Ukrainian-Danish Student Conference on Democracy, Human Rights and Diversity

Project period:

01.07.2017 - 30.11.2017

Granted amount:

62,800,- DKK

Organization:

Den Danske Helsinki-Komité for Menneskerettigheder

Partners:

Studentland

Pool:

Puljen for Naboskab

Grant type:

Projekt A (under 0,2 mio)

Efforts take place in:

Ukraine

Overall targets

The main goal is to incite Ukrainian youths to engage in civil society via peer-to-peer cultural and academic exchanges between Danish and Ukrainian university students.

Immediate targets

There are three intermediate goals: 1) To facilitate a platform in the shape of a student conference at which students with different cultural and societal backgrounds can discuss and learn from each other about democracy, human rights and diversity from a contemporary European perspective. 2) To carry this facilitation out by debating these topics and – even more important - by highlighting the level and form of democracy in the variable activities that are carried out during the conference. 3) To incite the students to participate actively in non-governmental, society-reforming and democratically based organization by carrying out a continuous democratic process during the conference whereby on the last day of the conference the statutory meeting and first general assembly of a new Ukrainian-Danish Student Organisation for Democracy, Human Rights and Diversity can be held.

Target groups

The target group of the project will mainly include both students and young student assistants of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytsky State Pedagogical University, and to a smaller degree there will be students of partner schools and Danish Youth. Number of participants will range from 40 to 60 at a whole (including the Danish participants), but not further defined. Participants from Ukraine will be selected on a competitive basis in order to define the ones interested in the main idea of the project – Democracy, Human Rights and Diversity. In no case participants of the project will be selected by gender basis – there will participate both men and women. The ambition is to be able to send 10 Danish students to Pereyaslav-Khmelsnitsky. Equal distribution between life orientation and academic interests is preferred regarding both the Ukrainian group and the Danish delegation. We feel obliged to be selective regarding the Danish delegation, in order to make sure that as many different academic fields as possible are represented. Also it is important to have as close to equally many men and women in the Danish group as possible.

Resume

Projektets formål er at videreføre og konsolidere den “brobygning” mellem ukrainsk og dansk ungdomskultur, som påbegyndtes i 2015 og videreførtes i 2016, da konferencer af delvist lignende karakter fandt sted. Der lægges vægt på, at deltagerne har solide rødder i deres respektive civilsamfund. De ukrainske deltagere forventes at bruge erfaringerne fra lejren og fra fortsat kontakt med de nye danske venner til at styrke hverdagsdemokrati i det ukrainske civilsamfund. Det konkrete udbytte af konferencen er etablering af en Ukrainsk-Dansk studenterforening, der skal sikre bæredygtigheden af konferencekonceptet i mange år. I en større NGOsammenhæng ser vi dette projekts dannelseskoncepts styrke i især at være baseret på den særlige form for gensidig forståelse og respekt, som kan opnås i åbensindede unges ligeværdige samvær.