Ireland

Selected as a thematic Civitas Regional Institute (CRI), Co-operation Ireland has hosted two residential human rights trainings and seminars, for partners from across the Civitas International Programs network. Participants from Colombia, India, Kosovo, Lebanon, Peru, Romania, Senegal, West Bank and Gaza, and the United States joined Northern Irish educators in their introduction to Co-Operation Ireland’s Civic-Link program. Civic-Link, an adaptation of Project Citizen, utilizes a human rights approach on issues of identity and community, to encourage a more cohesive, tolerant, and democratic culture between members of diverse social groups in divided societies.

The trainings focused on the delivery of a human rights Civic-Link project in the classroom and explored the principles, values, and methodologies appropriate to divided societies. On both occasions, international participants shared the challenges and opportunities of human rights approaches to democracy education that they face within their own societies and pledged to develop a Civic-Link international consortium, to continue to expand the program internationally.