Nominate your candidate for Democracy Award 2018 – democracy and human rights education as theme

The theme of the Democracy Award in 2018 is democracy and human rights education. The award, amounting to EUR 10,000, may be granted to a single civil society actor or divided between several actors. Candidates for the award can be nominated until 20 August 2018.

The objective of the Democracy Award is to highlight and disseminate civil society's good practices in the promotion of democracy and human rights education. In addition, the award is an expression of acknowledgement and gratitude to actors working with democracy and human rights education.

The aim of activities nominated for the Democracy Award may be, for example, to strengthen a human rights sensitive culture by providing education and information that improves people's capabilities to develop their own attitudes and practices. The nominated actors may also be engaged in activities striving to provide people with skills and ability to use and defend their democratic rights and responsibilities in society in a manner that simultaneously shows respect for diversity.

The winners will be selected by a jury consisting of President Tarja Halonen and Professor Arto Kallioniemi from the University of Helsinki. The award will be handed out on the National Democracy Day, 9 October.

Nominations may be submitted online at www.otakantaa.fi/fi/hankkeet/247/ or by post to the Ministry of Justice/registry, PO Box 25, FI-00023 Government (visiting address Ritarikatu 2 B, Helsinki).

The Democracy Award is now handed out for the fifth time. This year, the cooperation partners of the Ministry of Justice are the Ministry of Education and Culture, the National Youth Council, the Finnish National Agency for Education, the Human Rights Centre, and the Association for Teachers of History and Social Studies in Finland (HYOL ry).

Inquiries:

Liisa Männistö, Specialist (18 June–13 July and 6–20 August), tel. + 358 295 150231

Maria Wakeham-Hartonen, Senior Specialist (18–28 June and 9–20 August), tel. + 358 295 150416

Heini Huotarinen, Ministerial Adviser (16 July–3 August), tel. + 358 295 150127

The email addresses of the Ministry of Justice are in the format [email protected].