"Education, training and youth activities remain a pillar for ensuring social inclusion. The choice of French as a subject at school or college, or at least the ability to master it effectively, tends to diminish, especially when it’s perceived as potentially posing additional problems in both social and professional development and integration. Teachers from five educational establishments pose the question why students are less interested in learning French. To provide an answer and to encourage the learning of French, pupils from five schools in different parts of Europe (Romania, Bulgaria, France, Italy and Portugal) propose, as part of a strategic partnership on the exchange of good practices in the field of education, to become ""Young ambassadors of the French language and culture abroad”. The aim of our project is to find innovative solutions and to motivate students to want to learn French at a more advanced level. The implication will be not only be an opening up towards a multilingual and multicultural Europe but also an opening up towards oneself."

<< Background >>The project «Europe of Human Rights» brings together French, Portuguese, Italian, Bulgarian and Romanian institutions around the fight against discrimination in Europe. Through simulations of defence speeches before the European Court of Human Rights, the young high school students involved will become promoters of the fight against discrimination by making the best use of the possibilities offered by the European Convention on Human Rights.<< Objectives >>In the position of actors, the students will learn how to better identify the different types of discrimination in Europe, their forms (direct and indirect) and their short and long-term consequences. They will discover the possibilities of recourse they have as European citizens when no judgment from their national jurisdiction has granted their request, even though one of their rights guaranteed by the European Convention has been violated. The main point is that they become aware that Human rights are much more than written texts that seem fixed, distant and therefore of symbolic nature. High school students must know and master the judicial mechanism of the space in which they evolve on a daily basis as European citizens.<< Implementation >>The students, «apprentice lawyers», will discover the ECHR, the major tool for the protection of fundamental rights and will make use of it to defend either a claimant victim of discrimination, or a government accused of disrespecting the principle of non-discrimination. This will be in the form of a competition before a court of justice in each participating country. The defence speeches will be based on cases already judged by the European Court, summed up and communicated to the students in the form of practical cases.<< Results >>This action will allow to:- identify the common motives of all discriminatory behaviours.-detect, on the basis of specific and varied practical cases in the European Union, the short, medium and long-term effects of situations of discriminations on people.-become aware of the originality of the European protection of human rights and identify the diversity of these guaranteed rights.-discover its success and its obligation to evolve.-learn to use that protective instrument.-learn to defend either a victim of discrimination or a State accused of discriminatory behaviour by finding arguments in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights.-promote the values of tolerance, respect and solidarity between people.-raise the awareness of European citizenship and/or stimulate it.-know how to submit and defend a file and present arguments in public.-develop critical thinking and analytical skills.