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Council of Europe Forum Promotes Global Citizenship
Category: Human Security
Monday, October 27, 2008
The Council of Europe has embarked on a project that appears to be designed to shift Europe’s concept of citizenship education from one that trains children and adults to become competent citizens of a particular nation-state to one rooted in training children and adults to become global citizens and advocates for the realization of all human rights, including yet-to-be-defined economic rights.
On October 9-10, the Council of Europe gathered a group of over 175 representatives from national governments, nongovernmental organizations and international organizations to discuss “Civic Partnerships for Citizenship and Human Rights Education.” The outcomes of the Forum have the potential to undermine traditional nation-state citizenship in favor of global citizenship.
Established in 1949, “the Council of Europe seeks to develop throughout Europe common and democratic principles based on the European Convention on Human Rights and other reference texts on the protection of individuals.” The Council of Europe has 47 member countries and five observer countries, including the Holy See, the United States, Canada, Japan, and Mexico.
The expressed aims of the Council of Europe are:
- “To protect human rights, pluralist democracy and the rule of law;
- To promote awareness and encourage the development of Europe's cultural identity and diversity;
- To find common solutions to the challenges facing European society, such as discrimination against minorities, xenophobia, intolerance, bioethics and cloning, terrorism, trafficking in human beings, organized crime and corruption, cybercrime, and violence against children; and
- To consolidate democratic stability in Europe by backing political, legislative and constitutional reform.”
To promote these aims, the Council of Europe has embarked on an ambitious project to remake the concept of European citizenship. The Council is currently in the third phase (2006-2009) of an Education for Democratic Citizenship/Human Rights Education Project (EDC/HRE). According to the Council of Europe, EDC/HRE is a process of lifelong learning that focuses on the following goals: participation, partnership, social cohesion, access, equity, accountability, and solidarity. In this regard, EDC/HRE seeks to promote an integrated understanding of human rights. It places equal emphasis on all categories civil, political, social, economic and cultural.
The specific objectives of the Council of Europe’s EDC/HRE Project include:
- Defining and emphasizing the role of EDC/HRE in promoting social cohesion, equality and intercultural dialogue;
- Developing criteria for competencies and assessment in this field;
- Developing and adopting European framework policy documents setting out the basic principles in EDC/HRE; and
- Providing guidelines for action, and outlining a follow-up mechanism (e.g., a framework convention, a charter, or a code of good practice).
The Council of Europe works closely with the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and other international and regional institutions in the field of EDC/HRE. This year, the Council of Europe is cooperating with Norway in the creation of the European Resource Centre on Education for Intercultural Understanding, Human Rights and Democratic Citizenship, which will be based in Oslo, Norway. The Centre aims to further the EDC/HRE agenda by providing a forum for research on EDC/HRE, acting as a resource bank, providing teacher training and professional support in regards to EDC/HRE, and facilitating network building within the EDC/HRE community.
At the conclusion of the Forum, participants adopted a Declaration which, among other things:
- Seeks to actively promote EDC/HRE in all government functions;
- Develop partnerships through existing global networks for the promotion of global democratic citizenship;
- Make use of UN instruments, mechanisms and initiatives to pursue EDC/HRE; and
- Bring the perspectives of individual citizens, especially the most disadvantaged and marginalized, to the work of all agencies engaged in EDC/HRE.
Global Governance Watch will monitor developments in the Council of Europe’s EDC/HRE Project and future efforts to implement human rights education through an international treaty.
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