Human Rights Education Associates

Dutch and Flemish teachers participate in Four Freedoms summer course

Twenty teachers and student teachers participated in a four-day teacher training on human rights in which they learned about teaching diversity and discrimination, participation and democracy, and sustainable development. The training was part of the HREA-UCR Four Freedoms Summer Program.

This course introduced the European field of education for democratic citizenship (EDC) and human rights education (HRE), including the presentation of programming approaches, teaching and learning resources, and related theory. The course was tailored to Dutch-speaking educators and trainers working in both the formal and non-formal sectors.

The Four Freedoms Summer Program is an annual series of human rights courses for (under)graduate students and practitioners organized by HREA and University College Roosevelt (UCR) under the auspices of the Utrecht Summer School. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four Freedoms: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear were a major inspiration for the modern human rights movement and were incorporated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) as drafted by the UN Commission on Human Rights, chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt. In the 2015 Four Freedoms Summer Programs three courses were offered: Teaching Global Citizenship and Human Rights (Wereldburgerschap en mensenrechten in de klas, 23-26 June), Human Rights in Practice (29 June-3 July) and Social Inclusion and Human Rights (6-10 July).

The registration process for the 2016 Four Freedoms Summer Program will start in October 2015.