Erasmus+: Equality for All

Global Human Rights Defence (GHRD) hosted a 6 day project between the 14^th November and 21^st November 2015, called “Equality for All”.  In “the city of Peace and Justice", The Hague, 24 young people from Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Romania, Spain, Ukraine and The Netherlands came together to participate in the mobility of youth workers project. 

Behind the name, “Equality for All”, stands the purpose to increase the capacity of youth workers and leaders in developing effective rights-based advocacy strategies for their organisations. The theme this time was Young people from the LGBT Community and the challenges they face in their home countries.The overall goals of the project were:

1. to increase the capacity building of youth workers in developing a rights-based advocacy strategy for their organisations, with particular focus on issues faced by LGBT youth
2. to explore possible partnerships to organise future projects focusing on improving the quality of youth work in promoting and protecting LGBT rights under Erasmus+ umbrella.

    Presenting and discussing the LGBT situation in Romania

To reach the objectives the organisers put together a list of activities are based on methods of non-formal learning. These activities included: group discussions, role plays, debates, round table with guest speakers, thematic evenings, case studies, presentations and workshops. During these activities the participants had a chance to receive trainings from some of the leading LGBT organisations, human rights defenders and other stakeholders in the Netherlands such as: COC Haaglanden, Gale Education, University of Amsterdam, Leiden University and Utrecht University.

Skype roundtable with leading human rights defenders

Developing an effective advocacy strategy enables youth workers to influence policy makers and other relevant stakeholders in order to fulfil the rights of LGBT youth, which was reflected in the core topics of the trainings:

1. Identification and analysis of problems
2. Mapping of stakeholders
3. Creating advocacy action plan
4. Choosing method to advocate

Presentation given by GALE Education 

Furthermore, during the workshop sessions covered various topics such as: international human rights instruments and mechanisms (such as UN’s human rights mechanisms) and LGBT education and anti-discrimination measurements in schools. 

Gathering ideas for educating children in schools about the LGBT rights and anti-discrimination measures 

The proposed working methods and sharing of best practices allowed the participants to not only learn more on advocacy strategies but about the tools that are adopted by leading LGBT organisations in The Netherlands and human rights defenders from different countries. And of course there was room for intercultural evenings where participants could learn about different cultures while having a nice chat in a more unofficial environment.

Participants enjoying snacks during the Intercultural evening