UNITED STUDENT PARLIAMENTS PROMOTE HUMAN RIGHTS

The "United Student Parliaments in the Promotion of Human Rights" project is implemented by the Educational Center from Leskovac in the area of ​​the Jablanica and Pcinj Districts, or in the municipalities of Leskovac, Vlasotince, Lebane, Bojnik, Medvedja, Crna Trava, Vranje, Vladicin Han, Surdulica, Bosilegrad, Trgoviste, Bujanovac and Presevo. The project’s duration is 12 months.

The overall objective of the project is to support the process of strengthening the role of civil society in promoting human rights through the stimulation of youth empowerment initiatives to promote inclusion and improvement initiatives for the development of pluralism. The target group consists of representatives of 20 secondary-school student parliaments from the Jablanica and Pcinj Districts, as well as of representatives of minorities, LGBT people and people with disabilities among the secondary-school population. In addition to students, the project activities relate to the work of the teachers who are responsible for coordinating the work of student parliaments in the targeted schools in the region.

The ultimate beneficiaries of the project are all secondary-school students in South Serbia (about 18,000 of them in the Jablanica and Pcinj Districts), LGBT people and their initiatives, persons with disabilities (PWDs), representatives of various minority religious groups and their organizations/associations. The ultimate beneficiaries of this project also include the School Board for the Jablanica and Pcinj Districts, the Ministry of Education, various formal and informal youth organizations and the local media and their audiences in both the districts.

The first group of activities begins by developing a training program for members of Student Parliaments for the activities of peer student educators for promotion of human rights and prevention of all forms of discrimination in schools. Within this group of activities, it is planned to organize training workshops for the prevention of discrimination and protection of human rights for teachers (UP coordinators), who would subsequently become members of the teams  for the promotion and monitoring of human rights -  P&M teams. In addition, it is also planned to organize training workshops for the prevention of discrimination and protection of human rights for students, members of school teams for the promotion and monitoring of human rights in schools. 

By the implementation of these activities, the capacities of student parliaments for the protection of human rights and combating discrimination against minority groups, people with disabilities, internally displaced persons (IDPs), LGBT people, will be enhanced within the school population in both the regions.

The second group of activities, which will begin by organizing workshops entitled “The Live Library”,  according to the plan developed by the P&M teams in all the targeted schools,  then by  organizing "The Forum Theatre" workshops for P&M teams of peer educators and by organizing school roundtables/debates on the protection of human rights, will achieve  a new position for student parliaments that will be acknowledged and recognized by vulnerable groups as the power that will protect and guarantee the fulfillment of the basic human rights of vulnerable groups in schools.  

The third group of activities will consist of the development and adoption of "The Action Plan for the Promotion of Human Rights" by the very student parliaments, as well as of organizing  the teams for combating discrimination in all the targeted municipalities.

The long-term outcome of these actions will increase the influence of student parliaments in schools in making decisions regarding the protection of human rights and the fight against discrimination.  Overall, by this project the Educational Center set itself a goal of strengthening the role of student parliaments in South Serbia, so that the violation of the rights of vulnerable groups in secondary-schools could become visible, and so that specific models of their protection  could be launched.  

The contracted value of the project is 49,940 euros, while the EU Delegation to Serbia participates in it with 47, 300 euros.

Source: Educational Center Leskovac