The Human Rights Guide is an online information, education and a self-help platform. It assists in understanding human rights that are important in various situations in life. The Human Rights Guide sets out human rights using a thematic approach. In this way, people have an opportunity to gather information about human rights and research this in a specific rather than abstract way, concentrating specifically on those rights which are important in the particular area or situation. The Guide assists in understanding sources of help and how to complain if there is a basis for thinking that a violation of human rights has occurred. In addition, the Guide provides information for each theme about the corresponding Latvian and international legislation, the practice of the courts and other sources.
The Human Rights Guide is a European scale collaboration project with each country that participates in the project having content prepared specifically for it. Currently, the Guide is being offered in the Latvian, Estonian, Lithuanian and Bulgarian languages along with translations into Russian and English.
The work on the development of the Human Rights Guide was commenced in 2013. The Guide has been available in Latvia since 2016, in Lithuania and Estonia since 2017, in Bulgaria since 2019 and in Slovakia and Slovenia since 2021. In 2022 the Guide will also be available in France and Croatia. The project is being implemented by a non-governmental organization, the Baltic Human Rights Society together with cooperation partners. These are as follows: Estonia — the Estonian Human Rights Centre, Lithuania — the Human Rights Monitoring Institute, the NGO Law Institute and Human Rights Voice, Bulgaria — Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, Slovenia — the Peace Institute, Slovakia — the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Slovakia, France - International Institute for Human Rights and Peace (Institut international des droits de l'Homme et de la paix) and Croatia - Human Rights House Zagreb. The Latvian Human Rights Centre, the Resource Centre for People with Mental Disability ZELDA and the Resource Centre for Women Marta, as well as other individual experts took part in the preparation of the content for the Latvian version of the Human Rights Guide.
The Human Rights Guide was created with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Kingdom of the Netherlands Embassy in Latvia, the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Office’s Nordplus Education Programme, the European Union’s Erasmus+ Programme, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia and the Active Citizens Fund and the patronage extended to it from the Republic of Latvia Ombudsman and the Latvian National Commission for UNESCO.
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The first cycle of the Human Rights Guide lectures has concluded
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Human Rights Guide: Meet the Guide on social networks
Civic participation - a new theme in the Human Rights Guide
Human Rights Guide 2022 - the year in review
Baltic partners develop new themes to tackle the consequences of the pandemic
New topic on Family Support Mechanisms for the Human Rights Guide
Human Rights Guide campaigns on public transport in Slovenia, Estonia and Lithuania
Human Rights Guide available in Slovenia
New theme on hate crimes and hate speech added to the Human Rights Guide
Outdoor visibility campaign for the Human Rights Guide in Latvia, Bulgaria and Slovakia
Human Rights Guide available in Slovakia
New partner countries join the Human Rights Guide platform
New theme included in the Human Rights Guide — domestic violence