Netizens - education for digital rights and democracy     

CONTEXT

The 21st century is coined often as a digital era, or dataism, the last decade has more than ever shown us how interconnected human rights and democra- cy are with the internet. Firstly, meaningful access to the internet is a part of social and innovative welfare, which is a factor for development, and, therefore, is a human right. Secondly, human rights may be violated online, human rights values might be challenged online and it's important to have access to the instruments which prevent and mitigate these breaches. And thirdly, digitalisation and the nature of business-models of tech-giants may bend the way society works and participate in the democratic processes, and it’s important to be aware of these changes and be part of the decision-making processes. Therefore, the meaningful access to the digital tools and critical and proactive approach to them is a task for human rights education.

GOAL SETTING

The aim of this study session is to upgrade the know-how of human rights educators, including the member organizations of HREYN, at using safe digital tools with young people and at the same time use non-formal education for cyber-hygiene of young people. Cyber hygiene refers to the cognitive competencies on how the internet and social media affects the individuals, communities and society as a whole, and practical skills to prevent and mitigate risks and use the internet for good.

Objectives
- To develop human rights educators’ understanding about the internet and contemporary tensions and challenges, and its links to human rights and democracy;
- To share practices and create non-formal education-based solutions for youth work and human rights education in the field of cyber hygiene and internet governance;
- To network and encourage development of stronger youth civil society response to human rights and democracy challenges online.

CONTENT

The study session will create a space for the participants to meet each other, learn how to learn and work together, explore the main topic and reflect on the study session deliverables. The idea of this project is to create non-formal education tools, that is why the team of facilitators will use every opportunity to showcase creating new NFL tools as much as possible. The study session logic is based on the experiential learning cycle, participants will receive concrete experience, will conduct reflective observation, will carry out abstract conceptualization, and finally will actively experiment. Special focus should be put on their activities regarding digital human rights education.

Preliminary flow of Programme:
Personal cyber hygiene - holistic approach to security, risk mapping for youth workers
Organisational cyber hygiene - dealing with data on young people
Artificial Intelligence and Young People