European School Charter

Drawing on face-to-face and online exchanges, this project is an effort to gather experiences and achievements of pilot initiatives across Europe into a document which is designed to inspire schools to involve their students, along with educators, in decision-making on matters concerning them. CoE invited only those schools with a "genuine commitment to school democracy and motivation to involve students throughout the process" to apply. CoE indicated that it was up to each school to decide how to facilitate students' participation - for instance, through the student council, in civic education classes, or through extra-curricular activities. An Internet connection in the school (or otherwise accessible to participants), as well as the ability for students to communicate in English or French were other inclusion criteria.

Interested students were then asked to prepare the following:

• a short introduction to the Charter, stating its aims and function for the organisation of the school's life
• 2-3 key aspects that should be covered by the Charter (concerning students' and teachers' rights and responsibilities with regard to decision-making on school matters, particularly in developing strategies for the prevention of violence)
• a slogan for the future awareness-raising and dissemination phase
• a short report on an active programme (relating to peaceful solution of conflicts, and/or prevention of or response to bullying, harassment, or violence in their schools) that uses democratic methods and that allows students to participate in decision-making in their school life
• an optional short description of a maximum of 3 cases of everyday bullying, harassment or violence that occurred at their school, and the students' or the school's response (which should involve or be based on democratic or collective principles).

A panel of CoE and educational experts then selected the 26 best contributions sent in by schools from 19 European countries. (The initial contributions of all the participants, which included more than 120 schools throughout Europe, provided selected students with a collection of ideas as they worked to prepare the comprehensive Charter.) The selected schools were invited to send delegates to a 4-day conference held in July 2004. More than 50 student delegates gathered at the European Youth Centre at Strasbourg to draft and adopt the Charter. An electronic referendum was held from October 11-22 2004 in cooperation with the Swiss Canton of Geneva; schoolchildren voted for the final version of the Charter.

Once the students had weighed in on the final version, young participants translated the Charter into their native languages - 19 in total. Available in all of these languages on the European School Charter page on the CoE website, the document is meant to serve as a practical violence prevention tool for all of those involved in school life (pupils/students, parents, teachers, administrators, school authorities etc.). CoE suggested that the Charter could serve as a contract to be signed by all those participating in the school community.

Conflict, Children, Youth, Education, Rights.

As a part of its mission to support the building of a democratic, peaceful, tolerant, and inclusive Europe, CoE has identified school democracy as one of the essential conditions for learning and practicing citizenship from an early age.

The Charter itself sets out ways that schools can react to violence and bullying in a positive way that involves teachers, pupils, auxiliary staff, and the local community. Among the salient points: "Everyone enjoys freedom of speech without risking discrimination or repression", "The school community ensures that everybody is aware of their rights and responsibilities", "Every school has staff and students trained to prevent and solve conflicts through counselling and mediation", and "Co-operation and exchange of information with local partners are essential for preventing and solving problems." To view the Charter in English, click here; for access in other languages, click here. CoE indicates that the Charter will be widely disseminated to schools across Europe within the framework of the 2005 European Year of Citizenship through Education.