ANTI-CORRUPTION EDUCATION PROGRAMME

ASSOCIATION FOR DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY (ADD)
In cooperation with the association for the fight against corruption
TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL - HRVATSKA
With the support of

EUROPEAN COMMISSION, MINISTRY OF SCIENCE, EDUCATION AND SPORTS and WESTMINSTER FOUNDATION FOR DEMOCRACY

SUMMARY

Organizes instructive seminars for teachers and high school pupils named "Against Corruption" during the school year of 2004/05. Politics and economy, sociology and ethics teachers are invited, as well as any interested teachers of other subjects.

The basic goal of the seminars is to help high school teachers develop awareness about the destructive consequences of corruption and to prepare them to work with pupils interactively learning about corruption, its manifestations, methods of its suppression and the ways to develop a model of effective corruption suppression in high schools. Through conversations, games, independent research, the possibilities of motivating and supporting pupils' active participation in the process of acquiring knowledge about the fight against corruption, applicable in every day life, will be searched. During the process, it is necessary to try to transform the pupil from a passive information recipient into an engaged subject.
The seminars are based on a booklet by dr. Neven Šimca "AGAINST CORRUPTION" (ADD's publication "A Little School of Democracy") intended for the young, and dealing with the current issues related to the fight against corruption.

Applying for the instructive seminars, the teachers assume the obligation of organizing, within the school year, workshops with pupils in their schools. 25 pupils participate in each workshop, selected by the teachers according to their motivation. Afterwards, workshops for the same groups of pupils are organized in the premises of associations, were they are acquainted with the possibilities engagement in the civil society gives. Each pupil is given a booklet, CD and other material.

Zagreb, 14th June 2005
MEDIA REPORT

ADD'S EDUCATIVE PROJECT AGAINST CORRUPTION

On the occasion of the finalization of ADD's educative project "Against corruption", a press conference will be held on Thursday, June 16, 2005 at 1 p.m. in the premises of ADD, the building of Croatian Homeland Foundation, Trg. S. Radica 3/II. Based on the results of the project presented at the press conference, the need to continue and expand the project will be discussed.

Corruption is one of the most serious problems the Croatian society is facing. The Government of the Republic of Croatia cites in its Program education about corruption as one of the ways to suppress corruption ("The Government will undertake necessary measures to make education about corruption a part of the educative system and to inspire a reconstruction of socially acceptable value system"), while one of the conclusions in the European Commission Report is that "more needs to be done to rise the public awareness regarding corruption as a heavy criminal offence".

During 2004/05, ADD organized educative seminars for teachers and workshops for pupils from 25 high schools. The basic goal of the seminars was to help teachers develop awareness about the destructive consequences of corruption and to prepare them to work with pupils interactively learning about corruption, its manifestations and methods of suppressing it. Through conversations, games, independent research, dramatic performances, exhibitions and presentations, the possibilities of motivating pupils' active participation in the process of acquiring knowledge about the fight against corruption, applicable in every day life, were searched. We tried to transform the pupil from a passive information recipient into an engaged subject. Applying for the instructive seminars, the teachers assumed the obligation of organizing, within the school year, workshops with pupils in their schools, with systematic assistance of the of the project team members. Afterwards, workshops for the same groups of pupils were organized in the premises of associations, were they were acquainted with the possibilities engagement in the civil society gives. 25 teachers and almost 1.000 pupils participated the project. The number of pupils turned out to be greater than the planned (625), thanks to the enthusiasm of some teachers, who worked with several groups of pupils in their schools.

The Project was realized in cooperation with Transparency International - Hrvatska, with the support of the European Commission Delegation (the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights' program), the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports (the program of extra institutional education of children and the young) and the Westminster Foundation for Democracy.

The following persons will speak at the conference: dr. Neven Šimac, project counselor and the president of the UDD Counseling board, mr. Berto Šalaj, from the Faculty of Political Sciences, project counselor, Mr. Enrique Aguado Asenjo, representing the European Commission Delegation in the Republic of Croatia, Mr. Zorislav Antun Petrovic and Ms Ana First, representing our partner association, the Transparency International - Hrvatska, and Mr. Alan Labus, J. Jelacic High School headmaster..

Info: Ancica Petrušic, project manager - 098 314 951

Association for Democratic Socity (Udruga za demokratsko društvo - udd ) was founded in 1995 as a non-profit organisation (a citizens' associations registered with Town-office for general administration, see UDD official certificate of registration), committed to assist democracy building in Croatia. UDD has been active implementing numerous projects in the area of democracy building, primarily focusing on education and increasing public awareness and better understanding of democracy and democratic processes among Croatian citizens. Some of the topics covered through our project activities were human rights, independent media, rule of law, prevention of corruption, election and monitoring, multi-ethnic tolerance, protection of the environment, and social issues (social rights, pension and health reform, excluded groups). All these topics have been covered through organization of the following activities:
- public panel discussions (1995);
- media programs broadcasted through radio (through Radio 101, Catholic Radio, and local radio stations - 1996-1999) and TV (HRT - Civil Hour- 2000/01/02);
- workshops for secondary school and university students - A Little School of Democracy (2000-02);
- publishing and distribution of popular brochures and leaflets on related themes* to a broader public, elementary and secondary schools;
- street news program and performances News on the Road (1999-2000);
- petition signing regarding the Election Law as well as other topics (1999)
- in late 1999 together with other Croatian NGOs, UDD joined and actively participated from the beginning in the Croatian Get-Out-the-Vote Campaign: GLAS 99 Coalition.
- cofounder of The European Circle -Croatia (EKH) and The Centre for European Documentation and Research - Robert Schuman (CEDI) (2001);
- The European Principles of Public Administration - workshops, brochure(2002);
- organisation of the International Summer Academy 4 for 70 students from 17 european countries ("Regional Cooperation and European Integration towards Stability and prosperity in South Eastern Europe") - 4 - 11 October 2003.
The main activities of our organisation in present:
- project "The European Standards";
- the project against corruption, "Prevention of Conflict of Interest and Corruption";
- preparation of the project "Against Corruption" - an educational programme for a secondary scool people and mini campaign against corruption;
- preparation of the project "Let's Protect Environment" - an educational programme for a secondary school people and mini campaign;
During the past nine years UDD's main donors have been the European Commission, USAID-OTI, Westminster Foundation for Democracy, Open Society Institute Croatia, the Netherlands Embassy, the British Embassy, Friedrich Naumann Foundation, American Embassy and the Government Office for NGOs.

*Popular brochures - Breviary of Democracy; Democratic Election Laws; Against Corruption; What is Tolerance?; Referendum - the Watcher of Democracy, Decentralization, Challenges and Traps of Globalization; Language and Style of Journalists; Let's Protect Environment; The European Principles of Public Administration, Coflict of Interest. Since there is an evident shortage of any literature on these topics, our booklets have been used as unique textbooks for various training program s implemented by different NGOs and other organizations such as GONG,Multikultura,Institute for Education and others.