Global Human Rights Defence (GHRD) hosted a 6 day project between the 14th
November and 21st 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:
- 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
- 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:
- Identification and analysis of problems
- Mapping of stakeholders
- Creating advocacy action plan
- 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
|