Third Human Rights Academy for Journalism Professors, which was supported by UNDP in Ukraine, ended this week.

Kyiv, August 20, 2021 – The third Human Rights Academy for Journalism students, a comprehensive training programme for media educators launched in February 2021, ended this week. The academy, aimed at promoting human rights values and high ethical principles in media education, was initiated by the Institute of Journalism and the ZMINA Human Rights Centre, with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine.

At the event’s final session, Human Rights Team Lead and UNDP Ukraine Project Manager Svitlana Kolyshko urged academy participants to apply the knowledge and skills they had obtained in their work.

“For Ukrainians, the media remain the key source of information about human rights,” Kolyshko said.

“The recent sociological study ‘What Ukrainians know and think about human rights: progress assessment 2016 – 2020’ showed that 54 percent of respondents receive information about human rights from TV, while 45 percent of respondents said the media shape their views on human rights.”

“This imposes significant responsibility on media actors, and I encourage you to promote human rights values in media education,” Kolyshko added.

During six training sessions at this year’s academy, 33 journalism professors from 21 universities studied how to highlight the topics of non-discrimination, armed conflict, gender equality, and the rights of people from various social groups such as LGBTQI+ people, people with disabilities, the homeless, and people in places of detention.

At the academy, participants met human rights defenders, activists, and media experts and dived deep into human rights topics. Following this course, media educators will apply the knowledge they have obtained at their universities by integrating human rights topics into their training programmes.

Background information:

The first Human Rights Academy for Journalism Professors was launched with UNDP support in September 2017 by the Institute of Journalism, the ZMINA: Human Rights Centre Civil Society Organization, and the Ombudsperson’s Office.

The initiative is implemented as part of the Human Rights for Ukraine project, which is implemented by UNDP in Ukraine with financial support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. For more information about UNDP, see: http://www.ua.undp.org  

Media enquires:

Yuliia Samus, UNDP in Ukraine Communications Team Leader, yuliia.samus@undp.org