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From March 14th to 19th the 2nd International Academy of Remembrance and Human Rights took place in Berlin (Germany). In the framework of the program “Teaching Human Rights” the organizer (the foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future”) has gathered 23 participants from Russia, Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, the Ukraine, Israel and Germany.

In general, the Academy was devoted to human rights and historical education. The participants and experts faced a challenge: to understand how these areas can help and reinforce each other. One of the important similar tasks of historical and human rights education is promoting the values of humanity and human dignity, and developing critical and systemic thinking.

With its program “Teaching Human Rights” the foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” provides an opportunity for historians and human rights activists to meet and listen to each other. The Academy is the second event of this kind. A diverse group of participants and their experiences have allowed making the seminar a real discovery for many participants.
The objectives of the Academy are to demonstrate possibilities for the connection of historical education with human rights education; to convey fundamental knowledge and skills in the field of national and international human rights protection; to encourage the development of corresponding projects.

Youth Human Rights Movement was represented by the participants of the Youth Network of human rights education and civil enlightenment (HRECE) Maria Gordeeva and Tatevik Gukasyan. The girls told about the YHRM activity, focusing particularly on such a program as “the New Tactics in Human Rights”, as well as the project of the “Museum of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”, developed in the framework of the educational program “It's important to think about Human Rights!”.

Maria Gordeeva shared her impressions from what she saw and heard at the Academy: “I am grateful to the organizers for the opportunity to meet people who have different values of promoting human rights – each participant has something to learn from him. In addition, it was important to look at different approaches to the concept and the genesis of Human Rights. At the seminar Human Rights were represented primarily by experts-theorists, representatives of the academic community, and their concept is very different from the approach of civil society organizations. For example, in these concepts there was no room for civil society and public figures (from Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., to Marek Nowicki). Academic community can be called the third party of the seminar. But the conversation about what this community has in common with the other two is another story”.

A separate program on “Teaching Human Rights” of the Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future" was created gradually. Starting with a direct assistance to victims of National Socialism, gradually the Foundation has got a new vision related to the promotion of the idea of Human Rights. In addition to educational activities, the program includes a grant competition, applications for which should be sent before May 31, 2010.

To learn more about the contest in English.