A civic education project development workshop took place in Oslo, Norway from 30th to 31st August. The workshop was organised by the Baltic Human Rights Society, represented by its Executive Director Agnese Koligina-Balode, Lead Researcher Arina Melse and Project Coordinator Elīna Rancāne. The workshop was attended by representatives from the Human Rights Academy in Norway, the Estonian Human Rights Centre in Estonia and Human Rights Voice in Lithuania.
The workshop was organised with the aim of bringing together the experience and competencies of the partner organisations in order to promote public understanding of democratic values and principles, civic participation and civic education through the development of innovative tools and methods.
The partners agreed to cooperate and develop joint projects in the field of civic education to achieve this objective and bring about the desired change. Based on their previous experience, the partners identified the need to develop and deliver innovative and easily accessible online tools for civic education, integrating visual education principles and taking advantage of the digital environment. It would also be important to include the training of teachers and educators in innovative and interactive teaching methods in the field of civic education in the projects.
The workshop included meetings with several Norwegian organisations and institutions active in the field of civic and human rights education. Participants visited the European Wergeland Centre (EWC), where the EWC made a presentation about the activities of their organisation and discussed strategies for human rights and democratic education in Europe. The European Wergeland Centre is a resource centre on education for intercultural understanding, human rights and democratic citizenship. Participants met and discussed cooperation opportunities with representatives of the Helsinki Committee Norway, one of Norway's leading human rights NGOs. BHRS also met with representatives of the Norwegian National Human Rights Institution to promote support for human rights and civic education in Norway.
The workshop was organised with the financial support of Nordplus Adult, the Nordic Council of Ministers' mobility and networking programme for education in the Nordic and Baltic countries.