Educational Music Tools To Promote Human Rights Among Young People

Background The project consortium, consisting of 5 partners from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Italy, Portugal and Germany, has been working together successfully for 6 years in the context of human rights and musical education. With this project, we respond to needs that we have noticed as organizations, in our countries but also in Europe. These needs are the result of observations, but also of scientific and political contributions, which show that some of the goals set by the UN and the EU in the field of human rights have not been achieved or respected. In addition, we, like many others, stress the enormous importance of human rights education. We developed, with the help of musicians and trainers, innovative educational music tools to increase the quality of human rights education in the youth sector that uses non-formal education in their daily work. The results of this project give young people the opportunity to learn about human rights through a truly unique tool, the music, and enable youth workers throughout Europe to strengthen their ability to work with young people on HRs issues. In other words, by using our results, they can raise their work to a new level of quality. Objectives With our project we provide youth workers with a tool that enables them to work with young people on HRs topics in an exemplary way. However, we do not only benefit from this as a consortium partner but also disseminate the results of the IOs among youth workers in our countries and other EU countries. We provide sustainable and long-term support to youth workers in achieving their goals in terms of HRs education, media literacy, critical thinking, active citizenship and, in some cases, creative expression. We also want to support the efforts of governments and European bodies to promote human rights and active citizenship. A population that is aware of its responsibility, questions its own actions, will be positively and actively committed to these issues. We think that if our methods are applied well, the participants of the workshops will not only achieve an increase in knowledge about HRs and an improved expression of basic values, but they will also develop critical thinking. To achieve these goals we worked with a broad team: we achieved a wide range of competence and expertise, from youth workers, HRs educators and musicians. Implementation The main project implementation activities included 5 Transnational Project Meetings (TPMs), each in one of the partner countries, the production of 2 Intellectual Outputs (IOs) and 5 Multiplier Events. The TPMs took place in Germany, Italy, Portugal, Serbia and Germany. They were dedicated to time management control; content control; monitoring and evaluation; budget control; activities planning. In particular, the content control of the project was the most important part, because each TPM allowed the partnership to confront in person effectively and productively concerning the project topics, adapt the production of the contents to the needs of the local target groups and conclude in each TM the foreseen objectives. The Multiplier Events took place in each project country and involved teachers, youth workers, social workers, political educators, music pedagogues and representatives of NGOs from the venue of the country. During these events, the results achieved with IO1 and IO2, representing the joint work of the partners, were presented. Achievements We created 2 intellectual outputs, which differ mainly in the target group: youngsters (between the ages of 10-15) and youth (between the ages of 15-30). We created 2 music albums of 10 songs each and 2 collections of methods for use in non-formal education (NFE). The results are contained in a booklet, printed in 500 copies supplied with a USB stick and downloadable online, on the project webpage. 1) Toolbox for Youngsters: a methodological toolkit designed primarily for youngsters that mostly deal with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). We have created a music album with 10 songs that address children’s rights and for each song a method to use in NFE. 2) Toolbox for Youth: a methodological toolkit designed primarily for young adults that mostly deal with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). We have created a music album with 10 songs that address human rights and for each song a method to use in NFE. 3) The web page of the project: a webpage containing all project results that can be downloaded (musicforhumanrights.eu/educational-music-tools). 4) The booklet: a 134-page book printed in 500 copies supplied with a USB stick containing the methods and music albums.