The Committee of Ministers’ Rapporteur Group on Education, Culture, Sport, Youth and Environment (GR-C) invited the Chairpersons of relevant steering committees to a thematic discussion on Covid‑19, impact and lessons learnt in the fields of education, culture, heritage, environment and youth on 1 July 2021. Miriam Teuma (Malta), the chair of the CDEJ, and Andrea Ugrinovska, the chair of the CCJ/CMJ, represented  the co-management structure of the Council of Europe youth sector.

Miriam Teuma outlined various measures undertaken by member states to counterbalance the difficult situation in which young people find themselves during the pandemic. She also presented samples of measures taken by the youth sector to keep up the support to civil society  and implement adapted programmes for the benefit of young people in Europe during the unprecedented circumstances.

Andrea Ugrinoska stressed the disproportionate negative impact that the pandemic has had on the life of young people and the efforts undertaken by youth organisations to support them, despite financial shortcomings. She reported about the plans of the youth sector to set up  a new campaign which could help the Council of Europe to be in the forefront in revitalising pluralistic democracies after the pandemic.

Launched in 2019, interrupted by the pandemic, the Training of Trainers on Human Rights Education with young people (TOTHRE) finally held its residential seminar on 20-28 August 2021 in the European Youth Centre Budapest; the course was organised in co-operation with the UN OHCHR, in the framework of the World Programme for Human Rights Education. 38 human rights activists and trainers from Council of Europe member states and beyond joined the training.

The training course supported the implementation of the Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education through building competences of participants to develop and apply quality human rights education activities with young people at national and local levels and to advocate for the further mainstreaming of human rights education in youth policy and youth work.

Since its introduction in 2002, TOTHRE has marked the way human rights education is understood and practiced across Europe – notably by the impact of participants and their organisations in mainstreaming HRE at national and local level. Numerous threats for human rights stroke young people all over the world in 2019-2021, including the pandemic, when access to basic services was denied and challenged, and the most vulnerable were the most affected. Education plays a core role in building a culture of human rights, and this course offered a unique opportunity in times of pandemic.

Yet another post-pandemic milestone was reached on 12 July when the EYCB finally received its first international residential youth activity since the start of the pandemic lockdown of the Centre in March 2020.

The study session “Soci@lise: Social Rights in digital era”, organised in partnership with the Youth Express Network and CONNECT International brought together 19 participants from 13 countries to explore whether human and social rights are being infringed or enhanced in the digital era during the pandemic; to discuss the risks and weaknesses of digitalisation in terms of equality, access and inclusion; to create policy recommendations introducing digital rights of young people as an important aspect of the youth rights guarantee; and to advocate for the introduction of the digital component in recommendations related to the social rights of young people.