Conference 2010

The 5th International LitCam Conference had taken as its theme “Literacy and Human Rights”. After the introductory welcome from the presenter Neil McClelland, founder of the National Literacy Trust, and from Karin Plötz, director of LitCam, the event began with a message of greeting from the UNESCO representative Ulrike Hanemann on the subject of the “Right to Education”.

Education and its impact on human rights were then also at the heart of the keynote given by Prof. Alberto Estanislao Sileoni, the Argentine minister of education. In his excellent speech, he made it clear that the priority aim of the government's education programme since 2003 had been the defence and further development of human rights. This depended on the furtherance of basic education as well as on educating to produce politically mature citizens and an understanding of social justice. The right to education does not just mean that children go to school, but “that after 13 years of compulsory education, young people in Argentina have acquired the ability to integrate themselves into society, the labour market and university”.
Education is a human right – that was the central message of the second keynote from Vernor Muñoz Villalobos, the former UN Special Ambassador for the Right to Education. Since Mr Villalobos was unfortunately prevented from attending at short notice, the presenter Neil McClelland read out his speech for him.
The extent to which education influences social equality was explained in her speech by the Special Ambassador for the EU Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion, Dr. Vaira Vike-Freiberga.
The following four practical examples of project work served to illustrate the close connection between basic education and the building up and maintaining of human right. 
An efficient promotion of education and human rights is not possible without giving consideration to traditional values and existing structures. This was the view expressed by Molly Melching, founder and director of the Senegalese organisation Tostan. Tostan means “breakthrough” in English and after over 30 years of laying the groundwork in West Africa, Molly Melching and her organisation have genuinely achieved a breakthrough. The ongoing education work involving the traditional leaders of the village communities and with traditional forms such as song, drama and stories, has achieved both a strengthening of awareness of people's own traditions and access to new values. Drama performances were used to show up men's violence towards women, for example. This gave the women greater confidence and the corresponding courage to defend themselves. And the men too were made aware of the negative effects of their behaviour. In a similar way, Molly Melching has achieved an increasing perception that the traditional circumcision of girls is wrong, so that even in rural areas, it is only rarely still carried out. Tostan now implements programmes in 10 African countries, among them Senegal, Gambia, Mali and Somalia.
The struggle against violence to women and children is also the concern of Farid Abu Gosh, the founder and director of TRUST, the programme from Israel for early childhood education, families and community building. The Palestinian Israeli has set himself the task of improving the position of women and giving them more self-confidence through education. But this can only happen within the framework of traditions, because, for example, a public accusation against a violent husband would be taboo-breaking. So for him, respectful dealings within the overall family structure is the foundation of his work.

After that, Ignacio Hernaiz and Carolina Masci from the Argentine education channel “Encuentro” showed how the media – TV, radio and internet – can also be used alongside education to convey both how to behave respectfully with one another and human rights. Financed by the Argentine ministry of education, the media channel “Encuentro” presents a programme called “Live Together” which confronts children and young people with their own thoughts on living in society. Alongside the normal education programming, they learn the meaning of equality, human rights and respect through multimedia and interactive playing.
Referring to the situation of Tibetan refugees in India, the actor, documentary film maker and activist Hannes Jaenicke talked about refugees and their right to education. As part of the International Campaign for Tibet, his activities include active involvement in the organisation of a school in India. This school has been set up specially for Tibetan refugee children who are not only given lessons, but also receive help for the traumas they have suffered. At present, more than 16,000 school children are being taught in the Tibetan children's villages. They have often been on the road for a long time and have lost their parents, so that in these schools, they have to start from the beginning all over again.
In the closing discussion, the German actor Hannes Jaenicke, the Argentine author Martin Kohan, the Argentine film maker Ciro Cappelari and the Iranian author Pegah Achmadi talked about the impact of basic education and literature/films on the building up and observance of human rights. They all agreed that in the globalised world, films/images and words can have a considerable influence on the observance of human rights. The film “Blood Diamonds” was mentioned as an example of this. As in past years, the following day was dedicated to workshops. As well as workshops on the projects presented the day before by Molly Melching, Tostan, and Abu Farid Gosh, Trust, who were able to go into their work in greater depth, other organisations also held workshops. They included, for example, the representatives of Bookwish, Lorraine and Logan Kleinwaks who carry out the project “A book for Darfur” which looks after the provision of books and reading aids such as reading glasses in the refugee camps in Somalia, as well as the “Building Bridges with Books” project from Carsten Rübsamen's organisation Bookbridge which has launched a programme against illiteracy and for basic education in Mongolia. In “Mobile Learning that Empowers”, Theophilus Lindzter from the Learning Academy Worldwide demonstrated the significance now of the mobile phone in South Africa.Literacy Campaign / Litcam, Frankfurter Hof - LitCam-Konferenz im Hotel Frankfurter Hof. V.l.n.r.: Martín Kohan (argentinischer Autor), Ciro Capellari (argentinischer Author und Regisseur), Pegah Ahmadi (Iranische Autorin) und Schauspieler und Buchautor Hannes Jaennicke. Montag 4.10.2010 As Molly Melching has already done with “Mobile Phone for Literacy Development”, Theophilus also uses special modules for mobile phones for the efficient promotion of literacy. Another aspect was introduced by the workshop “From the Inside Out: Publishing with Children”, presented by Orla Kenny and Mary Branley of Kid's Own Publishing. They showed how children make children's books themselves. An issue already touched on in the keynote speech given by the Argentine education minister was tackled by Caraigh McGregor of OSCE, Belgium, in his workshop “Trafficking in Human Beings and the ELT Classroom” - how can teachers integrate the topic of human rights in lessons?

At the end of the two-day conference, one thing had become clearly apparent: in order to facilitate education efficiently and to assert the human rights this involves, a great deal of patience is needed, and local conditions have to be taken into consideration.

For more information on the participating organisations and their contributions, please have a look at the conference's handout.

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