Note from the director of the Europe office
Zuzana Zalanova
Zuzana has been promoting human rights, good governance, and civic engagement in various capacities in Europe and Central Asia.
Prior to joining RWI’s Europe Office, Zuzana was in charge of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme in Ukraine with focus on civic and youth engagement. She previously coordinated rule of law programmes of the International Development Law Organisation (IDLO) in Mongolia, Central Asia and Eastern Europe, supported regional human rights and justice initiatives of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Europe and Central Asia, and managed the EU-Russia Civil Society Forum, a platform of civil society actors from the EU and Russia. Zuzana holds a BA degree in Political Science, an MA degree in Security Studies, and a joint (BA and MA) degree in International Relations with a specialisation in Non-Profit Management from her studies in the Czech Republic (Charles University, University of Economics) and the United Kingdom (University of Reading).
In Belarus, we work on developing individual capacities and strengthening methodology and the institutional framework to improve quality and conditions for human rights and gender equality education, research and dialogue between different actors in society. At the moment, cooperation is primarily with academic institutions.
Since 2010, we have worked in close cooperation with universities in Belarus with the aim of strengthening the capacities in human rights (including gender equality) among Belarusian academic institutions and students through enhanced access to education and research in human rights and by strengthening their involvement with other actors in society in human rights.
The current cooperation lasts until 2019 and includes five Belarusian Universities.
Through the cooperation, we collaborate with the universities to increase the quality of courses in human rights, mainstream human rights in legal courses, and develop specific courses on gender.
By supporting research in Belarus, the cooperation seeks to improve the quality and increased availability of research in human rights (including gender equality) to allow it to be used for policy dialogue as well as within the formal and informal education.
The cooperation aims at increasing the interaction between the university and other actors in society, for example, through further development of legal clinics.
It also includes facilitating opportunities for teachers, researchers, managers, students and librarians to access networks and human rights education opportunities within Belarus as well as within Europe at large.
Results Achieved
A number of significant results have been achieved in Belarus. These include:
• The development of two elective courses on human rights at the law faculties of Belarusian State University and Belarus State Economics University
• Human Rights textbook was produced by Belarusian and RWI authors
• Three publications have been produced to draw attention amongst the broader public in Belarus to gender equality
• A Gender Equality Plan with an audit methodology has been developed at the Faculty of International Relations at the Belarusian State University, and a similar plan is in being developed at the Belarusian Technical University
Our cooperation with Belarusian universities is financed by Swedish International Development cooperation.