Can you tell me about your project related to education? What was its main goal?
Currently, I am one of the Co-Chairs for the UNESCO SDG4Youth & Student Network's Human Rights Education and Democratic Citizenship Thematic Area. As Co-Chairs, our job is divided into three primary responsibilities: policy, capacity-building, and advocacy. So, our project operates in three different sectors. In the policy department, we're compiling policy briefs that outline what human rights education looks like in the context of young peoples' work. In the capacity-building area, we're in the process of developing recommendations for educators on teaching democratic citizenship. Finally, with UNESCO, we are creating campaigns covering the importance of the right to education. Our main goal is to reach 50,000 students by 2025, communicating the importance of Human Rights Education and Democratic Citizenship to them. Later down the line, I'm hoping that we can curate the final products of our work into a "knowledge hub" to share information with our youth activist communities.
What motivated you to focus on this particular education issue for your project?
Respect for human rights is an issue area that's always been close to my heart. Human rights are for everyone. They ensure that we live a happy and healthy life, free of any discrimination or harm aimed at us. Education serves as the foundation for how we navigate the world, the ways in which we acquire knowledge, and how we use it to make the world a better place. Combining education and our Thematic Area themes together, to me, sounded like the perfect outlet to engage with topics I feel very passionate about. I wanted to utilize education as a vehicle of teaching others about Human Rights and Democratic Citizenship. "Human rights" is a very broad topic. Our work covers topics like education for refugees, combatting human trafficking, the right to live peacefully, and more. I liked that UNESCO gave us the opportunity to organize projects covering so many of these sub-themes. Once again, this allowed me to gain experience in a variety of rights in the humanitarian sphere.
Can you share some of the activities or actions you took as part of your project?
Absolutely! We are currently in the process of planning "special day" events related to human rights-related days of the year. Some of the days on our list include World Humanitarian Day, Day to Protect Education from Attack, and more. These special day events will include distinguished speakers talking about their experiences in their line of work and a consultation afterword where the Human Rights and Democratic Citizenship Thematic Area Co-Chairs will collect insight from our attendees on how we can strengthen our work in the topic we are focusing on for that day.
How did you and your team work together to make your project successful?
Coordination is key for us. WhatsApp has been a great resource for us; it's an effective way of bringing so many young people around the world together to accomplish our goals. We have a group chat related to our Thematic Area where we communicate with all of our group members to circulate information quickly. The importance of a great spreadsheet should never be underestimated. We use Google Sheets to organize our active projects: what we plan to write, who we want feedback from, and what our deadlines are. Finally, we gain insight from those who we want to impact with our work. The Co-Chairs always make sure to ask for feedback on our policy outlines and planned events. It's crucial that all voices are included in project implementation.
Did you face any challenges while working on your project? How did you overcome them?
Time zones! When you're trying to engage youth around the world, it can be difficult to find a reasonable time for meeting attendees to go online. There's only so much you can do to resolve the issue of timing, but the Human Rights Education team has found scheduling resources like Doodle Poll very helpful. Tools like these help us narrow down the best possible meeting time so we can all come together. Another smaller issue relates to juggling all of our commitments. I feel lucky to have met so many trailblazing young people who are making strides in the humanitarian sphere. Our schedules can become quite busy while we take on several different commitments related to issues we feel passionate about. Despite this, I would say the people we work with are very organized and dedicated, which functions well in helping us coordinate our next steps.
What do you think was the most important thing you learned from working on this project?
There's no "correct" way to make human rights education meaningful. Advocacy comes in many different forms, like policy briefs or digital campaigns. There are a variety of ways to share your message, which opens many doors for engaging with what you feel strongly about.
Can you describe any positive changes or improvements you observed as a result of your project?
Details of our work are still underway, but I've noticed that many young people are interested in human rights education: what this means, why it is important, how they can become involved in this area, and more. This is certainly important for our work. We are stronger when we work together
Did you receive any feedback from your classmates, teachers, or community members about your project? If so, what was it?
We've been receiving positive comments thus far. When I reference Google Form surveys I send out, many responses thank us for doing what we do and offer suggestions for future meetings or issue areas to include in our policy briefs. These positive remarks are always wonderful to see - it's great to see so many amazing youth activists interested in our work.
How do you feel your project has contributed to promoting education and learning among your peers or in your community?
I hope that our work will be a guiding framework in advocacy for our Thematic Area themes. If our young audience feels that they know what Human Rights Education and Democratic Citizenship mean and why it is important, then I would consider our work to be successful. If our "non-youth" audience at UNESCO learns something new from our policy briefs regarding youth engagement in the humanitarian space that they can use in their work, that would be another sign of success. My goal is to teach. This encapsulates informing our colleagues both on what Human Rights Education and Democratic Citizenship means and how we can work together to protect education for human rights.
What are your plans or ideas for continuing to work on education-related issues in the future?
I'd definitely love to continue working within the Human Rights Education issue area. My goal upon completing my undergraduate degree is to practice International Humanitarian Law or Human Rights Law. Building off of the importance of these legal domains, I'd love to coordinate initiatives related to providing education of what these forms of international law entail. That could be anything related to teaching modules, webinar events, or something similar. Finally, I'm excited to continue my work as a Student Fellow with the Global Campaign for Education-US (GCE-US). GCE-US has been such a wonderful, transformative experience for me. I've enjoyed meeting so many dedicated young people through my time with the organization, and I anticipate making more meaningful connections. For those who are interested in Quality Education, I recommend checking out our website at gce-us.org to learn more.
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