Raising Awareness on Human Rights and Democracy among Youth

REACT (Rights Education and Awareness for Children and Teens)

Partners

European Union
Office of the Minister of State for Administrative Reform (OMSAR)
Clubs des Etudiants

Duration

February 2005 - February 2006

Description

The European Union has funded a pilot program, 'Afkar', aimed at strengthening Lebanese civil society. The Lebanese Office of the Ministry of State for Administrative Reform (OMSAR), is administering the grant and awarded sixteen NGOs under this program. The RMF, in partnership with Club des Étudiants, is implementing the project for Raising Awareness on Human Rights and Democracy among Youth.

Objective

The objective of the project is to raise awareness among youth on human rights (their origins, contents, mechanisms, and international conventions), citizenship (rights and responsibilities of citizenship), and democracy (its definition, practices, etc.) through a participatory approach utilizing debates, role-playing, and other such activities. It is envisioned that the notions of tolerance, equality, dignity, freedom, and respect within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will lead to the promotion of intercultural and inter-religious dialogue.

Methodology

The project's activities are based on student participation: students are encouraged to think on their own, express their opinions, and conceive of creative projects for the promotion of the concepts of human rights. The project uses peer education to enable students to dialogue and debate more freely amongst each other without the presence of an adult. This active approach will compel the students to individually reflect on the concepts to which they are being exposed.

Activities

The project consists of creating REACT Clubs (Rights Education and Awareness for Children and Teens) in middle and high schools located in all regions of Lebanon. These clubs are a space for reflection and knowledge acquisition for youth. Each club holds regular meetings to organize and implement activities and has autonomy of action and complete liberty to choose and organize activities according to the needs and the availability of the students involved. As per October 2005, twenty-five REACT Clubs had been created in schools throughout Lebanon: Tripoli, Zahle, Beirut, Tyre, Saida, Nabatiyye, Hamana, Akkar, Chouf, etc.

Club activities
Facilitators lead activities, with the occasional help of guest experts, to educate the students about human rights, citizenship, and democracy. Students learn through role playing, debating, and reflecting on human rights with their peers.

During the course of the year, students will be asked to prepare an innovative participatory project related to the concepts they are learning such as creating a newspaper, writing a short play, or creating a short movie. These projects will be displayed at a day gathering together all the clubs described below. (Read about a REACT club visit on 3 June 2005 to the Center for Working Children in Bab el Tebbaneh)

Let's REACT Together!
During the day, various activities (decided on by the clubs) will take place. It will be an occasion where they will exercise, in a large group, the concepts they have been learning and discussing such as freedom of expression, tolerance, and respect of the other. This will be done through activities such as roundtables with officials and group. At the end of the day, prizes will be given out to the most innovative projects.

Facilitators
The clubs are led by university students. They are selected based on their motivation and their ability to commit their time for the duration of the project. In October 2005, 30 motivated facilitators were volunteering in REACT.

Workshops on human rights
These workshops, led by experts in the field of human rights, train the facilitators on the history and concepts of human rights, children's rights, women's rights, citizenship and public participation.

Workshops on group dynamics and facilitation
These workshops train facilitators in the techniques of group animation and management. They will also receive training in conflict resolution which will include: sources of conflict, negotiation, and methods of resolution.

Read about the workshops:
•  24 April 2005: 'The Principles and Mechanisms of Human Rights'
•  15 May 2005: 'Group Dynamics'
•  16-18 September 2005: 'Global training for the REACT project'
•  9 October 2005: 'How to use the REACT training manual'

Read about our participation in the book exhibition:
'Lire en français et en musique 2005'. (17-18 November 2005)

Improvement of facilitator's manual
A training manual on children's rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child had previously been designed by the RMF to aid facilitators. A new manual was elaborated on to include more activities and documents related to the origin, contents, and mechanisms for protection and promotion of human rights and questions related to gender, citizenship, public participation, conflict resolution and democracy.