What does "SEE EDC INFO" mean?
South East Europe Education for Democratic Citizenship INFOrmation
What do we mean by "Education for Democratic Citizenship" - EDC?
Education for Democratic Citizenship (EDC) as a term has been introduced and established by the Council of Europe in the late 1990s and is nowadays an internationally used and widely spread concept. This concept "includes all practices and activities designed to help young people and adults participate actively in democratic life by accepting and exercising their rights and responsibilities in society." (http://www.coe.int/edc).
We understand EDC as a kind of generic term comprising various "educations" (i.e. human rights education, civic education, political education, media education, peace education, global education, intercultural education, education for sustainable development). See for details http://www.impact-see.org/edc_links.htm
Each of these "educations" is contributing in its own way to the promotion of a culture of democracy and human rights.
Human rights education, for instance, focuses on the subject "human rights": it deals with the international legal instruments, human rights violations and possibilities of fostering the role of human rights. Political education focuses on the political system: its objective is to explain how politics function and how a citizen can participate in decision making. Peace education concentrates on the capability of the individual to peacefully resolve conflicts. Education for sustainable development deals with the question how to make sure that our needs are fulfilled without compromising the needs of future generations.
A culture of democracy and human rights names a vision how a community should ideally function. Ideally means, that each of its members can live in freedom and according to their ideas, but without compromising the freedom and ideas of the others. In a dictatorship, this vision cannot be realized to a big extend. In a democratic system, it can be realized to a bigger extend. To which extend a society can realize this vision, depends very much on the degree of participation of its citizens in building jointly and individually the never ending task of realizing this vision.
Inclusion criteria for this SEE EDC INFO web portal
What do citizens need in order to be able and willing to participate? They need many things, provided that the formal framework is there:
A citizen needs to be able to read and write, to access education and information, to know how to participate in decision making processes, to be self-confident, tolerant towards others, know about his or her rights and where to claim them etc. It is an endless list of preconditions.
EDC includes a big part of this "catalogue" of indispensable preconditions for democratic citizenship.
However, for pragmatic reasons we have decided to limit our criteria what defines EDC for this SEE EDC INFO project. We exclude general education, although it is a precondition for democratic citizenship. Firstly, the majority of citizens in Southeastern Europe are able to read and write and have access to basic education. Secondly, there is a portal for education in Southeastern Europe, and we do not want to duplicate things (see http://www.see-educoop.net).
We also exclude all activities that deal with social and economical aspects. We agree, that a citizen, whom basic needs are not fulfilled (food, housing), can hardly act as a committed citizen. But we do think that in this geographical area, although there is a lot of poverty, there is a relatively low percentage of truly homeless and hungry. Secondly, our web portal would be too extensive if we included all activities supporting social and economical development, poverty reduction etc.
So we have decided to deal with all practices and activities supporting active democratic citizenship through the acquirement of knowledge and the development of skills and attitudes. In compliance with the Council of Europe, we do not limit the term to formal education, but take into consideration all forms of life long learning (formal, non-formal, informal).
All content records fit into certain specifing categories:
SEE EDC INFO Content Specification
Why another web-site?
Since the mid-1990s, there are innumerable initiatives, projects, programs and organizations that are working towards the promotion of active democratic citizenship. Many of these initiatives are bi-lateral development projects with foreign partners and funds. Since 1999 (the start of the Stability Pact for SEE), many multi-lateral projects started, benefiting from the similarities in this region. A number of formal or informal networks were set up and still exist. However, it is impossible to have an overall picture of who is doing what, which resources exist and which experiences are being made.
Many call for cooperation and even for the establishment of a regional centre for EDC acting as a clearing house. This portal is trying to assist cooperation by providing a place where relevant information for EDC can be found, and a platform for increased exchange of experience, resources and contacts.
Ingrid Halbritter
Editor of the SEE EDC INFO web portal
Program manager of the NGO D@dalos Sarajevo
e-mail: ingrid.halbritter@see-edc.info
