The human rights concepts such as equality, rights of the disabled, abolition of the death penalty, corruption, xenophobia, intolerance and minority rights now make lots of sense to the participants of the British Council Lithuania seminar on human rights education, which was held on 13-16 January, 2004 in Druskininkai.
It was the second regional event of the kind, encouraged by the success of the first one held in April 2003, which was very well received by the Lithuanian and Latvian participants and generated a huge interest among ELT teachers. Then we were happy to have Ruxandra Popovici, English Language Textbook Project Manager (British Council Romania), co-facilitating the seminar and introducing Rights in Deed. This time the seminar had a much more diverse audience in terms of countries and subjects represented. The 40 participants were social science (history, geography, ethics) and  English language teachers. The ELT audience was even more diverse as it included secondary school, tertiary and teachers working for MoDs and in JHA sector (teaching military personnel and border guards) from Latvia, Estonia and Poland. The workshops were facilitated by Margot Brown, National Co-ordinator of the Centre for Global Education (St John College, York, UK) and Snieguole Matoniene, Manager, International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania. The participants were put together to produce teaching/learning materials on human rights issues which could be used across the curriculum in different learning environments.
The most exciting and rewarding aspects of the seminar pointed out by the participants in the feedback session were working together and sharing educational ideas with colleagues teaching different subjects in different neighbouring countries. The co-operation between the three sectors (Governance, ELT and Peacekeeping English Project) within the British Council Lithuania proved to be most appreciated and efficient. For all of us Human Rights Education seminar was a unique learning opportunity for integration, cross-sector work, regionality and with a strong focus on impact.
The teachers creatively turned lecture-based input by experts in human rights from NGOs and public institutions in Lithuania into classroom material for cross-curriculum teaching and, on the last day of the seminar, were able to display and admire the work they had produced.
For information about the seminar, please contact Danguole Kizniene, Projects Manager for Education, Governance and Science.
