ELINET’s European Declaration of Digital Literacy as a Basic Right of Children available in Croatian
In November 2022, marking World Children’s Day, the Croatian Reading Association (CroRA) published the Croatian translation of the European Declaration of Digital Literacy as a Basic Right of Children, issued in July 2022 by the European Literacy Policy Network (ELINET).
ELINET’s literacy professionals, including Snježana Berak and Kristina Čunović from CroRA, adopted the Declaration in Dublin, Ireland, as part of the 22nd European Literacy Conference. Complying with the European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade and the latest European strategy for a better internet for kids (BIK+), the Declaration is aimed at extending the right to literacy, recognised as a fundamental human right for more than half a century, and enabling precisely the youngest members of society to develop skills necessary for locating, comprehending, integrating, evaluating, creating and using data from a wide range of today’s information sources, as well as for expressing themselves through textual, visually-oriented and digital means of communication.
Included in the Declaration among good practice examples with regard to the necessary preconditions for exercising the right to this contemporary type of literacy which the young generations today cannot do without are two examples from Croatia – the solutions for easy and improved reading and learning developed by the Omoguru company, whose Lexie app offers titles in the collections of the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK), and the work and content for persons with complex communication needs available on the ICT-AAC Competence network platform, led by the faculties making part of the University of Zagreb.
Not forgetting that well-developed language competence, especially good reading and writing skills, are a vital and necessary prerequisite to acquiring digital literacy, the National and University Library in Zagreb invites all Croatian libraries, as well as all other institutions making part of the Croatian heritage and cultural sectors to take part in raising public awareness of the importance of digital literacy for all members of society, particularly for the young.
