This blog was written and submitted by Steph Ulivieri, #Y4N Global Ambassador for Europe & Central Asia.
Turin is one of the main cities in the Northern part of Italy, being the capital city of the Piedmont state. It is a buzzing business and cultural center, historically for the Italian context but more currently also for the regional European context. For instance, 2022 marks the year in which the city will host the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest, but it has also recently hosted the Forum on Citizenship and Human Rights Education (11-13) organized by the Council of Europe.
I had the pleasure to attend the event as a Youth Advocate of the Voicify program, a project co-lead by The Young Republic and Voices of Young Refugees in Europe. Over the course of those intense 3 days, I met several inspiring individuals and different organizations working throughout Italy, Europe and beyond and had the opportunity to learn from the experience of people with a very diverse background. An important intergenerational debate took place at the heart of the Forum, mainly due to the diversity of the participants themselves and of their different organizations
What was the Forum of Citizen and Human Rights Education?
The Forum brought together up to 300 people in a hybrid mode (both in-person and online) who work in and are related to Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education (HRE/EDC) with young people and children in a variety of settings, including NGOs, education authorities, formal education, human rights institutions, youth organizations, and networks. During those three days, the Council of Europe conducted an evaluation of the Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education (EDC/HRE) implementation prior to the event which was also presented and discussed over the course of those days.
The main aims were to improve the quality, recognition, sustainability, and reach of EDC/HRE by looking at the present and future of citizenship and human rights education in Europe. Through speeches and different workshops, the participants were invited to reflect on their own work, share their best practices, and point out challenges and gaps in the Chater’s implementation.
Looking back
Now, looking back, what was the event missing? I believe that a more prominent role to the interconnectedness between human rights education and environmental awareness and protection was needed, and often that was given a lesser importance (if at all) both during the development of the Forum itself and on the policy recommendations that were drafted towards the end of it. Towards the end of 2021, the Human Rights Council of the United Nations recognized for the first time ever that “having a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is a human right” (United Nations, 2021). However, such an acknowledgment does not prevent this right from falling short when agendas and targets are being set, especially within the educational sector. Even though human rights are universal and indivisible, an informal hierarchization of rights does happen, mostly due to the urgent nature of some specific issues (such as the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian conflict, which was very present in the participants' minds during the Forum).
Looking forward
Without a proper environment to grow and live, human beings cannot realize the other kinds of rights. This is a baseline need that ought to be prioritized by all different stakeholders dealing with HRE/EDC. Educational materials, workshops, and conferences related to human rights should always address environmental awareness and the intersectionality of other rights together with the environment. No human rights will be fully protected until they all are.
To conclude, I would like to underline the importance of environmental education and the necessity of using it as a stepping stone by the leaders of every government, industry, non-governmental organization, and educational institution to produce ecologically sustainable outcomes. Environmental issues require quick responses now more than ever, thus every educational stakeholder should include an environmental perspective, both in its formal and non formal practices and embedded in its main aims and mission. Only so can the importance of a healthy environment be mainstreamed within the general human rights education and goals and only then can a truly greener future be put into the pipelines.
“Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development.”