Table of contents

1.   Welcome address of the new Chair
2.   Synchronised Action Days 2008
3.   Media coverage of the DARE conference by Orangelog.eu
4.   Results and documentation of the DARE Conference in Vienna
5.   New members of DARE
6.   Draft Declaration on human rights education and training
7.   The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA)
8.   2008-2009 International Year of Human Rights Learning
9.   Universal Periodic Review
10. The European Wergeland Centre
11. Building a Europe for and with Children
12. Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union
13. Learning tools to promote the rights of persons with disabilities
14. Citizenship Foundation - Projects Update
15. Teaching Human Rights in Azerbaijan
16. The 'Community of Enquiry' as an educational method
17. “Citizenship and Constitution”, a new school matter in Italy
18. EU Simulation Games in Southeast Europe
19. Training on Social Charter Collective Complaints procedure
20. HRE manual COMPASS in Roma language

Editorial



 1. Welcome address of the new Chair

Starting from December 1st, 2008 I am happy to act as the new Chair of DARE. Provided that Daniela Kolorova, who has been the Chair until now, has suggested to switch positions with me - former Vice-Chair - due to high professional work load.

I am very much looking forward to commit myself to this position, as DARE is in a decisive and crucial phase of its existence! The EU Grundtvig grant is allowing DARE to realise a number of important activities, amongst which one important task is to prepare, and carry through, the hearing before the European Parliament in spring. Another challenge is to apply for consultative status with the Council of Europe.

My commitment will focus on motivating competent organisations to join the network. We need a high number of members so our messages will be heard, and considered. Another effort will consist in helping DARE to offer high quality services to our members.

Besides this, we will have to think of ways how to motivate our members to use this platform for making EDC and HRE more visible. We must remember: only things that are visible exist!

I do hope that all of us, who share the same passion for democracy and human rights education, will join forces and use this historical chance!

Best wishes,

Ingrid Halbritter, Pharos e.V., Stuttgart (Germany) / Sarajevo (BiH)

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 2. Synchronised Action Days 2008 - Democracy and Human Rights Education

The DARE Network invited organisations from all over Europe to contribute with their EDC/HRE-activities around human rights day to the “Synchronised Action Days 2008”. The Synchronised Action Days 2008 give an impression on the work being done by NGO´s in the field of EDC/HRE all over Europe. They aim to raise awareness for NGO´s work in diverse European Countries and reach from activities on the grassroots to the European level.
 
The brochure Synchronised Action Days 2008 gives an impresseion on 50 selected activities. They cover campaigns on European as well as on local levels, reaching from traditional further education courses to e-learning and covering the whole spectrum of non-formal Adult and Youth education. A pdf-version of the brochure can be downloaded here.
 
The "Synchronized Action Days 2008" are part of the current DARE- Project – Democracy and Human Rights Education in Adult Learning (EU Project No. 134263-LLP-1-2007-DE-Grundtvig-GNW).
 
Georg Pirker, DARE Project Office, Arbeitskreis deutscher Bildungsstätten (AdB), Berlin (Germany)

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 3. Media coverage of the DARE conference on Intercultural Dialogue in Vienna by Orangelog.eu

The result of the media coverage of the DARE conference on Intercultural Dialogue in Vienna by Orangelog.eu by Orangelog.eu are online.
All texts, photographs and a video report can be found there. Everyone can enjoy reading and watching the reports and interviews and feel free to leave comments.

In case you or your organization would be interested in establishing some sort of cooperation with Orange or the European Youth Press (EYP), hereunder you find a small introductory text about EYP.

What is the European Youth Press?
The European Youth Press is an umbrella association of young journalists in Europe. It involves more than 48,000 journalists who are less than 30 years of age.
The European Youth Press' primary objective is to ensure strong cooperation among national youth media structures through group projects. Moreover, the Press' overall aim is to strengthen the role of youth media and promote freedom of press in Europe. More information is available at its website.

What is Orange?
Orange is the international event magazine of the European Youth Press.
It can appear either in the form of a printed magazine which is distributed among the participants of the event, online at www.orangelog.eu or both in printed form and online.

Orangelog.eu aims to provide an interactive, multimedial platform for event coverage. This can include videos, pod casts, pictures and different kinds of texts. It's not important how international an event itself is, as long as there are interesting stories for a European audience. Orangelog.eu is an English-based platform.
With Orange the European Youth Press aims to enable young people to give voice to their opinion on a European level and provide a critical view of media and politics through journalistic education as well as learning by doing.

Should you have any further questions or proposals of collaboration, don't hesitate to contact Ms Anna Sulewska.

Anna Sulewska, European Youth Press

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 4. Results and documentation of the DARE Conference in Vienna, 14-16 November 2008

„Intercultural Dialogue: Challenge for Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights“ was the topic of the European DARE Conference in Vienna, providing a forum for more than 160 stakeholders from 37 countries active in the twin fields of civic education and human rights education. The conference aimed at fostering collaboration between practitioners, scholars and policy makers on a local, national and European level. Topics like framework policies for civic education and structural barriers in diversity management were discussed in working groups. Participants chose from various workshops including innovative educational tools and exchange of best practices in intercultural learning. The conference was organised in cooperation with Zentrum polis - Politik lernen in der Schule and the Austrian Ministery for Education, Arts and Culture.

The conference was opened by Olöf Oláfsdottir (Head of Division for Citizenship and Human Rights Education, Council of Europe) who emphasized, that in her opinion it is not acceptable that social and cultural groups in Europe live separated from each other, sharing just mutual ignorance, but not sharing values.The conference ended with a presentation by Bashy Quraishy (European Network Against Racism) who explained the difference between lip service and intercultural reality in Europe. He favoured the model of an intercultural society where majority and minority groups coexist on eye-level in their separate private spheres and share a common public space (employment, housing, culture etc.) - versus a model of multiculturalism, where minority cultures are merely tolerated on the periphery, but not accepted.

DARE will use the results of this conference to prepare a hearing in the European parliament in spring 2009 on the topic „Human Rights Education and Democracy Education as Cross-Cutting Issues”. MEP Christa Prets and MEP Doris Pack joined the conference for half a day and will support the DARE hearing in the EP. They stated: "You don´t need a lobbyist to access members of the European Parliament - just call us!"

You can download a documentation of the workshops and discussion groups (including handouts and presentations from trainers and experts) at www.dare-network.eu.
A conference documentation (including interviews and a video) by the team of the European Youth Press is available at www.orangelog.eu.
A print version of the conference documentation will be released soon in the DARE Blue Line Edition (for copies please contact the DARE project office c/o Arbeitskreis deutscher Bildungsstätten, Mühlendamm 3, D-10178 Berlin)

Looking forward to getting all of you involved with DARE´s further activities.

The conference team,
Georg Pirker, Anne Stalfort, Reinhard Eckert

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 5. New members of DARE

Six new organizations joined the DARE Network in 2008. They were confirmed at the DARE general Assembly meeting, which took place on November 14 in Vienna.

The Active Citizenship Foundation - Hungary
The overall goal of the Active Citizenship Foundation is to contribute to the development of the participative democracy in Hungary by promoting education for active citizenship and human rights, supporting children and young people in having a meaningful say in the world around them and enabling them to be more conscious, active and responsible citizens in Hungary and globally.

Children Today Centre- Albania
The Center "Children Today" is an Albanian non-for profit organisation which aims to bring lasting improvements in the lives of the Albanian children. Under this vision, the center is completely engaged to cooperate with local, regional and international child focused actors. The Centre is actively contributing for the realization of children's rights, their education, health, physical and psychological well-being as well as their normal development

European Social Forum of Cyprus
European Social Forum of Cyprus- Cyprus ESFC is a NGO (Non Government 0rganisation) acting in a Pancyprian level of local NGOs. It covers four thematic levels as Youth Civilization & Education, Environment, Agriculture Development and Persons with Disabilities &Health problems(PWD). The main targets are the CO-ORDINATION of CYPRUS REPUBLIC with the European Status, the European Citizenship through promoting International and EU programs and networking.

European Training and Research Centre for Human Rights and Democracy- Austria
ETC Graz is engaged both in a theoretical and practical manner in questions of the enforcement of human rights and democracy, with emphasis on human rights and human rights education, the rule of law, good governance, South-Eastern Europe and Human Security.The work of the ETC is based on (research) projects, measures concerning education and publications. The interdisciplinary approach which is used by the ETC links all aspects of democracy and human rights on the levels of research and transfer of knowledge, skills and attitudes.

Terra 1530 Moldova
Terra 1530 Moldova is a non-government oganisation which mission is to create and consolidate the capacities in Sustainable Development of rural communities. http://terra1530.md/

Cyprus Neuroscience and Technology Institute
The Cyprus Neuroscience & Technology Institute is a non-profit, non-Governmental, non-partisan independent Organization active in programs with future orientation in areas related to human brain-modern technology-social transformation and the repercussions of relevant research for humanity. It has the following operating units:
- The New Media in Learning Laboratory
- The Civil Society and Future Affairs Unit
- The Technology For Peace Unit
- The Youth Promoting Peace Unit
- The Alternative Media Initiative
- The Brain, Neuroscience & Special Education Unit
CNTI is currently in a phase of evolution and restructuring. Its various peripheral operations in other projects plus informal activities in both research and social intervention of some of its associates and friends are in a process of being merged into the larger operation. The enlarged organization is registered under the name FUTURE WORLDS CENTER.

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 6. Draft Declaration on human rights education and training: fill out the questionnaire and send it in BY 30 DECEMBER 2008!

At its 21st meeting, on 28 September 2007, the Human Rights Council adopted Resolution 6/10, "United Nations declaration on human rights
education and training", Requests the “Human Rights Council Advisory Committee ”to "prepare a draft declaration on human rights education and training, to be presented to the Human Rights Council for consideration; to this end "(a) Requests the “Human Rights Council Advisory Committee” to seek the views and inputs of Member States, relevant international and regional organizations, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, national human rights institutions as well as civil society organizations, including non-governmental organizations, on the possible elements of the content of the declaration and to take into account existing relevant instruments; (b) Requests also the “Human Rights Council Advisory Committee” to present a progress report to the Human Rights Council, at its 2009 main session, cont aining the elements of the draft declaration on human rights education and training."

In order to get the above mentioned input the Human Rights Council developed a series of questionnaires, one of them especially meant for civil society organisations, including NGOs. We would like to invite DARE members and all other institutions and NGOs involved in human rights education and training to fill out the questionnaire and to send it in BY 30 DECEMBER 2008!

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 7. The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA)

The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) is a body of the European Union (EU), established through Council Regulation (EC) No 168/2007 of 15 February 2007. It is based in Vienna and is being built on the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC). FRA carries out its tasks independently. It cooperates with national and international bodies and organisations, in particular with the Council of Europe. It also works closely with civil society organisations.

Objective
The objective of the Agency is to provide the relevant institutions and authorities of the Community and its Member States when implementing Community law with assistance and expertise relating to fundamental rights in order to support them when they take measures or formulate courses of action within their respective spheres of competence to fully respect fundamental rights. (Article 2 of the Regulation)

Tasks
- information and data collection, research and analysis
- advice to EU institutions and Member States
- co-operation with civil society and awareness-raising
- the agency is NOT empowered to examine individual complaints

Geographical scope
The Agency focuses on the situation of fundamental rights in the EU and its 27 Member States. Candidate Countries and countries which have concluded a stabilisation and association agreement with the EU can be invited to participate following a special procedure.

2009 edition of the S'COOL AGENDA
Following on a very popular issue of S'COOL AGENDA in 2007-2008, the FRA is publishing a new issue of this awareness raising tool. This agenda, available in English, German and French, is meant to help young people to learn about fundamental rights issues in Europe while keeping track of their own daily activities and homework. In order to achieve this, it offers a wide range of helpful tools, such as the "human rights temperature" test, a glossary, or tips on how to fight discrimination.

What is inside this agenda?
- Human rights glossary,
- Instruments for the protection of fundamental rights,
- Stories from people’s everyday lives in Europe,
- "Human rights temperature" test,
- Fundamental rights knowledge quiz,
- Tips on promoting and protecting human rights,
- Tips on fighting discrimination,
- Questions to think about and discuss with own friends,
- Links to youth programs,
- Useful facts about work of the European Union and international organisations,
- An inter-cultural calendar and much more.

The agenda can be downloaded from the FRA's website.

(information taken from the agency's website)

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 8. 2008-2009 International Year of Human Rights Learning  (for one year, beginning on 10 December 2008)

The UN General Assembly has proclaimed the year commencing on 10 December 2008 as the International Year of Human Rights Learning, to be devoted to activities to broaden and deepen human rights learning based on the principles of universality, indivisibility, interdependency, impartiality, objectivity and non-selectivity, constructive dialogue and cooperation (resolution 62/171 of 18 December 2007). It aims to enhance the promotion and protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to development.

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 9. Universal Periodic Review

The Human Rights Council (HRC), based in Geneva, was established pursuant to General Assembly resolution 60/251 of 15 March 2006 and consists of forty-seven Member States of the United Nations. The General Assembly, in its resolution 60/251, mandated the Council to "undertake a universal periodic review, based on objective and reliable information, of the fulfillment by each State of its human rights obligations and commitments in a manner which ensures universality of coverage and equal treatment with respect to all States; the review shall be a cooperative mechanism, based on an interactive dialogue, with the full involvement of the country concerned and with consideration given to its capacity-building needs; such a mechanism shall complement and not duplicate the work of treaty bodies."

At its fifth session on 18 June 2007, the Council responded to this request and adopted, in its resolution 5/1, detailed modalities regarding the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism. These modalities relate, in particular, to the basis of the review, principles and objectives to be followed, the periodicity and order of review of countries, process and modalities, as well as the outcome and the follow-up to the review. Furthermore, the HRC decided that the review would be conducted in one working group composed of the 47 member States of the Council. In 2008, the working group will hold three sessions, scheduled to take place at the Office of the United Nations in Geneva .

At its sixth session, on 21 September 2007, the Human Rights Council adopted a calendar in relation to the consideration of the 192 Member States of the United Nations to be considered during the first four-year cycle of the UPR mechanism, and decided on the precise order of consideration of reviewed States in 2008. In accordance with resolution 5/1, the documents on which the review would be based are:

• Information prepared by the State concerned, which can take the form of a national report, and any other information considered relevant by the State concerned, which could be presented either orally or in writing. The written presentation summarizing the information shall not exceed 20 pages, and should be submitted six weeks prior to the session of the Working Group at which the specific review will take place. States are encouraged to prepare the information through a broad consultation process at the national level with all relevant stakeholders.

• Additionally a compilation prepared by the OHCHR of the information contained in the reports of treaty bodies, special procedures, including observations and comments by the State concerned, and other relevant official United Nations documents, which shall not exceed 10 pages.

• Additional, credible and reliable information provided by other relevant stakeholders to the universal periodic review which should also be taken into consideration by the Council in the review, which will be summarized by the OHCHR in a document that shall not exceed 10 pages. Stakeholders include, inter alia, NGOs, NHRIs, Human rights defenders, Academic institutions and Research institutes, Regional organizations, as well as civil society representatives.

The national report shall be prepared on the basis of General guidelines adopted by the Council at its sixth session on 27 September 2007. The documents prepared by the OHCHR should be elaborated following the structure of these General guidelines.

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 10. The European Wergeland Centre

Norway is in cooperation with the Council of Europe establishing a centre on education for intercultural understanding, human rights and democratic citizenship. The Centre, which will begin its work Autumn 2008, will be called the Wergeland Centre. - In selecting the name it was natural to bring forward our great advocate for human rights, freedom and tolerance, says the Minister of Education and Research, Bård Vegar Solhjell.

The Wergeland Centre shall function as a European resource centre on education for intercultural understanding, human rights and democratic citizenship. The Centre will build on and promote the work performed by the Council of Europe and Norway for intercultural understanding, human rights and democratic citizenship. - The main task of the Centre is to promote democratic culture and social belonging through its work with education.

The Centre will carry out research and shall provide in-service training for teachers and teacher trainers. Furthermore, the Centre shall disseminate information, serve as a platform and create a network for relevant actors within the field. The working language of the Centre will be English.

The target groups of the Centre are teachers, teacher trainers, multipliers, scientists, practioners, decision makers and other relevant actors.

The Wergeland Centre shall be organized as an independent legal entity (“stiftelse”) according to Norwegian law. The Centre is for the first couple of years to be located at Oslo University College. Further on it is planned that the Centre will be located at the Center for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities (HL-senteret) in Villa Grande at Bygdøy.

The cooperation agreement between the government of Norway and the Council of Europe (COE) was signed in Strasbourg on 16 September 2008.

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 11. Building a Europe for and with children

The programme "Building a Europe for and with children" is being implemented further to the Third Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe (Warsaw 2005). It is also a response to the Organisation's mandate to guarantee an integrated approach to promoting children's rights and the decision to launch a three-year programme covering the social, legal, educational and health dimensions relevant to protecting children from various forms of violence. The programme comprises two closely related stands: the promotion of children's rights and the protection of children from violence.

The programme's main objective is to help all decisions makers and players concerned to design and implement national strategies for the protection of children's rights and the prevention of violence against children. The key concepts of its working methods are "transversality", "integrated approach", "partnerships" and "communication". In fulfilling its objectives, the programme relies on the pooled resources of both the relevant Council of Europe bodies and institutions and its outside partners to obtain sustainable results.

One of the resources, developed by the programme: 'Through the wild web woods', an internet game on internet safety for children

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 12. Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union is a document containing human rights provisions, ‘solemnly proclaimed’ by the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, and the European Commission on 7 December 2000. An adapted version of the Charter was proclaimed on 12 December 2007 in Strasbourg, ahead of the signing of the Treaty of Lisbon, which makes the Charter legally binding in all countries except Poland and the United Kingdom.

[The full text can be found on the website of the European Commission]

Does the Charter confer new rights on European citizens? (Q&A taken from the obove mentioned website; more Q&A's...)

Each of the Charter's 50 articles, which set out individuals' rights or freedoms, is taken from a "precursor" text. This can be another charter, a convention, a treaty or jurisprudence.

Certain rights appear new, such as those relating to bioethics or the protection of personal data, in so far as they seek to respond to the challenges of new technologies in the areas of communication or biotechnology. In fact, a specific Council of Europe convention on bioethics already exists. Likewise, the protection of personal data is the subject of another specific Council of Europe convention, as well as of Community directives. What the Charter does is to express these rights in a new way and raise them to the status of fundamental rights.

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 13.  Learning tools to promote the rights of persons with disabilities

With the coming into force on 3 May 2008 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, advocates for disability rights have a powerful tool at their disposal. The Convention reflects an attitudinal change towards people with disabilities. It acknowledges that persons with disabilities have the same inherent dignity as others, and are capable of claiming their rights as active members of society.

However, only a handful of countries have as yet ratified the Convention. Countries that have ratified it have the obligation to adopt legislation to promote the human rights of persons with disabilities. From Exclusion to Equality, a handbook for parliamentarians published by the United Nations, is a useful tool for legislators looking to ratify the Convention, bring about legislative action, or implement monitoring mechanisms to bring their country into compliance.

Civil society, organizations and parents can use Human Rights Yes! Action and Advocacy on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This guide provides an overview of the Convention and addresses principal areas of advocacy for a number of issues (e.g. discrimination, living independently) and for particular stakeholders like women and children.

Finally, teachers (and families) working with children who are visually impaired can use Children who have Difficulty Seeing: Detailed Suggestions for Teachers. This practical guide outlines ways to help children with visual disabilities to be integrated into their classroom, including activities to improve communication with their classmates.

More learning and teaching tools are available in HREA's online HRE Library on the rights of persons with disabilities.

Steven Courchesne, Human Rights Education Associates (HREA)

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 14. Citizenship Foundation - Projects Update

Development of International Work at the Citizenship Foundation
In an effort to strengthen our international citizenship programmes, reach new partners and explore new arenas of international citizenship development, in August 2008, the Citizenship Foundation merged with the Council for Education in World Citizenship (CEWC). CEWC was established in 1939 to promote the importance of political and civic engagement within and across national boundaries and has developed enduring associations with UNESCO and the United Nations Association.
A World Citizenship Advisory Group, involving members of the leadership teams of both organisations has been set up and an International Project Officer has been appointed to establish the resultant work programme. The programme will draw on CEWC's extensive range of partners and networks, including CEWC Cymru in Wales which remains as an independent body. For more information please contact Ruxandra Ratiu, International Project Officer.

Living Together Project
Citizenship Foundation developed a set of materials for the British Council to explore issues of intercultural understanding and community cohesion for ages 11 to 18. This material is intended for use in citizenship education and related subjects or for use in situations in which students in different countries meet, physically or virtually, to discuss issues of shared interest. The material has been trialled in classes where English is spoken as a second or other language, as well as in first language classes. The materials have also been translated into a number of languages.

ILDE Project
The ILDE (Initiative for Learning Democracy in Europe) project funded by the Network of European Foundations - NEF and supported by the Council of Europe is moving towards finalisation.
The 7 units of the ILDE1 resource (Teaching about the EU) are now with the King Baudoin Foundation in Brussels for translation. The ILDE 2 Handbook is being edited at the moment. NEF have estimates for a hard copy publication.
The launching date is to be confirmed.

Placing Citizenship at the Centre - Developing a Citizenship Manifesto for your School
Citizenship Foundation produced a practical guide for schools which want to develop their own Citizenship Manifesto. This guide explains what a manifesto how the school can use one and what is the best way of developing a manifesto. This process is described in ten easy to follow steps, with spaces for teachers to write down their reflections as they go on.

Young Ideas for Europe
Citizenship Foundation was approached by IFOK in Germany to run a project called Young Ideas for Europe. This is an initiative funded by the Robert Bosch Stiftung and supported by NEF (Network of European Foundations). It aims to establish a first European operational network, which enables young people to meet and discuss about political topics in a European context. In addition, it seeks to contribute to activate young people to participate in the European elections 2009. The project describes a European-wide standardised format of school project weeks, which provide young people with the capacity and competences necessary to actively shape their future living space: Europe.
Skinners' Company's School for Girls in London is taking part in this project. After a series of workshops on Family-Friendly Policies in the EU, the school is taking part in the last day of the project. On the 14th of November the students are going to participate in a role game and will represent different political parties coming up with Family-Friendly Policies in the EU for the future. On the same day the students are going to connect with other 3 schools in Germany who would have worked on the same project to share ideas via a Skype transmission.

Rural-Urban Secondary School Linking Pilot Project
A group of 15 pupils from a school in East London and a group of 14 students from a school in Cornwall recently completed a pilot rural-urban school linking project, which was launched and managed by Citizenship Foundation's programmed Diversity and Dialogue, and was made possible through the support of The Pears Foundation and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
During the first half of the exchange the group of 14 students and three teachers from the school in Cornwall travelled to London. The second half of the exchange took place in Cornwall with the young people form the London school travelling to Cornwall.
The students returned from both exchanges with a heightened awareness of themselves and others, having formed new friendships and gained new insights into the lifestyles and perspectives of young people with varying and diverse backgrounds who are living in different communities to their own.
We are in the process of taking forward the learning from this pilot project, and are currently speaking with key stakeholders about how to further develop and expand this rural-urban school linking model.

Developments on the Economic Citizenship Front

Paying for It
This programme includes an employee volunteering scheme whereby Norwich Union (the sponsor of the programme) employees volunteer in schools to work with young people on economic citizenship issues. We have produced specially written resources and lesson plans covering the economic elements of subjects such as Health, Education and Public Spending, which we have also made available to teachers across the UK.

Chance to be a Chancellor
Part of the 'Paying for It' programme, this is an educational competition that challenges students to take on the role of Chancellor and choose their own budget. Students write their own Budget speech, and the winning entry is judged by Gary Duncan (Economics Editor of The Times) and printed in The Times around Budget time in the UK.

Projects on Economic Citizenship with Visa Europe and with Abbey
Citizenship Foundation has build upon its relationship with leading financial institutions to develop financial capability education through working with Visa Europe to create a European wide online financial capability resource. The web resource contains a budgeting tool, where young people can control their finances through designing a budget and tracking their spending, and an interactive game which allows young people to learn more about financial personalities.
AT the same time we are working with Abbey to produce a pocket guide to money, based on our award winning Young Citizen's Passport. The guide aims to raise awareness and understanding of issues surrounding money amongst 14 - 19 year olds and covers three main sections: Banks and Building Societies, Student Finance, and Spending. It focuses on teaching the legal framework surrounding money and finance, rather than on skills such as budgeting and money management. The guide will, at first, be distributed to 50 schools around the UK for use with Year 10 pupils. It will be accompanied by specially written lesson plans to help teachers use the guide as learning resource.

'What Does Water Mean to You?' Project Proposal
Citizenship Foundation submitted a project proposal to the DFID (Department for International Development) for a Mini Grants Scheme. The project aims to develop a set of resources around the politics of water and get a few schools in UK and a school each in India, Israel and Turkey to explore those resources and learn about water issues in their countries and the developing world. The project also aims to embed the global dimension in the Citizenship Curriculum in the schools that take part and also raise awareness on the Millennium Development Goals for the young people who will take part in the project. We will find out if the project is successful in January 2009.

Ruxandra Ratiu, International Project Officer, Citizenship Foundation (UK)

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 15. Teaching Human Rights in Azerbaijan

It's not every day that I get an invitation to teach in Azerbaijan and I admit I had to look at a map to find exactly where it is. Together with Margot Brown who until recently worked at the Centre for Global Education, York, I had been invited by the International Rescue Committee to teach a course on Human Rights to a group of Azerbaijani teachers and teacher trainers.

The only thing I remembered about that country is that it had been part of the Soviet Union and there had been a violent conflict in the South West following an invasion by Armenia. Azerbaijan is a fairly new republic, a major oil and gas producer which shares frontiers with Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Turkey and Iran. The population is mainly Muslim and the capital, Baku, where I was going for a week, is a port on the Caspian Sea.

I left with some trepidation and some ten hours later stepped out onto the warmth of a semi-tropical night, reminding me very much of my native Caribbean.
The next day I met Bahija Aliyeva, the IRC Coordinator, and the group of twenty five teachers, twenty one women and four men. I knew at once that we were going to get on by the way they all engaged with the morning workshop. That set the tone for a very productive week and time just flew by. Margot and I taught through a combination of presentations and activities, using photographs to identify stereotypes and prejudice, role plays on human rights abuses and responsibilities, debates on human rights and dignity and learning about green schools in the UK. In other sessions the group explored their own culture and media, delivered a class on human rights and created their own time line of human rights defenders in Azerbaijan.

The teachers were well aware of the human rights issues in their country, in particular the refugee situation and the freedom of the press. They were passionately committed to promoting this awareness in their schools.
They brought to each session a winning mixture of seriousness and playfulness, which made them great fun to teach as they were able to throw themselves into the tasks with far less inhibitions than UK teachers, I thought.

This is the most appreciative group I have ever worked with, in fact. I was obviously a novelty to them, perhaps the first African-Caribbean woman they'd had an opportunity to meet. Right from day one, I was constantly being photographed, most of them using their mobile phones to catch snap shots of me talking with them during breaks and even unexpected 'action' shots while I was teaching.

It was a first for me to work with a translator: everything I said had to be translated in Azeri therefore each input took twice as long and often longer. Luckily, our translator, Seymur, a young man in his twenties, was always at our side, ready to get the message across.

He became our guide on our last day in Baku, an ancient walled city still untouched by tourism but caught in a fever of major development, which accounts for a lot of white dust everywhere and locals complaining about air pollution. In bright sunshine, we wandered past heavy soviet-style buildings, pink and white houses as pretty as iced cakes, elegant old mosques and palaces. The wide avenues are filled with fast-moving traffic and we learned to make death-defying dashes to get across - there are few traffic lights and zebra crossings. At the end of a very rewarding week, we relaxed with the young and the old in the shade of spacious, leafy squares alive with fountains.

Jenny Zobel, Centre for Global Education, York (UK)

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 16. The 'Community of Enquiry' as an educational method

At the last DARE conference in Vienna, in one of the workshops the 'Community of Enquiry' method was used. Hereunder we present you a summary of the Steps in a Community of Enquiry approach:

1. Presentation - using any form of stimulus
2. Individual thinking time (1 minute)
3. Sharing thoughts (in a pair or three)
4. Formulating Question (in a pair or three)
5. Clarifying the questions
6. Selecting a question for full group discussion (using an inclusive voting method)
7. First Words from the group or pair whose question was chosen
8. Building the enquiry by responding to what the previous participant has said whether agreeing or disagreeing (being critical and creative)
9. Final Words, an opportunity for everyone participating in the enquiry to make a brief final comment.

This approach encourages deeper thinking using a critical, creative, caring and collaborative approach. More information on this approach (which stems from 'philosophing with children') can be found on the internet, e.g. this webpage.

Mick Bradley, Centre for Global Education, York (UK)

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 17. “Citizenship and Constitution”, a new school matter in Italy to pay tribute to the Italian Constitution

In Italy the civic education courses - compulsory and taught in lower secondary schools as part of the curriculum of classes in history - were introduced in 1958 in the framework of the national educational programs by Aldo Moro, an intellectual and an incredibly mediator, Italian politician and two-time Prime Minister, from 1963 to 1968, and then from 1974 to 1976. Since then, statute laws, administrative regulations, national laws and guidelines were granted by several Ministers of Education to implement and update the basis elaborated fifty years ago. In the past months, the bill of the new Italian Minister for Education Maria Stella Gelmini was focusing on “citizenship and constitution”, which must be the core points in teaching the civic education at school. That's why, by the bill of the Ministry for Education n. 137/2008, a new school matter has been included in the national school system as an independent subject (not included within the History curriculum), with a course composed of 33 hours per year.

It represents a multidisciplinary subject which crosses several competences and must be considered as a new cultural model of educational skills and social goals harmonized in the European framework. In this dimension, the Italian constitution should be seen as a source of principles and citizenship-based values inspiring the new generations, from the local to the international level. In accordance with the Law n.169/2008, just passed by the Parliament, during the first and the second phase of the Italian education system the skills and the competences related to the civic life together and citizenship, will be acquired through the school matter “Citizenship and Constitution” and all the students will have a specific evaluation for it, at the end of the school year. The objectiv es of the new subject “Citizenship and Constitution” are to enforce a culture of healthy living together within the young generations in order to increase their critical thinking, responsibilities, good practices and daily habits inspired by the principles of the Italian Constitution. The competences of this subject, which are very close to the teaching of the other historical-geographic and historical-social subjects - are part of the educational process as a whole, including the learning and teaching phase as well.

The concept of national, international and global sense of belonging; democratic culture; rights and responsibilities; protection and promotion of human rights; inclusion and social cohesion; cultural pluralism; respect of diversity; participation, ethics of social responsibility, environmental protection and sustainability, and above all the education to democratic citizenship will be some of the topics analyzed during the lessons of the new course, as they all should be part of everyone's personal values background in a school more student-centred.

The Council of Europe launched its Education to democratic citizenship programme in 1997 and since 2000, EU also issued many official documents on citizenship. In this framework, Italy adhered to two very important papers: the Standing Conference of the European Ministers of Education on Education policies for democratic citizenship and social cohesion - challenges and strategies for Europe during the 20th session held in Krakow, in October 2000; and to theRecommendation (2002)12 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on education for democratic citizenship, adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 16 October 2002 at the 812th meeting of the Ministers' Deputies.

In these documents the member States declared that education for democratic citizenship, in its broadest possible sense, should be at the heart of the reform and implementation of educational policies. That's why, the Italian reform focus is also on a wider perspective of salvaging and reaffirming the traditional values, mainly based on the Italian Constitution, which will be again part of the national educational programs. In accordance with the Italian Fundamental Law itself, it is not enough to teach people to read and write. The National Republic can live and grow only if there's commitment to the “full development of all individuals”, to “freedom and equality for all citizens”, to the “participation of all the workers to the political, social and economical o rganization of the Country”. It's required to live all this taking actions, understanding the reality and your own culture, as well as your personal and social life, in the family, at school, in the society, building citizens awareness of their own rights and responsibilities.

In the light of that, you have a better understanding of the first visit to some primary schools, made right after the election by the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano, in 2006: he talked about the Italian Constitution granted in 1948, giving students a simplified version of it, explaining that it dealt with how Italy is, and especially how it should be, inviting them to enjoy the reading. Although the deep study of the Constitution was strongly recommended for many years, its concrete teaching has been hard to achieve. The Italian educational system includes too many courses, with wide programs, that teachers must carry out within the school year, consequently there is no time left for exploring other contents.

In order to face this challenge, trying to combine the introduction of the new school matter with the overworked teachers, a working group composed by experts has been created by the Ministry of Education: its task is to experiment the introduction of the new subject in the upcoming year elaborating a national plan and the guidelines of its contents and strategies. The guidelines should point to the schools:

• competences to be implemented also recalling the bill and the official international papers adopted,

• practical examples of contents to be analyzed in the specific curriculum and in multidisciplinary perspective,

• participative and inclusive actions for the students.

The president of the ministerial group is the pedagogue Luciano Corradini, who affirmed that nowadays it's fundamental to study carefully the Italian Constitution at school more than before as the Constitution represents for every Country the most important and significant source of values and laws for all the citizens.. This specific school matter represents the ad hoc choice to underline the national dimension, represented by the Italian Law, analysing as well the several concepts of citizenship within a European perspective.

The Non Governmental Organization E.I.P. ITALY, Association School as an Instrument of Peace, is also part of the working group: it can rely on four members, teachers and headmasters of the its national network, representing different types of school (vocational schools, secondary schools with an emphasis on humanities, sciences, languages). E.I.P. ITALY has been working for years in spreading the EDC and HRE related competences within its network as the school embodies a democratic learning process where students are already active citizens ready to take actions, starting from the national dimension analysing the Italian Constitution, and then approaching the international documents such as the UDHR, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Treaty of Rome, the White Paper on Int ercultural Dialogue of the Council of Europe.

It is to be hoped that the working group experts' will find the way to cope with all these complicated issues, seeing that the education to citizenship is considered a key theme since 1990 in Italy, shared by young people as well.

Valentina Cinti, National Delegate Youth Department, EIP ITALIA

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 18. EU Simulation Games in Southeast Europe

The Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa) with its headquarters in Stuttgart/Germany, is implementing currently a program aiming at enhancing knowledge of, and understanding for the EU integration process.
The method used is called “EU Simulation Game”: Secondary school pupils are playing the roles of members of the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, and foreign ministers of SEE countries that apply for membership or candidate status.

Two simulation games took place in Tirana and Podgorica in November 2008. In Tirana, the event took place in the City Hall of Tirana, with the Vice-Mayor and the German Ambassador as special guests at the opening. It is part of the pedagogical concept to organise the events in buildings of political institutions. Using these premises allows them to identify even better with politicians. The main educational outcome is to trigger interest in political subjects and the EU, to raise awareness about the complex and complicated task of the European integration process and the multitude of political interests, positions, fears and agendas.

Four more EU simulation games are scheduled for December (Prishtina and Sarajevo) and next spring.

Ingrid Halbritter, project coordinator, www.ifa.de/EU (information available in English starting from January 2009)

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 19. Training on Social Charter Collective Complaints procedure

Call for applications for training on Social Charter Collective Complaints procedure
Strasbourg, 19-20 February 2009

The Council of Europe is calling for applications for the 2nd training session on the Revised Social Charter Collective Complaints procedure that will be held in Strasbourg on 19-20 February 2009 and organised by the Council of Europe Roma and Travellers Division and Department of the European Social Charter.

The training aims primarily at providing NGO participants/lawyers with practical information on how to lodge a complaint before the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) to defend Roma and Traveller communities’ social rights.

Information about the European Social Charter is available at the Council's website.

The deadline for applications is 10 January 2009. The contact person is Eleni Tsetsekou, Migration and Roma Department, Council of Europe, F - 67075 Strasbourg cedex

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 20. HRE manual COMPASS in Roma language

DARE member EIP Slovenia - School for Peace (NGO) contributes to the celebration of the 60th anniversary of UDRH with the first partial (and unofficial) translation of the Council of Europe's HRE manual COMPASS in Roma language. Not only this is one of the first such attempts in Europe (and the first HRE manual for youth in Roma language in Slovenia), but it is also done only in e-version using the up-to-date application Flipage.
The publication is to be used by Roma youth HRE trainers and for peer teaching, and has links to relevant on-line COMPASS pages. It contains basic information on HR, three selected activities and a simplified version of UDHR.

Click on www.flipage.net/eip to flip through the pages now! Create a link to it or forward it to people/organisations that could make use of it. Enjoy the Roma language and hope one day it will be treated as a language equal to all others.

Alenka Elena Begant, President EIP Slovenia - School for Peace

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