On November  the 18th, 2020, Ellen Lange, senior expert at the Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology and the National Museum of Medicine in Norway presented to the Bulgarian seminar participants good practices from her work. She shared  examples of her work regarding  education of young people.

In her presentation, Ellen Lange talked about education in human rights in two museums – the Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology and its special department – the Norwegian Museum of Medicine.

The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology has 250-300 thousand visitors a year, over 600 exhibits, 4 different departments, one of which is the Norwegian Museum of Medicine. It is often visited by school classes and families with children. Ellen Lange shared various examples from her practice, which includes museum’s education of young people. An example of such practices is the organized exhibition “Democracy and Technology”, which examines robotics, genetics and other modern technologies making a connection with human rights and democracy.

Another exhibition is called “In My Shoes”, an exhibition organized in 2014 and held in 2015 in Oslo. Its focus is on human rights education and it is organized in cooperation with the Norwegian Health Center for undocumented immigrants which aims to provide health care to people in need. The exhibition “In My Shoes” organizes discussions on topics related to the meaning of human rights from the point of view of migrants and all asylum seekers in other countries. These and other examples from the practice of Norwegian museums were the basis for discussion with Bulgarian specialists and museum representatives about the role of museums in human rights education.

The seminars are part of the project “Increasing democratic competence and understanding of human rights among young people“, which is implemented by the Partners Bulgaria Foundation in cooperation with the Human Rights Academy, Norway, the Active Citizens Fund and with the financial support provided by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through of the EEA Financial Mechanism.