US Embassy’s Democracy Grants Program Sponsors Annual Human Rights Essay Contest

On December 8-9, the Ukrainian Section of the International Society for Human Rights (US-ISHR) conducted a conference to conclude the seventh annual high school and college essay contest on democracy and human rights issues. Administered by US-ISHR and supported by a large number of other human rights NGOs, the contest was an international project that solicited essays from Ukrainian, Belarusian, Russian and Moldovan students. This year’s essay themes included children’s rights, international human rights instruments, anti-terrorism issues, Ukraine-NATO relations and human rights, and Ukraine’s membership in the Council of Europe and human rights.

The contest and final conference in Kyiv were sponsored by the Embassy’s Democracy Grants Program as well as the Council of Europe, Embassy of Slovakia in Ukraine, NATO Information and Documentation Center, OSCE and the Ideal Country NGO. The award ceremony was followed by a roundtable on human rights and Ukrainian legislation issues. On day two, 30 contest finalists and their instructors attended a workshop on democracy education for youth and techniques to search for information on human rights protection.

Contest organizers received 1024 essays from which they selected 30 whose authors attended the award ceremony and participated in the roundtable and the workshop. Overall, the award ceremony brought together some 80 participants and keynote speakers that included MPs and representatives of international and diplomatic communities.