Unit 2: How it Works

1. We divide the participants in groups of 4-5 people and give them empty flipchart papers and colour markers and give them the task to “Draw the animal of democracy”. We specify that this does not need to be a real animal, but could also be a combination of many animals, for example the head of a lion, the feet of a giraffe, the mouth of a dog and s.o. Any participant if free to draw whatever part of the animal they want. We tell the participants that they have to be able to explain why they chose exactly these animals and tell the story of their drawing to the rest of the group.
2. We give the groups 15-20 min to work on the drawing.
3. Each group presents its work within 3-5 min per group.
4. The youth worker, based in the presented concepts of democracy and taking into consideration the level of understanding of the participants, based on their presentations summarizes and presents:
   • What is democracy
   • European Common Values, according to article 2 of the Treaty on EU (“The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. These values are common to the Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail.”)

5. As an introduction to the second phase of the method the trainer introduces the following topics:
   • The Fundamental Rights of the EU, according to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU (https://ec.europa.eu/info/aid-development-cooperation-fundamental-rights/your-rights-eu/eu-charter-fundamental-rights_en)
   • Presents a chart, based on which describes shortly the EU, its institutions, main roles, etc.
   • Presents a chart, based on which describes shortly the main democratic institutions and roles in the national political landscape.
6. Depending on the number of participants we divide the participants into 3 to 5 groups.
7. Human Rights: 1, 2 or 3 groups get a list of 10 basic human rights (in Annex). The Trainer explains that the Group should draw pictures presenting each right on a separate sheet of paper. The Group writes down the respective right at the back of the sheet in advance.
8. Local political landscape: 1 group gets the following materials: A4 pictures of: the Parliament, the Council of Ministers, the President’s Office, a court house, as well as of leading politicians from the party in power (in the country of the intervention) and the Opposition, and a well-known mayor. The young people should list on a sheet of paper at least 5 of the main roles functions of these institutions and parties. The young people can use internet and whatever resources they find in order to do a research about this.
9. EU political landscape: 1 group get the following materials: A4 pictures of the following EU institutions: the EU Parliament, the Council of the EU, the European Commission, the European Central Bank, leading politicians and officials on EU level. The young people should list on a sheet of paper at least 5 of the main roles/functions of these institutions and how their members are elected.

Working time for the Groups – half an hour.

10. Presentations:
    • First the groups, working on human rights present their pictures. The rest of the groups have to guess which right is on the picture. The group/trainer reads in more detail what the respective human right is about. (Annex)
    • Second the group, working on local political landscape presents their list of roles/functions together with the pictures of the institutions. The other groups are then to guess which institution is responsible for these functions.
    • Third the group, working on European political landscape presents their list of roles/functions together with the pictures of the institutions. The other groups are then to guess which institution is responsible for these functions.
11. After each group work is presented the trainer summarises the importance of respecting human rights as well as the description of the political landscape in the country and in the EU.

Note: If you want to lead the session online, you can download the instruction for online implementation Here