EducationMEYRSchool Initiative

“St Thomas More College Students Embark on Transformative Human Rights Experience in Poland”

A group of 10 students in the tenth year of St Thomas More College Secondary School Zejtun, have participated in a Youth Exchange programme in Krzyzowa, Poland, organised by the Ethics Department within the Directorate for Early Years, Languages and Humanities (DELH). Mr Roger Tirazona, Head of Department, together with Ms Mandy Cassar Conti, Ethics teacher, accompanied the students for this Erasmus+ funded project called MICC School. The students spent a week with high school students from Poland, Germany, Slovakia, and the United States of America receiving training about Human Rights, the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Rome Statute, basics of jurisprudence, as well as Media and Digital Literacies.

The MICC School project provides an opportunity for immersing students in a simulation of the trials at the ICC, where students can take the roles of judges, prosecuting and defence lawyers, as well as press journalists; working on three real cases that were handled in the past by the ICC. This immersive experience not only provided in-depth human rights education but also provided an education for justice aimed at nurturing future leaders with integrity and social consciousness, fulfilling Sustainable Development Goal 16 and Goal 4 of the United Nations.

The students worked collaboratively with their international peers to build strong cases for the trial simulations and were praised for their level of maturity despite being the youngest group. They were meant to reflect on the cases within their roles, and the intention of critical thinking towards perspective-taking was achieved, as they found both sides of the arguments compelling and realised the weight and difficulty of their decisions. They also got to share an animated and dramatised presentation about Maltese culture, specifically their community in the south of Malta. They also shared some tasty Maltese treats with the other groups.

An excursion to visit a beautiful Baroque wooden church in Swidnica was organised, together with another visit to the beautiful cathedral at the city of Wroclaw, to make this a highly formative and memorable experience for the students,

The Ethics Department would like to thank DELH, the Kreisau Initiative, the Malta Human Rights Education Centre for making this project possible, as well as Mr Adrian Galea Head of School and Mr George Psaila Head of College Network for supporting this initiative.