
Start: 17-12-2020 – End: 16-10-2022
Project Reference: 618574-EPP-1-2020-1-BG-EPPKA2-CBY-ACPALA
European and American societies have never been static, and transformation continues in all member states. In the last years, political and economic upheavals and war have spurred migrations to and within States (e.g. Venezuelan migration and refugee crisis; Refugees crisis in Europe; US-Mexico border crisis for a surge of Central American migrants). The churning of European and America populations and influx of migrants have rendered some indigenous peoples’ minorities and created societies that are rich in ethnic, linguistic, and cultural diversity. However, people from minority groups tend to be poorer and to have less power, less influence and less access to remedies to tackle their problems than those from the majority population. Minorities struggle to realize all types of human rights, whether civil and political, economic, social or cultural, whether as individuals or as groups. Entrenched discrimination on ethnic or religious grounds is also a common precursor to conflict. Additionally, the negative political populism is also growing both in Europe and in America (e.g. USA, Brazil). In such political polarization, young people especially those with minority backgrounds are the most vulnerable and affect to discrimination. These appearances make even more complicated the social-political inclusion of the youth minorities which are the most vulnerable. The latest finding of Fundamental Rights Report (FRA, 2019) are reflecting on the widespread socio-economic disadvantages of these groups of young people. Following, minority youth face a high degree of vulnerability that places them at greater risk for negative outcomes.Thus, there is a need to enhance human rights education in the society to prevent unequal treatment of young people and to get opportunity of minority young people for future and better inclusion in the society. Effective human rights education not only provides knowledge about human rights and the mechanisms that protect them, but also develops the skills needed to promote, defend and apply human rights in daily life.
Based on these premises, “STAND UP 4 HUMAN RIGHTS” project aims to strengthen the competences of youth workers in key concepts of human rights education with minority young people and provide them the necessary knowledge and tools as learning resources to promote equality and address intolerance in the society. All learning resources and outputs created during the project will be available as open educational resources (OERs).The direct target group of the project will be youth workers involved in youth learning who will upgrade their skills in human rights education, whereas the indirect target group are young people, who will benefit from youth workers through the provision of high quality youth learning.Extending and developing youth workers competences, particularly in protecting the rights of disadvantaged youth minority, is one of the key objectives of the Erasmus+ youth programme.