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[BUCHAREST, 6 February 2010] - A textbook on human rights activism, being introduced in Romanian schools this year, steers away from preaching and uses interviews with global and local rights activists to suggest how young people may get involved. The Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mexican attorney Digna Ochoa and Czech playwright Vaclav Havel are some of the people interviewed for the book ‘Speak Truth to Power’ by Kerry Kennedy, the rights activist daughter of former U.S. senator and attorney general Robert F. Kennedy. Many of the interviews are included in the Romanian version of a rights educational package that is being prepared for use in some high-schools in the country. Alongside interviews with prominent global human rights defenders, the Romanian book contains discussions with local activists fighting such issues as domestic violence and the rights of the Roma. For a start, the book is being tested in selected high-schools in the capital and a few other major cities. The contents were discussed at a training session, organised for a group of 20 teachers on Feb. 4, in Bucharest, with a view to finding ways to use the textbook in the classroom. "It is a pilot project. We will see step-by-step how it will go and we are totally open to suggestions from the teachers on the educational tools, the stories and the introduction to the book," explained Federico Moro, secretary- general of the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation Europe, the human rights organisation responsible for the European publishing and promotion of Speak Truth to Power. "The book will not simply be taught by teachers to students," Moro told IPS. "It is meant to be a tool for action. We give students ideas and resources to be involved in the movement for the defence of human rights. We provide ways to get in touch with local and international human rights defenders, with local heroes and normal people working on the ground." "These voices are, most of all, a call for action, much needed because human rights violations often occur by cover of night, in remote and dark places," writes Kennedy in the introduction to the English language version. "We must bring the international spotlight to violations and broaden the community of those who know and care about the individuals portrayed. The more voices are raised in protest, the greater the likelihood of change." The book does not shy away from tackling human rights abuses in the U.S. Van Jones from the Ella Baker Centre for Human Rights discusses abuses in the U.S. criminal justice system. Fauziya Kassindja, who has sought asylum in the U.S. to escape genital mutilation in Togo, testifies to being abused by the U.S. immigration services. Vietnam War veteran Bobby Muller speaks about turning into an anti-landmines activist after first fighting for the rights of American veterans, neglected by the authorities. Muller also expresses anger at the complacency of some international responses to crises. "One of the things that really pissed me off when we were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize [in 1997, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines co-founded by Muller won the Nobel Peace Prize] - there was such a romanticised treatment in the media, to make people feel good - inspired," says Muller. "It was horseshit. People think because of Princess Diana, the fact that there was an international treaty, a Nobel Peace Prize, that it’s done, the job’s over. We need to wait a second -we have not universalised this treaty." "The textbook is not patronising," says Oana Popescu, programme director of the Romanian non-governmental organisation Aspen Institute, a partner in the rights educational programme. "We offer material that each teacher can use in the way he or she wants and adapt to issues specific to locality." "It is not normative in any way, as it is not structured on major issues such as participative democracy or tolerance," Popescu told IPS. "Because it is a collection of interviews, it allows the educational process to take place less formally and in ways which are more connected with real life." "One of the main criticisms against the Romanian educational system is that it is too detached from real life," says Popescu. Because the Romanian educational curriculum does not have human rights as a subject the book will be used as additional material in civics, history or philosophy classes. While Romania is the main testing ground for this project, the textbook is likely to be adopted in neighboring Moldova and Bulgaria. The educational package is one of the first projects to be implemented by the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation in Romania, where the group is working on opening its third global centre, modelled on existing ones in the U.S. and Italy. In Romania, the group will focus, among other things, on the rights of prisoners. A theatre play by Ariel Dorfman, ‘Speak Truth to Power: Voices from Beyond the Dark’ has already been staged in Romania with actors chosen from among prisoners serving sentences. Further information