The paradigm for human and children’s rights meets very strong resistance in the face of anti-rights movements in both Eastern and Western European countries. For example, in the field of children’s and youth activism in Bulgaria, this clash of traditional and modern is expressed in supported and avoided topics. According to the report “Children’s participation and activism in Bulgaria: where are we going” (Know How Center at NBU, 2022) in the field of children’s and youth activism in Bulgaria, there is a dividing line between acceptable (e.g. volunteer and charity campaigns, improvement of the living environment) and unacceptable topics (eg civic participation and decision-making empowerment).
The current project proposal aims to create a design for the study of the factors that support and hinder the correct understanding and application of the rights paradigm. The design will be developed for and piloted in different contexts according to their relevance to the participating countries from different regions in Europe (e.g. for Bulgaria the contexts studied would be: school environment, ethnic minorities such as Roma and Turkish communities, general population, religious groups and minorities). The product of this short project will be a developed project proposal for a large-scale study of the factors and processes that influence the implementation of the rights paradigm in European countries.