human rights – The AEGEEan – AEGEE's online magazine – AEGEE-Europe ../../.. AEGEE's Online Magazine Sun, 04 Sep 2016 17:11:31 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.8.7 ../../../wp-content/uploads/cropped-The-AEGEEan_logo-FBprofile-32x32.png human rights – The AEGEEan – AEGEE's online magazine – AEGEE-Europe ../../.. 32 32 SUmmer Story: From SUnrise till midnight ../../../2016/09/12/summer-story-from-sunrise-till-midnight/ Mon, 12 Sep 2016 09:00:50 +0000 ../../../?p=36284 AEGEE-Patra proposed a magnificent TSU showing the best of Peloponnese on the initiative of Flo Fotini Karagrigori, Stavroula Kostakopolou, Secretary of this Greek Antenna, Vasiliki Petrakou, President, and the extraordinary help of an amazing team. Journalist Matteo Lai reports on this international event that was in collaboration with the Democracy in Practice project.   The Summer University of AEGEE-Patra began on the eleventh of… Read more →

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AEGEE-Patra proposed a magnificent TSU showing the best of Peloponnese on the initiative of Flo Fotini Karagrigori, Stavroula Kostakopolou, Secretary of this Greek Antenna, Vasiliki Petrakou, President, and the extraordinary help of an amazing team. Journalist Matteo Lai reports on this international event that was in collaboration with the Democracy in Practice project.

 

patra austriacheThe Summer University of AEGEE-Patra began on the eleventh of July 2016. In Athens, I had already met some participants, Ana and Alvaro, and one organiser, Spyros, who hosted me during the previous weekend, and gave us a small city tour of the Greek capital. With other guys, who were joining the event, we reached Patra very late by bus; about nine p.m. The Greek organisers, however, could not let us miss out on some ice breaking games, so that we at least got to know the name of the other participants.

 

They came from every corner of Europe: Dario Renna (Italy), Natalya Turun (Ukraine),  Ihor Raynovskyy (Ukraine), David Ferre (Spain), Olga Revilla (Spain), Ana González García (Spain), Robert Bullesfeld (Germany), Joyce Schulte (the Netherlands), Álvaro Alonso Larré (Spain), Anna Zaiats (Ukraine), Strahinja Kocijasevic (Serbia), Enrica Griggio (Italy), Diego Laino Rebollido (Spain), Alessandro Boffa Fasset (Italy), Irene Ballester (Spain), Matteo Delfino (Italy), Adela Hurtikova (Czech Republic), Anna Temerko (Ukraine), Matteo Sberna (Italy), Merli Martin (Estonia), Sophia Talvoysh (Russia), Maria Calin (Austria), Alicia Jiménez Nosti (Spain), Julia Sohu (Spain), Mikel Larra Arca (Spain), Ella Katkova (Russia), Fernando Berniola Cassorán (Spain), Lili Dozsa (Hungary), Arbenita Hasani (Austria), Kagan Kemal Tuna (Turkey) and a girl simply known to us as Burcu (Turkey).

 

The organisers were: Noemi Lowy (Democracy in Practice Trainer, AEGEE-Debrecen), Vasiliki Petrakou (Main Organiser and President), Petros Spyratos, Spyros Ntouroukis, Fotini Flo Karagrigori (Main Organiser and Secretary), Stavroula Kostakopoulou (Main Organizer and Incoming Responsible), Raphael Angelis, Stavros Vlatakis, Giota Grintzou, Petros Vezos, Katerina Anastasopolou (AEGEE-Athina), Akis Tampachaniotis (AEGEE-Peiraias), Costas Frem, Costantinos Fasourakis, Yiota Mitropoulou, Anastasia Karantza.

 

me alvaro adelaAfter a quick dinner outside the hotel, we all went together to a lounge in a pub, ten minutes away from the hotel that was our accommodation for the first four days. I was really tired after the long trip from Athens to Patra, but I could not wait for the interesting programme that the organisers had crafted for us. Patra is famous for the Rio-Antirrio Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in Europe. In Patra, I also visited the Apollon Theatre, which was designed by the famous German architect Ernst Ziller and completed in 1872. The Apollon is located east of Georgiou I Square, one of Patra’s most popular squares. The theatre is a micrograph of “La Scala” in Milan, and is the oldest existing enclosed theatre of the same era. The Apollon Theatre has been the main stage of the Patras Municipal and Regional Theatre since 1988, and can hold up to three hundred people.

 

alvaro patraThe TSU was in collaboration with the ‘Democracy in Practice’ project. For the newbies in AEGEE, the aim of the project is to raise awareness among young people about the importance of human rights as the basis of a healthy democracy, in order to promote social and political participation of young people at local, national, and European level. This can be achieved in two ways: by means of training, and by means of advocacy. Therefore, the members of Democracy in Practice set some learning objectives and some advocacy objectives. The former required the participants to explain what the interconnections between human rights and democracy are, to develop a campaign for Human Rights, to direct their own learning through the process, and to develop a concrete action plan in order to start a follow-up process. Advocacy objectives are various as well: the participants can identify the local stakeholders for human rights education; the participants are able to advocate for human rights education in their local communities, specially targeting universities and other educational centres.

 

There have been many sessions that allowed us to know each other better and to discuss about Europe. For example, at the Gythio campsite, Noemi asked us to write down some words that we associate with Europe: peace, freedom, security, human rights, prosperity, language, mobility. She also proposed us to watch a movie titled: “The Untouchables”, which topics were discussed during our stay in Patra.

 

donne polylimnioOn the third day, we spent the evening in Plaz, a beach close to Patra’s city centre, where we enjoyed the European Night, a traditional activity in every Summer University. The organisers decided to surprise us by showing their European friends the basics of some popular Greek dances. Then, Stavroula would not be amiss to show us the famous ‘Ouzo’, an alcoholic drink very similar to Sambuca with the flavor of anisette.

 

On the morning of the day after, we followed a Democracy in Practice session about the structure and organisation of AEGEE. Noemi also talked about several AEGEE projects you can join, such as The AEGEEan. Later, the protagonists of this amazing Greek adventure visited the Achaia Clauss winery where they relaxed, chatted and made some group photos. In the Youth Mobility Workshop, David explained to us the incredible advantages of living on a new planet with his “Apollo Mobility Program”.

 

The participants were involved in D.i.P. activities almost every day, but we also went to Ancient Olympia, known for having been the site of the Olympic Games in classical times. In the 10th century B.C., Olympia became a centre for the worship of Zeus. The Altis – the sanctuary to the gods – used to contain one of the greatest collections of masterpieces from the ancient Greek world. In addition to temples, we saw the remains of all the sports structures, which had been erected for the Olympic Games that were held in Olympia every four years. The first ever Olympic Games were held in honour of Zeus. After some hours at Kaiafas beach, we visited Kalamata. The city tour was guided by Dimitri Eliopoulos, former director of Alpha Bank, who spoke more Italian than Greek or English. On Sunday, we went to Polylimnio for river trekking. The course ended at a lake and some Spanish guys inaugurated a dive competition from very high rocks. In Methoni, we managed to make some group photos over the rocks near a castle without falling into the water.

 

kalamata discorsoThe day at Kalamata’s city hall was the best for me. After we were welcomed by the mayor, we made an analysis and comparison of the situation of human and fundamental rights in several European countries. We were divided into small groups on the basis of our country. I still cannot believe it, but I talked in front of forty people in a foreign language about the Italian Constitution, while expressing my opinion about some current problems of Italy without getting nervous. I would have liked to answer some questions, but it was also important to talk about countries where the problem of human rights is probably much more felt, countries such as Ukraine, Russia and Turkey.

 

In Kardamyli, thirty-five kilometers southeast of Kalamata, in the region of Messenia on the Mani Peninsula, we admired the Mourtzinos Tower and the Church of Ayios Spyridon. After enjoying the sun at Stoupa beach, we reached the third Greek town of this vacation, Gythio, where we celebrated at the Hippie Hippie Shake Party.

 

foto gruppo 2 patraOne of the places that fascinated me the most was Monemvasia Island. Monemvasia is a town and a municipality in Laconia. The town is located on a small island off the Eastern coast of the Peloponnese. The town’s name derives from two Greek words, “mone” and “emvasia”, collectively meaning “single entrance”. Many of the streets are narrow and can only accommodate pedestrians and donkeys. A small hamlet of about ten houses lies on the northwest. The most interesting aspects of the island were for sure: Christos Elkomenos Square, the church of Agia Sophia, and the fortress. There was a very strong wind around the island, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying a wonderful excursion. Another interesting archeological site was Mystras, a fortified town and a former municipality in Laconia, always in the Peloponnese, situated on the Taygetos mountain, near the ancient Sparta.

 

foto gruppo patraIn the next chapter of our journey, we arrived in Mycenae (or Mikines). In the second millennium BC, Mycenae was one of the major centres of Greek civilisation. I got petrified when I saw the Lion Gate, because I had only seen it in my history of art text book. On the last two days of the TSU, the accommodation was in a campsite in Napflio. During those couple of days, we went on a cruise discovering the Hydra and Spetses islands. In Hydra there were no cars, but a lot of mules instead. On both islands the water was crystal-clear. At the end of the SU, the organisers brought us to the ancient theatre at Epidauros: among all the ancient theatres, this one was the most beautiful and best preserved. And although it was very hot, I could not resist the temptation to climb up the steps to the top of the theatre.

 

The organisers of AEGEE-Patra did a really good job; some of them have been very affable with the most shy participants, and they have created and nurtured a group that wanted to have a lot of fun. Sometimes they had to modify the timetable for the evening programme by the request of most of the participants; such as when we asked to include one more party on Gythio beach. In the discos, someone among the organisers could not bare to see you sit on a chair, so they immediately grabbed you by your arms and made you fly on the dance floor. They showed to be very experienced after their Agora in 2014. Not everything  was perfect and there were some aspects that need to be improved for next year, but the organisers were also warm-hearted. When I got sick, guys like Raphael, Vasiliki and Stavros took care of me without hesitation.

 

Written by Matteo Lai, AEGEE-Cagliari.

 

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After Their Meeting in Bruxelles: Democracy in Practice ../../../2016/03/29/after-their-meeting-in-bruxelles-democracy-in-practice/ Tue, 29 Mar 2016 15:23:48 +0000 ../../../?p=34118 Right after EPM Leiden, members of Democracy in Practice gathered in Brussels to finalise content restructuring, designed to bring the project closer to locals and to expand communication channels. The team now hails from eight different countries. Team members were attracted to the project for several reasons: after observing the low turnout at European Parliament elections and low youth civic participation in… Read more →

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Right after EPM Leiden, members of Democracy in Practice gathered in Brussels to finalise content restructuring, designed to bring the project closer to locals and to expand communication channels. The team now hails from eight different countries.

DIP at the Citizens for Europe project fair

DIP at the Citizens for Europe project fair

Team members were attracted to the project for several reasons: after observing the low turnout at European Parliament elections and low youth civic participation in general; the lack of respect for fundamental human rights, including gender equality, in their own countries; and to understand comparatively what makes up a true democracy – to name a few. Several members have a legal and political background. Other specialisations include economics, computer science, languages, engineering and naval architecture. With such a diverse range in knowledge, skills and approaches, but a shared passion for upholding human rights and democracy, the nature of the project can uniquely be described as part social and political science, part humanitarianism, part art, but democratic decision making all the way.

A pillar of the project is informal education. Given their previous success at EPMs, Agorae and Network Meetings, more emphasis is being placed on developing interactive workshops. Through these, the project explores the nature of human rights and democracy by simulating events that most of us, in some cases fortunately, will likely never experience in real life. What was democracy like in ancient Greece? What is it like to work as an immigration official? As a newspaper editor, how easy is it to represent the news honestly and objectively? After a re-enactment by participants, the DIP workshop facilitator conducts a debriefing, in which the underlying meaning and implications of the exercise come to light. It may remind you of a psychological experiment, however, the workshops are exploratory and the facilitator is on an equal footing with the participants and does not impose a predetermined outcome. As a result, the experience is also enlightening for the facilitator, who always learns something new.

Living Library: AEGEE- Ankara for Human Rights Day 2015

Living Library: AEGEE- Ankara for Human Rights Day 2015

How about locals, who want to bring such workshops to their local group, or to add a human rights and democratic dimension to a specific topic, perhaps of interest to their region, but lack experience, time or resources to do so? The team agreed a simple collaboration strategy, to enable locals, with minimum hassle, to fit DIP activities into European events, Summer Universities, or simply as a standalone event of up to a few days. There is also potential for DIP’s growing database of external collaborators across Europe, to provide talks, workshops and expertise during these events. A selection of standard DIP activities are on offer, combining some or all of workshops, debates, roundtable discussions, flash-mobs and talks, but more flexible collaborations are encouraged. Following a skype meeting with a local, DIP would be able to tailor activities to specific topics, timeframes, levels of difficulty, interactivity and fun, and to promote the event. The local then only needsto provide a location for activities, accommodation and food for participants.

On the final day of the meeting, DIP was fortunate in being able to take part in the Citizens for Europe project fair in Brussels, and as a result forged new connections with other projects that promote democratic participation, in the fair’s principle of putting cooperation above competition. The process was also very much an educational tool in project evaluation and gave DIP an outsider’s perspective of the project. It opened with an elevator pitch of each project. Representatives then showed on a scale of 0 to 100 how far developed their project was in concept, execution, funding and collaborations, and stated their project’s strengths and weaknesses, and how it could benefit from and assist other projects. After more detailed discussions on these points, the fair’s participants assimilated and analysed this information, as they compared projects and cast votes in four categories – innovation, feasibility, desirability and impact. Only at this point, contact details and business cards were exchanged.

Team member Elena presents at a Human Rights workshop for AEGEE-Athina.

Team member Elena presents at a Human Rights workshop for AEGEE-Athina.

Democracy in Practice now strives to become a go to within the AEGEE network for the latest important human rights and democracy news and debates, and will be posting weekly articles on facebook, as well as Twitter and Instagram posts. Social networkers considering becoming more involved in DIP’s activities, or in search of inspiration for their local, can also tune in for photos and stories of past as well as future events and competitions. The democratic, interdisciplinary and exploratory nature of the project means members are very much open to suggestions and nothing is too out of the box – in fact, DIP recently ran a photo competition, and has a large human rights playlist and database of human rights themed movies. So do contact DIP with your ideas, or to send a cool picture of your own human rights themed activity. The project is also looking for new members, particularly men, so if you like what you have seen so far, DIP would love to hear from you.

Written by May Lee, AEGEE-Maastricht
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Civic Debate Online: Human Rights are Outdated ../../../2016/03/21/civic-debate-online-human-rights-are-outdated/ Mon, 21 Mar 2016 11:20:29 +0000 ../../../?p=33820 In order to strengthen civic competences in AEGEE, the Civic Education Working Group has been promoting debating throughout the year. Why? Debating was proven to improve academic achievements, critical thinking, mutual understanding, as well as communication, argumentation and interpersonal skills. In short it helps you to know more and form a better-founded opinion. Today we are taking the debate online… Read more →

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In order to strengthen civic competences in AEGEE, the Civic Education Working Group has been promoting debating throughout the year. Why? Debating was proven to improve academic achievements, critical thinking, mutual understanding, as well as communication, argumentation and interpersonal skills. In short it helps you to know more and form a better-founded opinion. Today we are taking the debate online for the first time, with a topic that challenges the very basis of our organisation!

 

One of the powers of debate is to challenge the assumptions that are made by individuals or groups. Every human being makes certain assumptions and draws conclusions based on the incomplete information they have. Debating pushes people to think critically and get informed in more aspects. As an organisation, it is useful to have a solid ground on which we rely when giving direction to our work, but from time to time we also have to take a critical look at things.

In the case of AEGEE, we base our work on certain principles as laid out in our Statement of Principles. One of those principles concerns Human Rights. We agree that it is fundamental to promote freedom and human rights as “essential elements of a European society”. We aim to serve as an example and spread these values among the youth of Europe through our work and behaviour. This is presently reflected in the mentioning of Human Rights in AEGEE’s strategic aims as an important civic competence to be taught to AEGEE members, as well as to youth in formal education.

But what does the promotion of Human Rights mean? In what way is it an essential element of an European society? To explore the relevance of Human Rights, we challenged Andrea, known to have been involved in many Human Rights promoting initiatives, to argue that:

Human rights are outdated and incompatible with the 21st century world social development issues.

The opposition is done by Joanna, who will try to explain why human rights are still relevant. Note that these statements are not necessarily the person’s personal opinion, nor are the arguments they use indisputable. We challenge you to get involved in the discussion (on the forum), react on the arguments and decide for yourself what you think about human rights; and what place it should have in our organisation.

Here you can read Andrea defending the motion and here Joanna opposing the motion

 

Written by the Civic Education Working Group

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Human Rights are Outdated: Opposing the Motion ../../../2016/03/21/human-rights-are-outdated-opposing-the-motion/ Mon, 21 Mar 2016 11:13:21 +0000 ../../../?p=33873 In order to strengthen civic competences in AEGEE, the Civic Education Working Group has been promoting debating throughout the year. Why? Debating was proven to improve academic achievements, critical thinking, mutual understanding, as well as communication, argumentation and interpersonal skills. In short it helps you to know more and form a better-founded opinion. Today we are taking the debate online… Read more →

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In order to strengthen civic competences in AEGEE, the Civic Education Working Group has been promoting debating throughout the year. Why? Debating was proven to improve academic achievements, critical thinking, mutual understanding, as well as communication, argumentation and interpersonal skills. In short it helps you to know more and form a better-founded opinion. Today we are taking the debate online for the first time, with a topic that challenges the very basis of our organisation! 

 

For each topic, a defending and an opposing motion will be presented. You can express your opinion and continue to debate on the forum. Note that these statements are not necessarily the person’s personal opinion, nor are the arguments they use indisputable.

I have a very vivid memory of my first contact with the Declaration of Human Rights. I was preparing for an inter-school competition on this topic and was desperately trying to memorise all 30 articles by heart. It was extremely difficult because in my naïve and unaware teenage mind, I found them trivial and self-evident and I could not imagine how and why one can be openly deprived of any of them. And please keep in mind that I was growing up in Poland during the times when memories of communist crimes were still very fresh.

In the western cultural circle, where a linear concept of time is predominant, we tend to assume that our society is constantly morally developing and the future can be only better. However, looking at an ever-repeating history, we find plenty of examples like war crimes and genocides, which clearly show we do not learn from our mistakes. This makes the Human Rights, written and declared right after Europe’s most fatal genocide in modern times, more relevant than ever before. Sadly, we don’t have to look hundreds of years into the past to see violation of Human Rights in Europe. We have seen many recent failures in the face of the refugee crisis. Even without any current crisis, we can easily point to many places on the map where Human Rights are not part of society’s everyday life.

I wish that Human Rights would be regarded as old-fashioned, well practiced and as obvious for everybody as they were for my teenage-self. But it is hard to go further if you have not even arrived at the attempted status quo.

What is more, I don’t believe any of the social developments or other 21st century context issues could possibly influence relevance of the Human Rights. It really does not matter if people are riding horses or flying cars, living in tribes or in the European Union, they still have same basic needs and deserve certain rights. Human Rights represent core values of humankind, imperative in their style of writing and applicable to every human being on the globe. It still remains innovative when it comes to the formal aspect of it being a Declaration. Even in the framework of the European Union, we witness a complete lack of cohesion when it comes to rights regarding the asylum execution. Taking into account the complexity of the world we live in and political games, there is no higher success than the recognition of a universal framework.

Last but not least, I would really not underestimate the power of the Declaration.  It has a huge sophistic potential when it comes to open confrontations. The only problem is that we don’t confront those who fail to respect Human Rights as much as we should. This can not be changed by any new legislation. We don’t need another dead letter. What we need is to enforce the Declaration even more as a set of standards to measure ourselves against and keep striving for everyone to finally take seriously what we have universally agreed to.

 

You can read the defending motion here.

 

If you want to give your imputs and continue with the debate you can go to the forum via this link.

 

Written by Joanna, Civic Education Working Group

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Human Rights are Outdated: Defending the Motion ../../../2016/03/21/human-rights-are-outdated-defending-the-motion/ Mon, 21 Mar 2016 11:05:19 +0000 ../../../?p=33876 In order to strengthen civic competences in AEGEE, the Civic Education Working Group has been promoting debating throughout the year. Why? Debating was proven to improve academic achievements, critical thinking, mutual understanding, as well as communication, argumentation and interpersonal skills. In short it helps you to know more and form a better-founded opinion. Today we are taking the debate online… Read more →

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In order to strengthen civic competences in AEGEE, the Civic Education Working Group has been promoting debating throughout the year. Why? Debating was proven to improve academic achievements, critical thinking, mutual understanding, as well as communication, argumentation and interpersonal skills. In short it helps you to know more and form a better-founded opinion. Today we are taking the debate online for the first time, with a topic that challenges the very basis of our organisation! 

 

For each topic, a defending and an opposing motion will be presented. You can express your opinion and continue to debate on the forum. Note that these statements are not necessarily the person’s personal opinion, nor are the arguments they use indisputable.

Human Rights, the only good thing we have in this world, isn’t it? Or is it? Now imagine you have to think of one bad thing about Human Rights today. What would that be?

Human Rights might have been, and still are, the most important, liberating, long fought for, inventive and inclusive way to make human lives across the planet as decent as possible. Yet, one bad thing about Human Rights development is the fact that the development itself stopped where it is. Yes, mankind did something extraordinary, but stopping only there might not have been the best idea in such a fast progressive society. Right now we need more. More concreteness and a better implementation. One of the major and most noticeable drawbacks of Human Rights today is the failure of their implementation.

Even if we are talking about a document that has been adopted by the majority of countries around the world, disasters which disobey the convention are vastly happening all around the world, and rarely do they manage to reach the International court of Justice and Human Rights. Indeed, we could trace the reasoning for such happenings on a grass-root level, and blame the countries themselves, and yet, it would still continue to happen. They were new back in their time, they were revolutionary, and not all countries were in favour of them, that we all know by now. However, today, there might be space for considering mandatory implementing strategies, and not dependence on the reluctance of countries. And yet, this should not sound western and colonizing, as the next step accompanying would be the importance of the cultural sensitivity that the Human Rights lack. They are indeed our common denominator, and in that sense they are as broad as it gets, but if all the countries would take some time and effort to create directives and legislation that would be as inclusive, grass-root, context sensitive, and culturally adopted, then maybe we could talk about possible coverage of all the rights and all the territories.

Putting everything that was already said aside, we could all agree that Human Rights might be considered quite outdated. Not only that new issues have arisen, that are not addressed in the convention so far, but some of the already existing ones make no sense today anymore.  For example, if we take a look at this: “Everyone has the right to a nationality.” Then it would make us think indeed, was this an issue in the past, can it still be an issue today, how relevant is it, and whether it can be from today’s perspective addressed in a different way?

Arguing that Human Rights are bad as such is something not so favorable and accepted. We would all be happier to just accept them and praise them as they are. Yet, it makes me wonder, if we would be as critical of them as we praise them, would a possible door for change start to open?

You can read the opposing motion here.

If you want to give your imputs and continue with the debate you can go to the forum via this link.

 

Written by Andrea, Civic Education Working Group

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AEGEE-Skopje: the Macedonian Antenna Specialist in Organising TSUs ../../../2016/02/18/a-macedonian-antenna-specialist-in-organising-tsus-is-aegee-skopje/ Thu, 18 Feb 2016 01:15:57 +0000 ../../../?p=33375 AEGEE-Skopje, the only antenna in Macedonia and with 70 members, has become well known for its Travel Summer Universities (TSU). We spoke with Maria Davceva, External Relations Responsible, who told us about the results of the last Winter Event, which the Macedonian antenna organised for the International Volunteer Day. She also explains their involvement in “Democracy in Practice”  and focuses on previous… Read more →

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AEGEE-Skopje, the only antenna in Macedonia and with 70 members, has become well known for its Travel Summer Universities (TSU). We spoke with Maria Davceva, External Relations Responsible, who told us about the results of the last Winter Event, which the Macedonian antenna organised for the International Volunteer Day. She also explains their involvement in “Democracy in Practice”  and focuses on previous experiences in TSUs.

 

The antenna took part in the “International Volunteer Day”, celebrated every year on the 5th of December. It aims to motivate young people to become active volunteers in order to contribute to their society. Also, it encourages people to understand the importance and the benefits of volunteering. This December AEGEE-Skopje was part of the NGO fair in its city, where more than 50three skopje NGOs presented their activities and future plans in order to motivate people to join them as active volunteers. They presented their past projects and future activities in front of thousands of visitors and managed to share  AEGEE’s vision and mission among them.

AEGEE-Skopje also participated in a project called “Democracy in Practice”. This is an AEGEE-Europe Project that aims to raise awareness among young people about the importance of human rights as the basis of a healthy democracy in order to promote social and political participation of young people in their local, national and European environment. This year there was an initiative to celebrate the Human Rights Day by doing interactive workshops across AEGEE antennae.
The Human Rights Day in AEGEE-Skopje was well accepted and integrated in the weekly meeting on the 11th of December. 15 members of AEGEE-Skopje, divided in two groups, participated in the activity drawing a “human rights tree”. After finishing their drawings, they had a short discussion about which human rights are violated in Macedonia. The members were really interested in the discussion about the factors (the roots) that make human rights flourish, such as: no corruption, health care system, social care system, education, moral, ethics, police, law, democracy, etc.

The last events that were related to motivating and training members were: a Local Training Course (LTC) about Democracy in Practice on 14.12.2015, and a motivational weekend on the 23.10.2015 (Mountain House Papradiste).
four skopjeThe LTC was a three hours course, during which new members gained knowledge from the beginnings of AEGEE, history and its structure, but also the activities in AEGEE-Skopje. They also went from newbies to motivated active members all through a series of workshops and thematic exercises .
The motivational weekend on the other hand, apart from information about the possibilities in AEGEE, its history and member bonding experiences, gave the members two whole days to be part of trainings in the areas of fundraising (how to achieve long-term fundraising success), human resources (emotional intelligence), and informational technology (protect your online data).
Although in both LTC and motivational weekend the basic workshops and activities were tied around the five different working teams headed by the board responsible (HR, PR, ER, IT, FR and Fundraising), their structure and goals are somewhat different (training them with knowledge vs. motivating them to use and point that knowledge towards a goal).

 

From the 7th to the 12th of January AEGEE-Skopje had its winter event “WinUp-It’s Snow Time”, which took place in Skopje and Mavrovo. The participants enjoyed a workshop about traditional Macedonian dances, lead by a professional folk dance group which taught them how to dance like a true Macedonian. The second workshop was about Macedonian Christmas traditions. It was interesting for IMG-20160213-WA0001the participants to hear and see pictures of the various traditions around Macedonia, considering that it is an Orthodox country. The participants were amazed by the Matka canyon and its untouched nature, the city tour in Skopje followed by the pub crawl in the Old Bazar and the fresh mountain air in Mavrovo. The Macedonian antenna was happy to have a really united and amazing group of participants in which they all felt connected.
“The gossip box was always full, it fulfilled its purpose of breaking the ice and improved the love factor of this event. The energy of the participants was endless, never ending singing, laughing and drinking of course. The party bus in Mavrovo has a lot of stories to tell” says Maria. The best way to spend time after New Year’s Eve is traveling, mainly in the capital of Macedonia where the winter event took place in the middle of the Christmas spirit in Skopje and the breathtaking Mavrovo. “We didn’t have snow, because our participants were so full of love that they melted it all” adds Maria.

About the TSUs, Maria says “A Travel Summer University is a great responsibility and even bigger pleasure to organise”. In fact, the antenna had two great summer universities with two amazing antennae in the summer of 2015, which it had a lot of workshops about their cultures, national dances and history, trying to make the participants feel their way of living. At the TSU with Belgrade “YUGOvision- Balkan is five skopjecalling”, the participants had the chance to visit two countries which not so long ago shared the same name, language, monetary system and president. The monuments they visited and workshops they attended got them closer to the theme of their TSU, to their culture, history, life and to Yugoslavia. At the TSU with Istanbul “Greater than Alexander, more Magnificent than Suleyman”, the participants got closer to the history of Turkey and Macedonia through multicultural activities, which in the past has intersected more than once, leaving traces that are present even now.

About the last elections of the board, only one of the old members remained and that is the president Ivan. Members attend different universities, meaning that the prosperity of the 2016’s productivity is immensely high. Nenad has his Master’s degree in Business Law, Marija and Stefani are students of psychology, Elena is an IT student, Saska is attending business academy and Goran is an economist. “Together we are one team and for almost two years now, we have been spreading the AEGEE spirit” adds Maria.

During the 2015, AEGEE-Skopje slightly altered its logo. The old one consisted of the word “AEGEE” and the name of the capital city Skopje, as well as a map of Europe next to the word. The new logo is enriched with a picture of the biggest and most beautiful bridge, and also one of the greatest monuments in Skopje – The Stone Bridge. The Stone Bridge or “Kameni Most’”, as they call it, is a bridge across the Vardar River in Skopje. The bridge is considered a symbol of Skopje and is the main element is the coat of arms of the city, which is incorporated in the city’s flag. The Stone Bridge connects Macedonia Square, in the center of Skopje, to the Old Bazaar.

At the end Maria reminds that all AEGEE members are invited to apply and participate on the next TSU whose name is “Balkanize your summer from Danube to Vardar”, which is going to be organised in five cities (Serbia- Novi sad/Belgrade, Macedonia-Skopje/Struga/Ohrid).

Written by Matteo Lai, AEGEE-Cagliari.

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Human Rights Day activities around the Network ../../../2016/02/16/human-rights-day-activities-around-the-network/ Tue, 16 Feb 2016 14:21:49 +0000 ../../../?p=33165 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… Read more →

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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.

IMG_2924The 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 12310696_988154091243285_8825294661324789822_nyoung 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.

Mini-Living Library, Readers and the BooksDifferent 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 about11049449_10153427124508897_5374245392577042416_o 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-IMG_2865Madrid 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 12360098_863383117111447_1107154617647055167_npuzzlement 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

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Where is Europe, sometimes? ../../../2015/07/10/where-is-europe-sometimes/ Fri, 10 Jul 2015 15:56:39 +0000 ../../../?p=30988 Sometimes news pass unobserved. On Monday, 20th of April, in Catania, the Linguistic aperitif moved from its’ usual location (a pub near the city harbour) and not for a stupid reason. The harbour had to be the scene of one of the saddest events of the last months. More than 900 people – including 200 women and up to 50 children… Read more →

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Sometimes news pass unobserved. On Monday, 20th of April, in Catania, the Linguistic aperitif moved from its’ usual location (a pub near the city harbour) and not for a stupid reason. The harbour had to be the scene of one of the saddest events of the last months. More than 900 people – including 200 women and up to 50 children – tragically died after a boat overturned in one of the worst maritime disasters since the end of World War II. 

immigrati-barcaOnly 28 passengers were rescued after their overcrowded fishing boat tipped over at night on its way from Libya to Italy. One of the survivors, a man from Bangladesh, said that there were 950 migrants on board, about 300 migrants were trapped in the ships’ hold when it sank.
Rescuers recovered 24 bodies from the sea, soon after the disaster, which took place outside of the Libyan waters, south of the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, shortly after midnight on the 19th of April.

The small numbers of survivors make more sense if hundreds of people were locked in the hold because with so much weight down below, surely the boat would have sunk. This tragedy comes just days after another shipwreck in the area claimed 400 lives.  This could possibly be the biggest tragedy to have ever taken place in the Mediterranean Sea.

Maybe Italy and Malta need more support in dealing with the migrant crisis?

“Europe can do more and Europe must do more” said Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament- can that be true? “Where is Europe?” is what I hear walking down the streets and talking with people here in Catania: the mistrust in the European Institutions is increasing more and more. We are always talking about “Spreading Europtimism”, but how, in reality, may we convince people to be faithful after such a disaster?timthumb

Maybe all is increased by the media, that is creating a gap of information (or maybe, “misinformation”) because the news they pass is not all or not complete enough.

In conlcusion, I think that it is very difficult to feel the “European feelings” when, from the main stakeholders in summits, some decisions are never taken together.

Written by Elisa Tabbì, AEGEE-Catania

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First ACTive Local of the Month AEGEE-Heraklio: “2015 will for sure be our most ACTive year!” ../../../2015/01/07/first-active-local-of-the-month-aegee-heraklio-2015-will-for-sure-be-our-most-active-year/ Wed, 07 Jan 2015 16:10:16 +0000 ../../../?p=27657 Last November, AEGEE-Heraklio found a very original way to implement the Action Agenda by organizing and event about Greek Sign Language, aimed at spreading awareness of the human rights situation of deaf people. Because of the originality of the event and its contribution to human rights, AEGEE-Heraklio is the first local to be honored with the Most ACTive Local of… Read more →

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Last November, AEGEE-Heraklio found a very original way to implement the Action Agenda by organizing and event about Greek Sign Language, aimed at spreading awareness of the human rights situation of deaf people. Because of the originality of the event and its contribution to human rights, AEGEE-Heraklio is the first local to be honored with the Most ACTive Local of the Month award. We spoke to the current President, Antonis Triantafyllakis, to find out more about their event and the importance of these types of events for human rights.

ACT: First of all, which activity related to the Action Agenda did you organize?

Antonis: With Giorgos Avramidis as main organizer, an event on Greek Sign Language (GSL), on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, informing the participants on the situation around human rights of the deaf in Greek society and also training them on the basics of GSL.

It was an AEGEE event, so first of all AEGEE was explained through a presentation. We talked about the history, goals and structure of our organization. We also explained what the working groups are and how the event connected to the Human Rights and Language Working Group. After that, the manager of the Center of Greek Sign Language (our partner for the event) talked about the cultural differences between Greeks and deaf Greeks and, yes, there are a lot of them, but also about the things we have in common. We use more sign language when we talk than we think we do – just think about how babies communicate!

The second part of the event was about laws and human rights and the lack thereof in Greece and how that makes the daily routines of the deaf more difficult than for most of us. Furthermore, in many cases it is even dangerous for their lives. For example, a lot of deaf people have died because they couldn’t call the police or hospital for help! The last part of our event was an experiential workshop on Greek Sign Language. In this workshop, participants had the chance to learn the basic rules that everyone needs in order to communicate in this language. Afterwards, they learnt the alphabet, some basic words and numbers and they tried to communicate using them!

What’s even more interesting here, is the fact that the modern methodology that has been developed in order to learn Sign Language worldwide nowadays happens to be based on the same principles as Non-Formal Education (NFE), which is the methodology we’re following and promoting in AEGEE trainings and events as well! The event is related to the fourth Focus Area of the Action Agenda, Civic Education, because it increased the competences of the participants (both AEGEE members and future AEGEE members) in a neglected area of human rights and culture, as well as in the NFE methodology used in the event, increasing the recognition of both in a society that could use more of both.

Why did you decide to organize this activity and why did you pick this topic?

This event came up after speculation of some members that had an interest in Greek Sign Language and deaf people’s rights. So, the event was based on the fact that the deaf community has a tremendous lack of basic human rights in Greece. Also, next year is very important for them, if national elections don’t take place in the country (it was announced that there will be national elections held in January after the interview took place, ed.), because every ten years the constitution changes/gets updated, so if we want to help them, this is exactly the right time.

What were the results of your activity?

The duration of the event was more or less four hours and it took place in a small theater in the city center, part of a collaborative art cafe – social enterprise, and about 55 participants attended. Participants had to fill in an online form to attend and unfortunately we had to reject a lot of applicants due to space limitations of the venue. After the event was over, we gave them evaluation forms and the results showed clearly that there’s a big interest in Sign Language, which happily surprised us and increased our motivation to deal more with the topic. Our antenna already has big plans for Sign Language and the recognition of deaf people’s rights from the government, so a lot of people could participate in that on the local or European level.

The evaluation form provided interesting conclusions, like the fact that participants, even those with little or no knowledge before the event, now have a better understanding of deaf people’s rights, are willing to learn the language and have a good idea of what AEGEE is and does. The majority of them thought the choice of the speaker and his non-formal, interactive training method were the best part of the event, and the participants actually wanted more time for the event, which makes us believe they really liked the process and its outcome. Last but not least, we expanded our mailing list with people who want to learn more about our ACTions!

How do you inform your members about the Action Agenda and the Strategic Plan?

Well, for starters, we’re beginning to mention it and make sure our members have at least heard of it. We’re planning an LTC at the end of January, where we’ll extensively explain all about it and have our new members brainstorm on activities they’d be interested to organize that are related to the Action Agenda and Strategic Plan!

Do you have any other activities related to the Action Agenda or the Strategic Plan Planned?

As we do every year since 2011, we’ll organize a Summer University this year as well, which is related to Youth Mobility. In October we organized the first MEU (Model of European Union, ed.) in Greece (following a Y Vote event in May) and we loved the experience, so for sure a similar project related to both Civic Education and Spreading Europtimism will take place in 2015 as well. We’re also planning a huge international collaboration regarding Youth Employment, but that can only happen if our related Erasmus+ KA2 application gets approved, so no spoilers till then. Apart from these big ones, a lot more smaller events will take place, depending on our new members’ interests and we’ll make sure they reflect the Action Agenda. 2015 will for sure be our most ACTive year ever in AEGEE-Heraklio!

Why should other locals organize activities related to the Action Agenda?

Because it is clearly what AEGEE wants to focus on! It is the whole network that approves it in the Agora and a result of our common interests anyway, so when you’re organizing activities related to the Action Agenda as a local, you’re reflecting the will of the network, realizing its aims and contributing to the future that AEGEE wants for Europe, proving that it’s not just words, but actions that shape it and we can do this together.

Do you have any tips for organizing thematic activities?

The most important thing is to base your activities on the interests of your members. We are all volunteers after all, so keeping our intrinsic motivation high is essential for a local to keep developing successfully.

Can you tell us a bit more about your local? What makes your local so special?

AEGEE-Heraklio is a fairly young local. It was found in 2005 but was not active at all till 2010, when it was reanimated by new members and started being active by organizing a SU every year. It was always a small local when it comes to the number of members and it still is, but since last year most of our members are new because almost all older members went overseas or back to their hometowns. So, 2014 marked a change in our antenna, where we started doing a lot more than just a SU every year. The best part is that we’re growing with motivated and active members who want to do great things and believe in teamwork!

You can find a short video of the event here.

Written by Marijn Scholte, AEGEE-Groningen

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Democracy in Practice: a new project about Civic Education ../../../2014/06/11/democracy-in-practice-a-new-project-about-civic-education/ Wed, 11 Jun 2014 09:00:36 +0000 ../../../?p=23342 This weekend the CD house in Brussels was bursting with ideas from a very motivated group of people. They travelled from Athina, Groningen, London, and Sofia to set up AEGEE’s newest project: Democracy in Practice. The idea of Democracy in Practice was built around some central questions: how does one practice democracy? What are the ingredients of a healthy and sustainable democracy?… Read more →

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This weekend the CD house in Brussels was bursting with ideas from a very motivated group of people. They travelled from Athina, Groningen, London, and Sofia to set up AEGEE’s newest project: Democracy in Practice.

The idea of Democracy in Practice was built around some central questions: how does one practice democracy? What are the ingredients of a healthy and sustainable democracy?

The answer was clear: to promote the participation of young people in their communities, they need to be aware of the role of human rights as the basis of a healthy democracy. However, the reality is different. In many countries democracy is not functioning as well as it could, and many citizens are wondering how to make it work better. The Democracy in Practice project wants to contribute to the Civic Education Focus Area of the Strategic Plan 2014-17, training young Europeans and especially AEGEEans in the democracy and participation dimension.

Democracy in Practice will be presented for ratification as AEGEE-Europe project at Agora Cagliari. It consists of a series of week-long training courses focused around democracy, human rights, and how these two topics are connected. At each one of the Democracy in Practice training courses, participants receive sessions on human rights and the basis of democracy. Besides, they will get the chance to participate in discussions and develop a campaign with a local or regional scope. During the learning process, a team of trainers and experts coming from AEGEE and partners like the Council of Europe will assist the participants. Each participant will leave at the end of the week with an action plan, which will be the basis for their personal follow-up after the project to have an impact in their local community.

The idea is not new. It arose already in the Summer of 2013 when the HRWG members were not sitting still. They felt frustrated about the lack of democracy, and the numerous human rights violations happening in the months before (for example in Turkey, Russia, and Greece). At first the idea was to start a small project about the connection between democracy and human rights, but soon it was clear that a small project would not be enough.
When Maria Arends (AEGEE-Groningen/AEGEE-Tarragona) got accepted for the Training of Trainers in Human Rights Education (ToTHRE) from the Council of Europe, she came up with a project idea and the result was Democracy in Practice. The next step, finding more motivated members, was then very easy.

Right now the team consists of Maria Arends (Project Manager), Danae Matakou (AEGEE-Athina, Content Manager), Adrienn Jankovich (AEGEE-Budapest, Impact Measurement Responsible), and Lia Tuska (AEGEE-Sofia, PR Responsible). An open call for new members to join the team is to be expected very soon. Last, but not least, nothing can be achieved without the help of the locals, so the project will send an open call for hosting locals, too.

More information can be found on the Facebook page or by sending an email at dip@aegee.org.

 Written by the Democracy in Practice core team

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