The Hague, 21 June 2011
Approximately 30 participants from countries as diverse as Cameroon, Iran, and Nigeria took part in a 3-day human rights training held at the International Institute for Social Studies in The Hague, from 15-17 June 2011 with support from the Haella Foundation, Alert Fund for Youth Activities, and Scholas.
The participants – most aged under 30 – had the opportunity to work alongside representatives of Dutch youth civil society, exchange their personal and professional experiences, and build an international network that can support them and their Dutch peers in their work and studies, both today and into the future. They also had the privilege to gain insights into state policies towards youth, provided by H.E. Mr. Peter Goosen, Ambassador of the Republic of South Africa to the Netherlands.
SpeakOut! consists of comprehensive trainings that draw on the expertise of leading Netherlands-based human rights organizations to give insights into the best practices of networking, advocacy, media, mediation and financial management necessary to support peaceful civic and political activism in some of the least-free countries in the world today.
Now running in its third year, SpeakOut! emerged from the need identified by UNPO to provide training to youth activists from some of the most marginalized communities in the world. Building on the UNPO’s twenty years of experience within the human rights mechanisms of the United Nations and its advocacy at institutions such as the European Parliament, SpeakOut! aims to empower new generations and allow them to pass these skills to their peers.
More information about SpeakOut! is available from the UNPO website:
www.unpo.org/article/12463
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The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) is an international, nonviolent, and democratic membership organization founded in 1991. Its members are indigenous peoples, minorities, and unrecognised or occupied territories who have joined together to protect and promote their human and cultural rights, to preserve their environments, and to find nonviolent solutions to conflicts which affect them.
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