Since 2022 the Baltic Human Rights Society (BHRS) has become an active member of international development cooperation community implementing the human rights education programmes in the Eastern partnership countries.
In June 2024 BHRS launched the project "Human Rights Guide - human rights education for strengthening the respect of rule of law and democratic values" with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia. The project aims to support and expand the Human Rights Guide in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and Armenia.
The Guide is an online, community-oriented, universal and easy-to-use platform for human rights education and self-help. Guide acts as an open-access education tool offering the possibility to learn about human rights in a simple, structured and visually supported way. The Guide was first launched in Latvia in 2016 and now is being expanded to other countries. It is already available in 11 countries throughout Europe (humanrightsguide.eu).
The implementation of the Guide started in Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova already in 2022 and the Guide was launched in these countries in November 2023. During the new phase project partners from the Kyiv Human Rights Hub (Ukraine), the Human Rights Embassy (Moldova) and the Foundation for the Support of Legal Education of GYLA (Georgia) will expand the content available on the Guide in their respective countries, focusing on the most prevalent and pressing human rights issues.
For Armenia this is a welcome to the Guide’s Network as the project will allow our partners, Europe in Law NGO, to launch the Guide in Armenia. The Guide will be available in Armenian, English and Russian. BHRS believes that this is a great step for human rights education in Armenia as we have already seen in other countries – it will be easier than ever before for the members of the Armenian society and legal professionals to find relevant human rights information and resources.
The project aims to inform and educate people about human rights and to build a human rights culture by developing accessible, modern and community-oriented human rights education tools and programmes in the Eastern Partnership countries of Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine and Armenia.
The development and operation of the project's intellectual outputs ensure that members of the public and professional target groups have access to quality human rights information, covering educational and self-help materials and human rights learning methodologies.
Human rights awareness ensures that as a result of the project, users are be able to apply human rights to their own life situations or in the performance of their work, and increase their competence in seeking public services. It also contributes to the development of good governance and active and quality participation in democratic processes and public life.
The project involves the following activities to ensure the development, expansion, dissemination and sustainability of the Human Rights Guide in the partner countries:
- Establishing partnerships with associated partners: public institutions, NGOs, and educational institutions in the partner countries
- Development of cooperation agreements, work, research and publicity plans
- Adaptation and development of the content of the Human Rights Guide in each partner country, technical solutions and the continuing online operation of the Guide
- Publicity activities and events
- Online human rights education lectures for professionals
- Organisation of launch events and seminars to disseminate the Guide in all project countries
- Project partner meetings in partner coutries.
The project is being financially supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia under the "Development Cooperation Projects and International Aid" Programme. The project in Eastern partnership countries is being supported by its associate partners the Ombudsman of the Republic of Latvia, the Riga Graduate School of Law, 2022 Nobel prize winner Center for Civil Liberties (Ukraine), the People's Advocate of Moldova, the Equality Council of Moldova and the Grigol Robakidze University Georgia.
Read more:
2024
Guide in Armenia: An Introduction to the Human Rights Guide
Seminar-Quiz “Human Rights Race” - Guide at the Civil Society Development Forum in Kyiv
Moldova Launches New Themes on the Human Rights Guide
BHRS welcomed partners from EU East Partnership countries
Armenia joins the Human Rights Guide Network
2023
Human Rights Guide launch event in Georgia
Human Rights Guide launch event in Ukraine
Human Rights Guide launch event in Moldova
2022
BHRS hosts partners from Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova in Riga