Our work
Conducting research across three European countries, our objective is to achieve a just and equitable movement of young people who believe that freedom of expression is a basic human right for ALL persons.
To enhance participation in democratic life from a young age for both local and migrant communities, we provide mentorship and resources that embody the European values of human rights for all, diversity, and social integration.
Learn more about our research here
The project
With Seen and Heard: Young People’s Voices and Freedom of Expression, our objective is to achieve a just and equitable social movement of young people who believe that freedom of expression is a basic human right for ALL persons. We provide mentorship and resources that embody the European values of human rights for all, diversity, and integration as core values in our society for both local and migrant communities, in order to enhance participation in democratic life from a young age.
Using the idea of ‘creative protest’ as a basis for social change, the project places youth at risk of marginalisation and exclusion, at the centre of political dialogue through blended learning experiences and sustained support from researchers, educators, artists, activists, publishers, and policy makers.
It develops in three phases across three countries; research on human rights with 10 to 14-year-old children in schools, a freedom of expression and creative protest mentoring programme, and the launch of a social movement.
The research explores young people’s understanding of freedom of expression and the role that the arts, more specifically literature, can play in fostering the courage to speak up about injustice in various contexts. It offers both a national case study for Malta, Germany and Poland, as well as a valuable comparative study that will advance discussions not only of citizenship, agency and activism in children’s literature studies but also the interdisciplinary landscape of childhood studies, media studies, pedagogy, geopolitics and migrant studies. It will also benefit publishers and policy makers in better understanding how to promote freedom of expression and how to create systems that ensure no young person is left behind.
Through the mentoring programme, young people will be resourced to explore issues that are important to them and will embark on a process of designing, producing, and sharing a creative protest. The creative protests will be a window into the thoughts, fears, and hopes of young people and will showcase innovative solutions to current problems.
By the end of the project, the young people will better understand their human rights through stories and other forms of communication, will be more confident in expressing themselves (through a variety of media), and have faith that their voices matter.
Through the launch of the social movement, educators, artists, publishers, activists, and policy makers will have a deeper insight into young people’s worldview and, we hope, will begin to adapt their work to defend all young people’s human rights (local, refugee, asylum seekers, immigrant), and better support the needs of young people.
Seen and Heard is a meaningful project not only because it is interdisciplinary (bringing education into conversation with art and activism) or cross sectoral (bringing universities together with schools and a global human rights organisation), but also because it places at the forefront young people who may not otherwise be given a chance to be seen and heard. We actively seek to raise each child up, to compensate for the systemic failure to dismantle privilege wherever it appears, to listen deeply and let children speak their truth, even when that truth makes us uncomfortable. We sit alongside each other. We discuss with each other. We step forward in the spirit of ‘care-full activism’. And, we look forward to sharing this journey with you too.
Should you wish to learn more about Seen and Heard or to collaborate with us, we would like to hear from you.
From our blog
Seen and Heard: Creative Journeys into Children’s Rights
Katarzyna Salejko
The Role of Human Rights Education in Amplifying Children’s Voices
Justyna Kuzar-Dembele, Katarzyna Salejko
On drawing and togetherness, everywhere and anywhere
Nicky Parker, Amnesty International Poland
Explore our International Research AND COMMUNITY Project
our work
Our objective is to achieve a just and equitable movement of young people who believe that freedom of expression is a basic human right for ALL persons.
our team
The Seen and Heard team comprises academics, activists artists, educators, filmmakers, illustrators, authors, poets, designers and students.
Our research
Our mixed-method study comprises quantitative and qualitative data collected simultaneously in Malta, Wroclaw and Berlin
By Kids For Kids
In Seen and Heard, we didn’t just discuss! We drew, wrote, composed, filmed, edited, and interviewed various people while also growing in our role as active citizens.
HRE TEACHER TRAINING
Human Rights Education (HRE), is vital to the realisation of rights. It is a lifelong learning process that helps us respect and stand up for each other.
Children's book
Amnesty International Poland is taking the lead on creating a book for the children and young people involved in the project.
Freedom of Expression Mentoring Programme
Our mentoring programme adopts an artivist approach. Led by the academics and artists , we also co-create protest videos.
Docu-Narrative
In a series of videos we explain our interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral EU initiative where human rights, art, education, and activism converge.
Events
Seen and Heard organises a wide range of events and workshops in schools, colleges and universities in Germany, Malta and Poland.
Testimonials
As well as contributing to our research, participants are also “being Seen and Heard“. Read about the project in their own words.
Archive
Seen and Heard is attracting attention in academic institutions across Europe.
Our archive shows how our work has been reported in different European countries.
