OSCE Skopje Mission promotes human rights education for children

SKOPJE, 30 June 2005 - Twenty teachers of different ethnic backgrounds will take part in a workshop on children's human rights education in Skopje on 1 July. Later on, they will be able to educate some 600 pupils all over the country.

The training course is part of a project for schoolchildren in the 55 OSCE participating States launched in April by the OSCE Chairmanship.

It aims to assist governments in implementing OSCE commitments in the field of human rights education using as a teaching tool a booklet called "Our Rights", designed for 10 to 12 year old children and based on the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

"Our Mission actively supports the initiative of the Chairmanship and the efforts of the host government by training local educators on human rights teaching methodologies and providing necessary materials," said Ambassador Carlos Pais, the Head of the OSCE Spillover Monitor Mission to Skopje.

Gordana Trajkova-Kostova of the Skopje-based Bureau for Development of Education said: "The teachers will be using training materials that have been translated into the national language, as well as into the other languages spoken in the country. The OSCE's support in this process has been essential."

The OSCE initiative complements the United Nations World Programme for Human Rights Education, the Council of Europe's European Year of Citizenship through Education, and the European Unions's European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights.

The project will run through the end of the year.