Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) - Education of youth in the field of human rights - the 3rd session of the Samarkand Web Forum on Human Rights, held today, on 13 August 2020, was devoted to this topic.

Experts from different countries presented the international experience of educating young people in the field of human rights and made recommendations for improving this important area.

So why is human rights education so important to young people? One of the responses was a presentation by Paulina Tandiono, representative of the OHCHR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights).

“Youth are rights holders and key players in realizing human rights, achieving sustainable development, ensuring peace and preventing violence and conflict. There are now more young people in the world than ever before - 1.8 billion. Human rights education is key to youth empowerment, development and inclusion in society. It gives young people the opportunity to understand, recognize and fulfill their role as active citizens, take action and defend their human rights and the rights of others, as well as participate appropriately in public affairs and democratic decision-making processes, ”said P. Tandiono.

During the session, Nika Bakhsoliani, a member of the Council of Europe’s Advisory Council on Youth Affairs (CCJ), said that he came to the importance of education in the field of human rights through personal life experience. As he noted in his presentation, education is the way to deal with this injustice, and human rights education is the best way.

“Human rights education is a good tool for identifying shortcomings, injustices and pathologies, and taking timely action against them, without facing crises,” the expert said.

Young people play a key role in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in general, human rights and democratic governance. This is the opinion of Nordin Driesi, OHCHR consultant, director of ND Consultance. During Session 3-1, he shared his experience in human rights education in France and abroad.

He noted that “civic as well as youth-oriented human rights education is of paramount importance and should be considered a priority of public policy. Human rights literacy and awareness among young generations can be increased through legal clinics at universities, through the promotion of freedom of association and the creation of student associations dedicated to human rights education, awareness raising and access to justice for marginalized segments of society. ”

Drisi recently completed consultancy work on the establishment of human rights clinics in Uzbekistan in partnership with the OHCHR regional office in Tashkent, the French Embassy in Uzbekistan, as well as Uzbek stakeholders. He notes that "thanks to the current positive political changes in Uzbekistan, a real platform can be created for the development of education in the field of human rights and the upbringing of a new generation of lawyers with reliable knowledge in the field of human rights law."

In the country, according to the expert, there are real opportunities for the development of literacy and human rights education. An illustrative example of this is the discussions around the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Youth, which are heard during the Samarkand web forum.

It is important to note that the draft Convention reinforces the need for active participation of young people in democratic processes and their wider representation in democratic structures. The draft Convention provides for such rights of young people as receiving comprehensive support and protection of the family, to public support and care, legal personality and equality before the law, to participate in decision-making at the national and international levels, to protection from violence and exploitation.

Similar to other fundamental human rights treaties, the draft provides for the creation of a Youth Rights Committee, the next UN human rights treaty body.

The national key organizer of the Forum is the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan, represented by the National Center for Human Rights and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Samarkand Forum is supported by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UNHCR Regional Office for Central Asia, the UN Country Team, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the OSCE Project Coordinator in Uzbekistan, Ebert Foundation and other international partners.