UNESCO Chair for Human Rights Education, Comenius University in Bratislava 

History

UNESCO Chair for Human Rights Education was established at Comenius University in Bratislava by agreement between UNESCO and the University on October 26th, 1992, making it the oldest UNESCO Chair in Slovakia.

UNESCO Chairs focusing on human rights topics emerged in connection with political changes in Central and Eastern Europe at the end of 1980s and in 1990s. Their primary role, reflecting the overreaching goals of UNESCO, was to help new democracies to develop via international intellectual cooperation on the basis of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. UNESCO Chair at Comenius University in Bratislava is the first of these institutions in Europe, as well as in the world.

The initiator and main founder of the UNESCO Chair was Professor Miroslav Kusý, the first post-revolution rector of the university (1990/1991). He was personally involved in the negotiations with UNESCO leaders. The agreement between UNESCO and Comenius University in Bratislava was signed by Secretary General Mr. Federico Mayor and Rector of Comenius University Juraj Švec. This agreement is unlimited in time and therefore it is still valid. It is an exclusive status, as other UNESCO Chairs in Europe and the world have temporary agreements. 

After the establishment of the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences of Comenius University in 2002, the UNESCO Chair was included into its organizational structure. In 2015 the Rector of Comenius University decided to transfer its structures under the Rectorate of Comenius University in order to serve the needs of all faculties of the University.

 Activities

 The main objective of this UNESCO Chair is to contribute to the building of an integrated system of human rights research, education, information and documents.

The basic ongoing activities include a wide range of standard scientific research, publication and popularization, as well as pedagogical and dissemination activities, which are realized on the basis of political science and multidisciplinary (domestic and foreign) cooperation. The Chair focuses on issues of democratic theory and practice, culture of democracy, democratic citizenship and human rights, as a key to the prevention of anti-democratic manifestations.

 The expertise of the UNESCO Chair is also valuable to several expert and advisory boards of the Slovak Republic.

Since the second half of the 1990s, UNESCO Chair has been involved in the creation, formation and organization of the Human Rights Olympics project for secondary schools in Slovakia, working both with the pedagogical staff and with pupils. Besides 2 regional editions, 23 national editions have been held so far (until June 2021). UNESCO Chair for Human Rights Education has been the professional sponsor of the Human Rights Olympics since the beginning.

 Contact

UNESCO Chair for Human Rights Education                                             
Doc. Erik Láštic, PhD                                                                     

erik.lastic@uniba.sk
Univerzity Komenského v Bratislave
Šafárikovo nám. 6, P.O. BOX 440
814 99 Bratislava 1

https://uniba.sk/en/about/faculties-and-units/unesco-chair-for-human-rights-education/

UNESCO Chair on Sustainable Development and Ecological Awareness, Technical University in Zvolen

The Chair offers education in cross-sectional and influential subjects from the area of ecologization of the social development, the implementation of principles of sustainable development, environmental management, environmental legislation, ecological optimalization of the spatial organization of landscape, regional development, integrated management of river-basins and landscapes etc.

UNESCO Chair in Plurilingual and Multicultural Communication, Comenius University in Bratislava 

The Chair was established as a follow-up to the UNESCO Chair for Translation, founded in 1998. Social development has changed the aims and operation of the new UNESCO Chair, which was officially created by signing a renewed agreement between the University and UNESCO in 2016.

Since 2013, the main research priority is the creation of very large corpora (“TenTen” class) using WaC technology (“Web as Corpus”) consisting of texts downloaded from the Internet using automated procedures and processed by open-source tools (FLOSS). Corpora have 'language neutral' (Latin) names (the word araneum pl. Aranea in Latin means 'web') indicating the language and size of the corpus. Aranea's 'family' corpora currently covers 23 languages, and for some languages, ​​there are corpora of regional varieties of the language. Language corpora are available in two or three sizes (minus, maius, maximum).

Access to language corpora is free of charge. Within the Comenius University and other Slovak universities, it contributes mainly to the development of translation techniques using new technologies. Given the UNESCO's priorities, the Chair is also involved in the creation of language versions of African French and English.

The fact that ARANEA corpora are used by students, PhD students, educators and researchers from many countries confirms that the work of the Chair has a significant "social impact" and is meaningful.

The UNESCO Chair also published a unique university textbook: Benko V. - Butašová A. - Puchovská Z. (2019): Web corpora of Aranea: Textbook for foreign language teachers, translators, interpreters, philologists and students of philological fields. Bratislava: Comenius University in Bratislava, ISBN 978-80-223-4663-4, 180 p.

In addition to its research activities, the Chair also carries out pedagogical activities – a wide range of subjects is taught on both bachelor's and master's levels.

Contact:

UNESCO Chair in Plurilingual and Multicultural Communication

Comenius University
Šafárikovo nám. 6
818 06 Bratislava 1

Information about the activities of this UNESCO Chair may be found on http://unesco.uniba.sk/