Raising awareness of the protection of human rights, establishing a "widespread democratic citizenship": these are some of the goals of the Forum on democratic culture in higher education that is in progress today and tomorrow at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. "Experts in higher education from Europe, North America and other parts of the world will take part explains a release from the CoE in the Forum", at the end of which a statement should be adopted and a specialised website should be opened. The Forum itself "relies on some activities of the Council of Europe, such as the pilot project about universities as a place of citizenship and the European Year of Citizenship through Education", celebrated in 2005. The CoE started a long time ago a number of initiatives in the area of higher education that can be consulted at www.coe.int/higher-education. The Palais de l’Europe is also seeing the preparation for the summer session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the CoE, due from June 26th to 30th. "The alleged secret detentions of CIA in Europe, the illegal interstate transfers in the continent and the balance between freedom of expression and respect of religious beliefs" will be high on the agenda. The floor will be given to the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
