“DemoCrazy?”

A training course on democracy in Europe and the Middle East

Executive Summary

Between the 4th and the 18th of December emyb organized together with its regional partners from Egypt, Jordan and the Czech Republic a capacity building programme educating young people to be become democracy trainers. Coming together in the city of Hamburg for two weeks 16 young people were trained in cooperation with the joint Israeli-Palestinian ADAM Institute for Democracy and Peace in methods of human rights and democracy education, project management and intercultural communication. The course included two phases dedicated to training those youth for a duration of ten days which compromised innovative methods for teaching democracy and human rights to young people as also political discussions on democracy related issues in the countries involved. Those two phases were split by a four days break which the group spent in the German capital of Berlin. This intermediate phase gave the participants the chance to relax a little bit while exploring the bustling city of Berlin. The special history of the place allowed the group to experience the topic of democracy from a more practical point of view: tracking the development of the young German democracy, discussing with members of the German parliament the issue of youth participation, visiting places of democratic practice such as the German “Bundestag” and debating with learned scholars from the local “Freie Universität” the connections between Islam and democracy proved to be a rich learning experience for the participants. Back in Hamburg the young people received the second part of their training in democracy education, met with local NGOs working for more democratic participation and built up ties for implementing a network for democracy education in the EuroMed area. The training culminated in a public panel discussion which emyb organized in cooperation with the German daily “die tageszeitung”: Bringing together the consuls general of the Republic of Egypt and the USA, as also a delegate of the German ministry for foreign affairs and the Middle East advisor to former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder at the University of Hamburg allowed the participants and about 200 external guest to discuss chances and risks for furthering democracy in the Arab world. Following the vivid discussion the event also gave the opportunity to the group to introduce the project of the last two weeks to a broader public. Having finished their training the participants now use the knowledge gained to implement democracy trainings with youth from schools and universities in their local communities and go on to broaden the EuroMed-democracy education-network they started.

This project was financed through the support of the European Commission. The content of the project does not necessary reflect the point of view of the European Union or the National Agency. They assume no liability.

In cooperation with:


United Games of Nations, Olomouc	*	Dana and Qadisiya Loc. Community Cooperative, Tafilah	*	Orouba Youth Center, Cairo