In 2015, Human Rights Day has been celebrated with various activities and discussions all around the AEGEE network. This year, ten antennae, namely AEGEE-Aachen, AEGEE-Ankara, AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca, AEGEE-Madrid, AEGEE-Odessa, AEGEE-Patra, AEGEE-Ploieşti, AEGEE-Sankt-Peterburg, AEGEE-Skopje and AEGEE-Tenerife, organised forums, lectures and other kind of events in an attempt to promote and raise awareness about human rights. Celebrated on and around December 10th, the Humans Rights Day activities addressed around 300 people, both AEGEEans and non-AEGEEans, giving them a platform for learning and discussing the human rights-related issues that were relevant to their daily lives.

The types of activities organised by the locals varied widely from mini-human library to film-forum; from role-plays to informative lectures. Organised in collaboration with Democracy in Practice, these events opened new windows for the participants to look at human rights issues, as the evaluations gathered from the participants indicate. Not only did the participants learn about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which marks the basis for the Human Rights Day, but in some events, they also examined the question of refugees which has been on the front burner in Europe for a long time now.

There were many workshops implemented in common by some antennae. For example, AEGEE-Madrid, AEGEE-Patra, AEGEE-Ploieşti and AEGEE-Tenerife included the workshop called “Three Things”, which asks the participants to decide on what three things they would take with them if they were forced to flee their homes. This activity was effective in giving a mock first-hand impression to the young Europeans of what kind of an experience it is to be a refugee.

Another workshop that was popular among the locals was the “Human Rights Tree”. The participants in AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca, AEGEE-Patra, AEGEE-Ploieşti and AEGEE-Skopje had the opportunity to build their own trees that were embellished with the names of the Human Rights they value the most. They also added to their trees how and by what means these rights could be provided in their societies. Along with revealing what the most crucial Human Rights are in their contexts, this workshop familiarized the participants with the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by providing a platform for comparing their tree with the articles in the Declaration.

Different from these workshops, AEGEE-Ankara organised a mini-human library that included an Armenian and a LGBT individual as its books. Being subject to excessive prejudices in the society, this event aimed at bringing together the subject and the object of the prejudices in order to contribute to the formation of a society where borders are crossed and Human Rights are protected. In this event, ten people had the chance to communicate and ask their questions to the Armenian and LGBT individuals in person and in private, which eventually broadened the readers’ horizons by revisiting their prejudices.

In another event organised by AEGEE-Sankt-Peterburg, the participants were formally informed about the history of Human Rights, bioethics, euthanasia, abortion and many others, via presentation. Encompassing various sides of Human Rights, AEGEEans in Sankt-Peterburg found a chance to learn and ask about Human Rights as well as doing a Human Rights Photos activity for the celebration of this important date.

AEGEE-Aachen was another antenna that chose to celebrate this day with photos, but in a different format. The participants of AEGEE-Aachen’s event wrote the Universal Human Rights on big sheets and everyone took a photo with their sheet. By publishing these photos on social media, AEGEE-Aachen managed to raise awareness about the Universal Human Rights granted to each and every individual and to draw attention to the topic of Human Rights.

Film-Forums were also preferred activities to draw attention to the various aspects of Human Rights. AEGEE-Madrid and AEGEE-Odessa organised events where they watched a movie related to Human Rights, and after the movie they created an environment in which the participants could analyze the movie in relation with the Human Rights and with the cases that encapsulate their everyday lives.

Lastly, one of the most impressive workshops was the “Language Barrier” one, organised by AEGEE-Ploieşti and AEGEE-Tenerife. It was also aimed at showing the difficulties the refugees face in their everyday hassles. In particular, the problems resulting from not speaking the language of the countries the refugees are migrating are acted out as realistically as possible. Many participants expressed their puzzlement and empathy for the refugees who experience these problems on a daily basis, and they said they were moved to act on this matter.

In a nutshell, around the 10th of December AEGEE was busy learning and raising awareness about Human Rights in collaboration with its locals and Democracy in Practice. The organisers did an excellent job in emphasizing the different aspects of Humans Rights with various activities by including altogether around 300 people. However, as many of us would expect, Human Rights are a sensitive and ever-hot topic that should be kept in the agenda at all times and that should be worked on. Therefore, we invite all the AEGEEans to do more activities to promote the proper implementation of Human Rights and to create a Europe where Human Rights are kept above everything else.

If you wish to organise Human Rights Activities, please check the Human Rights Activities Guidelines and fill in this form.
If you wish to organise Active Citizenship Activities, please check the Democracy Activities Guidelines and fill in this form.

Written by Zeynep Eda Alpsoy, AEGEE-Ankara on behalf of Democracy in Practice

Pablo Hernández Rodríguez, former president of AEGEE-Alicante, Policy Officer, team member of Democracy in Practice and member of AEGEE-Thessaloniki, is the member of the month for January. Pablo thought we were joking when we informed him that he’s the member of the month. He is currently working on his position paper on Youth Employment focusing on the Transition from Education to Working Life. For him the key to motivation is having fun in what you do and with the people you work with.

The AEGEEan: How do you feel about being member of the month?
Pablo: At first I thought that it was a joke or something that had nothing to do with me. I’ve worked in AEGEE for a good few years already and I have spent a lot of time and effort on the different activities I have been involved in so, for me, being elected member of the month means that what I’ve done has had an impact and has been relevant to achieve our goals. I’m really excited about it.

Tell us five words that describe you best.
Hard worker, curious, passionate, open-minded, detail-oriented.

How did you find out about AEGEE?
I was surfing on the internet searching for something to do in an international environment and I found out that in Alicante there was a youth organisation that was organising something called Summer University. I decided to attend one of their events and it turned out to be something that I liked and wanted to try more. I can’t imagine my last few years without AEGEE!

What have you done in AEGEE so far?
I have been involved in many different bodies of AEGEE. When I became active I was elected secretary quite quickly (in four months) and one year later, president of AEGEE-Alicante. I was developing and starting very interesting and successful activities and projects such as the Buddy Programme that now involves around 700 people. At that time I started getting involved at the European Level.
Last year I became Policy Officer in Youth Participation getting some responsibilities in the Europe in Exchange project and doing some activities with AEGEE-Thessaloniki. I felt so comfortable having all these tasks that I just followed the natural development that was continuing to be a Policy Officer (now in Youth Employment) and getting involved in the Democracy in Practice project.

What is your greatest achievement in AEGEE? Why?
I would mention two. First, the previously mentioned Buddy Programme. Having dealt with the University of Alicante for almost two years, after several meetings we managed to set this programme up which has increased in number from 30 people in the first edition to more than 700 in the last one.
Second, the achievement that I’m proud of is the approval of the Position Paper on Youth Participation in Democratic Processes because I spent a lot of effort investigating, gathering the opinion of the members and writing it. It’s great to see that AEGEE agreed on it.

You are really active all those years you are member of AEGEE. What keeps your motivation up? Is there anyone who inspires you?
Indeed I’m really motivated, even when I was Erasmus in Thessaloniki I was pretty active and worked a lot in AEGEE. For me the key to motivation is having fun with what you do and with the people you work with. I have been very lucky to always find great people around me. That’s all I can say.
If I have to mention one person that has inspired me, then Miguel Gallardo is that person. He has shown me the most important thing needed to work in AEGEE, which is team spirit.

You are Policy Officer for Youth Employment. Have you decided on which topics you are going to focus on your Position Paper?
Yes, together with the Comité Director we agreed on focusing on Transition from Education to Working Life because AEGEE is a student organisation, and so our main objective should be to relate education and employment. In this sense, we would like to tackle some subtopics:

– Recognition of non-formal education. Skills mismatch.     

– Entrepreneurship     

– Quality of jobs     

– Quality internships     

– Discrimination/ Inclusion of minorities  

What are your future plans?

My future plans are finishing the Position Paper and helping the rest of the Policy Office with common tasks, trying to make the best out of my positions by attending external events representing AEGEE. I also have to work on Impact Measurement of the Democracy in Practice project which is a milestone to make the project successful.

Written by Lia Tuska, AEGEE-Sofia/AEGEE-Thessaloniki

It was the Summer of 2013 when the idea of Democracy in Practice (DiP) was born among the members of the Human Rights Working Group. One year later, June 2014, the core team gathered in Brussels and finalised the outline of the Democracy in Practice Project. In the following months, the team got bigger and they decided to have a second meeting at the end of September. At Agora Cagliari, ten out of the fourteen members of the team were there to represent the project. November 1st was a special day for the Democracy in Practice Project: not only did they get to sign the contract to become an official AEGEE-Europe Project, but they also got ratified by the Agora!

Training courses on topics like conflict resolution, refugees and migration, minorities, influence of the media and gender equality are going to be hosted by different AEGEE locals in the following months. Next to that, in the beginning of January, Atanas Nachkov (AEGEE-Sofia and Mediation Commission) contacted the DiP Team, asking for more information about how to start an AEGEE-Europe Project and shared with them an idea he had for a new project.

This new project have similarities with Democracy in Practice that might confuse people. In order not to have one of the projects overlap the other, Atanas and the DiP Team decided to work together. That new project is a separate one and for now it works within Democracy in Practice since they have common aims.

First of all, how was the idea born?

A little bit after Agora Zaragoza, there was a random Skype call between Atanas Nachkov and Paul Smits. At some point the discussion headed to the recently re-defined vision and mission of AEGEE.

Since we shall strive for a democratic Europe, what is democracy then?

It really sounds crazy to ask this question, but a simple sentence answer is not what they were looking for. Thus, the first aim of this new-born project was to outline the critical characteristics of the democratic society – from supremacy of law, freedom of speech and government accountability till transparency and right to protest. If we manage to create a more sophisticated description, we’ll have a better vision of what we are truly fighting for.

All that was left, was the name for the project, which Paul simply dropped, but it really fit, because we intended to have something catchy and playful. “Democrazy”. If it’s not fun, it won’t work. Unfortunately, both Atanas and Paul were very busy last year and they couldn’t elaborate much on it before kicking off. However, it will begin as an initiative inside Democracy in Practice due to its fundamental familiarity with this project. Gradually it will develop its own identity and hopefully, its own approval by the Agora as a European Project. This way, it will not confuse the rest of the AEGEE members and it’s a great example how people from different projects and initiatives can collaborate together. “I’m really thankful to the whole team behind DiP, who so gladly adopted this idea and allowed it to grow within their domicile. This will have a beneficial impact to Democrazy” states Atanas Nachkov.

If you are interested in the Democrazy Project, please contact him at atanas.nachkov@aegee.org

Written by Lia Tuska, AEGEE-Sofia/AEGEE-Thessaloniki