Activities and Accomplishments
The activities provided by the project “Debate on peace education and disarmament” were:
- Creating and Publishing the research packet;
- Conduction of 2 trainings with the debate clubs of Shkodra and Gramsh on the project’s issues;
- Organization of 2 local Policy Debate Tournaments with the resolution: The government should draw stronger policies on small weapons!
- Organization of one National Policy Debate Tournament;
Publishing of the research packet
During the month of October the working team performed a research work, which was based on two main streams. The first one consisted on the gathering of information and materials from Internet, magazines, and other sources and its selection. The information provided aimed to increase the awareness about the issues on gun control policies and peace education. The second stream was more specific and it was based on articles, facts and examples implementation of gun control programs and strategies.
The research packet was prepared, revised and published. Through the “research packets” the students get to know more about the issues, enabling them to debate confidently on the topic.
Conduction of 2 trainings with the debate clubs of Shkodra and Gramsh on the project’s issues; and the local Policy Debate Tournaments
Two local training seminars and Policy Debate Tournaments with debaters and coaches were organized respectively on the cities of Shkodra and Gramsh. 2 teams of ANDA trainers traveled to the 2 cities to conduct the training seminars and the debate tournaments, respectively in:
Gramsh
November 14, 15
Number of participants 30
Shkoder
November 13, 14
Number of participants 40
The first day there was training on debate technical issues with a strong focus on the specific topic, relating its issues within the local area problem’s manifestation. The second days, the local Policy Debate Tournaments were held.
National Policy Debate Tournament
The teams of local Debates in the of Shkodra, and Gramshi, as well 5 teams from the Tirana High Schools, met together at Chatau Linza, Tirana to participate in the National Policy Debate Tournament which took place from 21st to 23d November and debated the resolution on disarmament issues: The government should draw stronger policies on small weapons!
On the first day of the activity the participants came to the venue of the activity and a series of training were conducted:
- Training sessions on the disarmament issues;
- Training sessions on debate format: critical thinking, argumentation, and public speaking.
On Saturday, which is the debate tournament day, 6 rounds of debates were conducted. The first three rounds were pre-eliminatory rounds and than the quarterfinals, semifinals, and the finals were performed.
Self-Evaluation of Results
The self-evaluation of this project was based on two focal areas: Target group and indicators of participation in number and the quality of debates.
Concerning the target group this project achieved various degrees of target group, which benefited from it. The first and direct target group was the youth involved in debating. The students at the end of this activity were very well informed on all the subjects that were debated. This was obviously noted in the national debate tournament where the argumentation, the reasoning and the facts presented by debaters were of the very good level.
Approximately 130 students were involved with this project as debaters, and other 150 students as local facilitators, volunteers, and researchers.
The second target group of the project has been the youth and community representatives who took part in the debates as public audience.
There were present in the 2 local debate tournaments a large number of peers of debaters, professors, etc.
The quality of debates has shown to grow up from debate round to round, achieving the better of it during the quarter and semi finals.
An example of the debate is the following:
Affirmative team:
The issue: Illegal guns threaten life security and encourages crime.
Cause: The crisis of 1997 when the weapons depots were stolen.
Solution Proposed: Improving the rule of law by setting up disarmament structures. We should promote public awareness through NGOs and media. The local government will be involved in this plan. The new generation will also be educated with an anti-weapon mentality.
Timeline: 1 year
Costs: The implementing funds would come out of the state budget and would not be great. The state police that would form the disarmament structures is already paid by the state budget. Education would also be covered from the funds of the Ministry of Education. Special agreements would be made with the media as wel.
The advantages of this plan:
- Higher life security
- Fostering Albania's integration into the European Union.
Until now, NGOs have not worked enough to promote disarmament awareness. Media role has been insufficient as well. The state as well has not fully supported this agenda. Weapons kill precious human lives. The more weapons we collect, the more lives we save.
The Negative team:
We agree about the problem and the cause. Yet, we must realize that a gun could be used for self-defense as well. There are certain categories when guns become important (and legitimate)
The Affirmative team’s plan consist in improving the rule of law, and we agree that the state has not done enough. Yet, the government has consistently made its stand against illegal weapons and has succeeded to a certain degree in weapons collection. Hence, the plan does not offer anything new or substantial. Weapons collection continues, and life in Albania is not threatened as much anymore. | 
