The Straniak Academy for Democracy and Human Rights was established in spring 2013 by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights (BIM) in cooperation with the Faculties of Law and Sociology of the University of Vienna and the Faculties of Law and Political Science of the University of Montenegro (Podgorica).
The Academy bears the name of the main sponsor, the Hermann and Marianne Straniak Foundation, which supports and fosters among others the goals and ideas laid down in the European Convention on Human Rights. In the centre of the two-week Straniak Academy stands the creation of a bridge between academic and practical knowledge in the fields of human rights, democracy and the rule of law promoted through an interdisciplinary and interactive format. In addition to the basic training, the Academy deals with specific topics which are especially relevant for the region.
Programme
The programme of the Academy offers a broad spectrum of topics, reaching from the meaning and conception of democracy, the rule of law and human rights, the principle of human dignity and the culture of human rights, the most important international and European instruments, organisations and mechanisms for providing and facilitating human rights, up to the current challenges and threats of these fundamental values of democratic societies. Additionally, the programme also addresses important specific topics such as the prohibition of torture and inhuman treatment and punishment, efficiency, independence and impartiality of the judiciary, guarantees for a fair trial, transparency of the administration and the fight against corruption, freedom of expression and freedom of the media, minority rights, women’s rights and rights of the child, equality and protection against discrimination, social and economic rights and poverty reduction, amongst others.
Target group
The Straniak Academy is aimed at students of different academic backgrounds who are about to graduate, as well as graduates standing at the beginning of their careers and is limited to 35 students, thus ensuring the interactive format. The lecturers come from the University of Vienna and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights as well as from partner Universities and selected experts of national and international institutions, organisations and companies with relevant practical experiences.They teach in tandem, i.e. a lecturer from Vienna and a lecturer from a Western Balkan State jointly hold the lessons.
Aim and concept of the Academy
The goal of the Academy is to promote academic education on democracy, human rights and the rule of law in the Western Balkan region as a specific focus. The Academy establishes a link connecting academia and practice, promoted through an interdisciplinary and interactive format. To keep abreast with political, legal and social changes and to underscore the Academy’s continuous relevance for future professionals, a reasonable part of each year’s programme focuses on specific themes.
The intense two-week programme includes lectures and workshops on different thematic fields such as concepts of democracy in a globalised world, the international and regional human rights instruments and standards (UN, CoE, OSCE, EU), the relevance of the rule of law, the efficiency of judicial systems, and also includes special human rights related topics.
Lectures and Tandem Teaching
The lecturers of the Straniak Academy are highly competent and experienced professors and experts in their respective fields, mainly from Austria and Montenegro, the two main cooperating countries, but also lecturers from the Western Balkan region and even one professor from South Africa and from Germany.
The didactic concept of the lectures is “tandem teaching”, which proved to be very successful and interesting and which will be continued in the future. The lecturers got in touch several weeks before the Academy and jointly prepared and hold lectures, thus combining different ways of teaching and including different perspectives and experiences. Such a way of teaching offers the possibility for new approaches, bringing together lecturers from different countries and academic backgrounds to meet, exchange opinions and learn from each other, combined with excitement and curiosity, as some of the lecturers met right before the lessons started for the first time.
