still in place, only drastically reduced in numbers.
These four pillars are joined by what will be known as a ‘transversal programme´ (€ 369 million), which will pursue the following four key activities:
Finally, these actions will be complemented by the new Jean Monnet programme (€ 170 million), which supports institutions and activities in the field of European integration. Critical voices are also raised concerning the final distribution of the reduced funding between these four pillars, as the Grundtvig Programme was most severely cut in its percentage of the global budget allocated. Originally the plan called for 7% of the education budget. It ended at a disappointing 4%. This is a clear indication of the weakness of the adult education strength to lobby, or of the low priority put on non-formal adult education, depending on your point of view.
The implementation of the Lifelong Learning Programme has been allocated a budget of € 6 970 million for the period of the 7 years from 1 January 2007 to end December 2013.
Source: EAEA News 2006-10-30
The second edition of the English version as well as the first edition in several languages (Albanian, Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, French, German, Russian and Spanish) is available on-line at http://www.manual.etc-graz.at/typo3/index.php?id=656. Additional material like presentations, cartoons or training activities can also be downloaded for free.
7. New DARE publication: 'DARE in Action: Vision and practice for democracy and human rights education Europe'
Part One begins with an article by Georg Lohmann about the mutual dependence of a democratic state system and human rights. He argues that democracy is dependent on human rights as a defence system against state tyranny, but underlines that human rights are also dependent on the state system. He looks at this mutual relationship from both liberal and republican perspectives.
Claudia Lohrenscheit considers how experts, scholars and practitioners are engaged in a debate about human rights education (HRE) and education for democratic citizenship (EDC). In her article, the author argues that it is not the difference that counts but the common goals of individual and collective actors who are engaged in promoting education in order to realise human rights and to make the world a better place. The author discusses core values of human rights in general and the human right to education in particular.
The 2007 DARE project market place will have a similar format yet with one difference: the market place will take place on the DARE website; www.dare-network.org during the month of January.
Mark your calendar! An announcement with further details will be distributed among DARE member organisation after Human Rights Day (10 December).
9. E-learning courses on human rights education
In 2007, HREA will be offering two introductory courses on human rights education. The distance learning course "Einführung in die Menschenrechtsbildung" will be organised from 19 February-27 May 2007. German is the working language of the course. Course instructor is Dr. Karl-Peter Fritzsche, UNESCO Chair in Human Rights Education at the University of Magdeburg (Germany). Course description and application forms can be found at: http://www.hrea.org/courses/8D.html. The application deadline is 31 December 2006.
Anna Langenbach, HREA; E-mail: applications@hrea.org
e-DARE is an initiative of the network DARE vzw, Democracy and Human Rights Education in Europe, and is distributed to the project partners, the DARE members and to interested third persons, organisations and institutions.
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DARE correspondence address (project and network):
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