Director of the State Institution "Regional Center of Social Services" (RCSS) Pervomaisky district of Viciebsk Tatiana Starinskaya refused Vitsebsk human rights defenders in the opening of the People's University Faculty of social rights. An official in his refusal motivated by the fact that human rights defenders have no legal training profile.
The idea arose to teach adults the authorities after taking part in the international project "Learning region: education for all generations", which was implemented by the Institute for Educational Development with the financial support of the society representation Deutscher Volkshochschul-Verband e.V. (FRG) in Belarus.
To open the People’s University have been renovated premises RCSS Pervomaisky district of Viciebsk, purchased and installed sports equipment, computers and new furniture. And in the autumn of 2014 People's Social University as a place to get free non-formal education for people who are over 30, earned.
Currently, the 11 faculties of the University of elementary education receive more than 200 people. There are faculties of the Orthodox and Catholic Education, Faculty of Foreign Languages and the Faculty of Psychology, anyone can learn the basics of journalism, to gain knowledge about tourism and local history, dive into the world of new technologies, and the University has faculty of physical and motor activity, musical theater faculty, creative workshops.
After learning about the appearance of the national University in Viciebsk human rights activists of the Republican public association "Belarusian Helsinki Committee" decided that it has opened a good opportunity to educate people in the field of human rights. In May 2015 they offered RCSS Director Mrs. Starinskaya create the appropriate department. She became interested in the idea of human rights defenders and invited them to draw up a program of the Faculty of human rights.
Within a month the program was drawn up and submitted to the Director for consideration. And in response - silence. After waiting some time, and without waiting for any further reactions to its proposal, defenders again appealed to the leadership RCSS. It was found that the program was lost by one of the workers, and had to pass it on to the center again.
On the program are not lost this time. She was sent for examination to the Viciebsk State University and the Justice Department of the Viciebsk region. A human rights director Starinskaya some reason asked to submit proof of their education.
Time passed, and all faculty did not open. After six months of bureaucratic red tape, human rights activists have received the message that their offer to teach the residents of Viciebsk protect their social, economic, civil and cultural rights has been rejected. Reason: there is no human rights in legal education.
This unexpected decision very surprised defenders. After all, they offered to open a faculty of human rights in the People's Social University, and did not offer themselves as teachers!
Human rights activists had hoped that teach human rights to the new Department of the People’s University will be the teachers of legal disciplines Viciebsk universities, prosecutors, judges, police officers and judicial authorities.
RCSS Director Tatiana Starinskaya did not understand or did not want to understand the proposal of human rights defenders. And did the past guilty of that faculty of human rights and has not appeared. Like, some incompetent and uneducated citizens wanted to open a faculty with no formal right to teach the relevant disciplines.
This is not the first time that Viciebsk officials rejected the initiative in the field of civic education activists. The city has long been impossible to obtain from the authorities on the terms of the lease premises for educational activities.
As the long-standing practice, the officials refuse to cooperate with representatives of human rights organizations and initiatives when it comes to civic education and to promote awareness of human rights. And in the case with the opening of the Faculty of Human Rights, which has not happened, even the German teachers are not able to convince the Belarusian authorities in the necessity and importance of cooperation of the state of human rights defenders.
Leon Efremenko
