The topics of our workshops and seminars

– History and relevance of human rights

– Interactive Fritz Bauer Library – Worldwide stories of resistance and survival

– Life and work of the jurist and Auschwitz prosecutor Dr. Fritz Bauer

– Nazi trials and the fight against impunity of human rights violations

– Rethinking History – International Cultures of Remembrance and “Transitional Justice”

We are currently working on a pilot project to develop instructions for using our interactive Fritz Bauer Library in schools and in extracurricular educational work.

If you are interested in a cooperation or in a workshop and seminar, please contact us!

Contact

info@buxus-stiftung.de

Our Approach

“The good in the human being must be liberated,
conditions must be created for him to grow.”
Fritz Bauer

The starting point of the educational offers of the non-profit BUXUS FOUNDATION is the gap between human rights on the one hand and massive human rights violations on the other. In times of increasing inhuman hostility, it is this contradiction that constantly makes it necessary to work together for the accomplishment of human rights. According to Fritz Bauer, democracy is not a steamship whose captain is entrusted to us, but a boat in which we all have to row along.

For people to be able to survive “in the struggle for human rights” (Fritz Bauer), they must know their rights and have the necessary powers of resistance to be able to stand up for these rights in everyday life as well as in the “bad days of barbaric injustice”. An “intelligent human rights education” (Thomas Buergenthal), which enables people to say no when human dignity is in danger, therefore has a key function. Since the “United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training” in 2011, there should be no doubt about this. Nevertheless, there is considerable need for action in educational practice and there is still a long way to go before the Declaration is implemented.

Human rights practice

What is special about the educational approach of the BUXUS FOUNDATION is that human rights are not conveyed abstractly, but concretely through stories of resistance and survival. For this purpose, we use the interactive online database of the Fritz Bauer Library, which provides biographies of persons who have supported or are currently supporting the realisation of human rights. The database facilitates intercultural exchange, creates spaces for interaction, and uses exemplary stories to show that the phrase “We can’t change anything anyway”, which is all too often heard, has no basis whatsoever.

Within the framework of our workshops, seminars, exhibitions and research walks, the participants deal with the topic of human rights and resistance and have the opportunity to research stories themselves and enter them into the database. Thus they become part of the practice of human rights.

The offer of the BUXUS STIFTUNG is – in close consultation with the client – tailored to the participants in order to avoid both under- and overstraining. It is aimed at pupils, students, practitioners of various professions and all those who advocate or wish to campaign for human rights.

For human rights organizations and defenders

In addition, the BUXUS STIFTUNG sees itself as a voice for human rights defenders and organisations who are confronted daily with stories of resistance and survival. All too often these stories remain untold. In our seminars and workshops, which are specially designed for this target group, the participants get to know the interactive online database as a tool for archiving their own stories and making them public. Thus the BUXUS STIFTUNG makes a valuable contribution against forgetting and gives a voice to all those who are currently in search of justice.

Knowing that we cannot make heaven out of earth, we want to make a contribution so that „the human rights violations of today do not become the massacres of tomorrow“ (Kofi Annan).

If you have any questions about our educational program and approach, are interested in a workshop or an event, please do not hesitate to contact us!