This school helped me understand how national, regional and international legal systems actually work. I believe that this experience will be useful to us for many years to come.

Mariam Ketsbaia, IHRSYA articipant from Georgia.

The International Human Rights School for Young Activists (IHRSYA) received 260+ applications from young people in  Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine. 150+ regular participants tuned in for 100 hours of training, provided by 24 experts from 9 countries. 80+ participants completed the programme with certification. 

“Not only has the IHRSYA broadened my horizons, it was also the best online school I have ever attended”

Luka Radičević, IHRSYA participant from Serbia.

Participants gained a broad understanding of human rights issues including the human rights concept, as well as national and international human rights protection mechanisms. The entire course was available in English and Russian through a mixture of interpretation and conducting classes in both languages. Below, a class is held in English outlining the international standards and mechanisms protecting human rights defenders.

Participants also learned about the freedoms of assembly, association, and expression and the right to be a human rights defender. These four rights are key to the work of the network of Human Rights Houses, and underpin a strong and independent civil society and protect and empower human rights defenders.

Certified: participants independently studied additional materials in order to then successfully pass the tests (one of the conditions for obtaining a certificate), and complete additional creative tasks.

The biggest reward [was to see that the school] was interesting and useful to those for whom we did it all. I hope that we will see our participants and experts live soon.

Maria Tsipashchuk, coordinator of IHRSYA

IHRSYA was organised and coordinated by Educational Human Rights House Chernihiv in partnership with the Human Rights House Tbilisi, the Human Rights House Yerevan, Human Rights House Belgrade and the Viasna Human Rights Center (member organisation of the Belarusian Human Rights House), and experts from Human Rights House Voronezh. The school was supported by Human Rights House Foundation’s House-to-House fund. 

Read about the school in Ukrainian.