Friday, February 4, 2011

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
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INTERNATIONAL SUMMER ACADEMY ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND HUMAN SECURITY
BRINGING HUMAN RIGHTS HOME
STRENGTHENING HUMAN SECURITY AT THE LOCAL LEVEL THROUGH HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION
10 - 20 July 2011
ETC | EUROPEAN TRAINING AND RESEARCH CENTRE
FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY
GRAZ | AUSTRIA
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ETC’s International Summer Academy on Human Rights and Human Security has been held since 2001, first in Montenegro and Macedonia, and since 2003 in the Human Rights City of Graz.
Following different topics in the past ten years - ranging from human rights and human wrongs in the Balkans over a culture of human rights to the question of threats that transnational terrorist and criminal organisations bring for the peacebuilding and reconstruction process in the Western Balkan region - it has never lost the focus on the interdependency of human rights, human security and human rights education. The 10th summer academy (re)turns to the local level, resuming different approaches to human rights implementation in cities and towns, discussing progress and setbacks and giving examples not only of the Human Rights City of Graz. The programme is designed to raise awareness on human rights challenges and possible solutions by means of human rights education and education for democratic citizenship, to strengthen democratic and human rights principles, to contribute to bringing the scientific discourse closer to civil society and to build future relations and in!
clude the participants in existing networks.
The programme further provides an introduction to the concept of human security which is set into relation to societal factors such as poverty and exclusion, but also racism and right-wing extremism and their effects on “old” and “new” minorities. Concluding the summer academy, human rights education strategies will be reviewed in relation to the goals of human security and the respect for human and minority rights.
TOPICS AND WORKSHOPS
* Concepts of human security
* The interdependency of concepts: Human rights, human security and human rights education
* Challenges to human dignity and human security: Poverty and exclusion
* Re-build my town!
* Challenges to human dignity and human security: Racism and the “old” and “new” minorities
* Challenges to human dignity and human security: Right-wing extremism
* Reasoning strategies against hate speech
* Human (in)securities in the past
* Local strategies for human rights and human security: The concepts of human rights cities and the Coalition of Cities against Racism
* Building a culture of human rights: Human rights education strategies
* Learning by doing: Interactive theatre as a participatory instrument
METHODOLOGY
The summer academy draws on the expertise of a selected group of international and local academics and practitioners who work on the topics of human rights education and implementation on the local level. Their broad professional orientation - from lawyers to human rights educators to theatre performers - guarantees the interdisciplinary approach to human rights and human security issues that has made our previous summer academies a success story.
The academy is designed as a modular course, covering one topic per day, which allows for the transfer of knowledge, the acquisition of skills and the shaping of attitudes as well.
The training is based on morning lectures and discussions and afternoon workshops. In order to assure sustainability and multiplying effects, the training methods put particular emphasis on an interactive approach, offering a week-long simulation game in one of the afternoon working groups and visits to numerous local institutions in the second working group. Working language of the summer academy is English. Participants who have actively taken part in the whole programme will receive a certificate of attendance.
TARGET GROUP
The summer academy is designed as ten-day-course for
- young professionals, especially in local administration,
- postgraduate students and young researchers,
- and representatives of NGOs whose work agenda focuses on the implementation of human rights and democratic proceedings. Special focus will be laid on the selection of participants from South Eastern and Eastern Europe. The number of participants is limited to 30 in order to provide an intensive learning atmosphere. Participants will be selected on the basis of their fields of interest and their personal motivation to be involved in the programme.
INFORMATION AND APPLICATION
http://www.etc-graz.at/typo3/index.php?id=1118#c2421 
APPLICATION DEADLINE
31 March 2011