“Capture Corruption” Regional Competition

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An annual student regional anti-corruption competition (sponsored by the U.S. Departments of State and Justice and the U.S. Embassies in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia) will be conducted to encourage the Balkan student population to develop public awareness campaigns that advocate for intolerance and rejection of corruption.  The students will design anti-corruption posters (grade school), create PSA videos (high school) and compete for national and regional recognition and electronic prizes (Kindle, Go Pro cameras and iPad) for the best anti-corruption campaign.

“Mladi za društvo bez korupcije” (Youth for a corruption-free society) #безкорупција, #pakorrupsion, #corruptionfree

Description of Contest Objectives

The U.S. Embassies in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia are organizing a contest for elementary and high school students in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia to promote shared values of youth in the United States and in the region – to fight corruption in all its forms.  The goal of the competition is to empower the youth in the region to envision better societies based on zero tolerance for corruption.

Eligible contestants:

All grade school students from 5th to 8th grade are eligible to participate in the grade school portion of the contest, and all high school students (grades 1-4) are eligible to participate in the high school portion of the contest.

Contestants who are under 18 years of age are required to include a signed and scanned permission slip from a parent or a legal guardian with their contest submission. The permission slip should contain the following text:

I (name and surname), the undersigned, as the parent or legal guardian of the contest participant hereby give permission to (name and surname of the child) to participate in all stages of the contest, and confirm that to the best of my knowledge, the submitted materials are the original and individual work of the participant alone.

Students who are 18 years or older are required to send a signed and scanned statement:

I (name and surname), the undersigned, herby confirm that the submitted materials are my original and individual work.

Platforms

The contest will be conducted on the YouTube video sharing platform and on the Facebook page “Bez Korupcije Без корупција Pa Korrupsion” (Corruption-free!); however, YouTube and Facebook are not partners or sponsors of the contest.  Contestants are reminded that by participating in the contest and uploading content to YouTube or Facebook, they are bound by YouTube’s or Facebook’s Terms of Service and any agreements with a third party contained therein.

Submissions for this contest may be announced and promoted on various social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter.  However Facebook and Twitter are not partners or sponsors of the contest and contest entry and administration will take place through email and YouTube.

How to Enter

Elementary school students:

Elementary school students are invited to make a poster that addresses the contest theme: Youth for a corruption-free society! How do you think corruption influences you and your community, and what would you like to see done differently? How can you stop or prevent corruption in your school, community and your daily life in general? What would you do to promote meritocracy in school – a school environment free of cheating and plagiarism?  The poster should have a title and/or slogan, and must be the original work of an individual student. The contestant, and not the contest sponsors, are liable for any intellectual property violations.  Contestants may submit no more than one poster.

Posters may be sent electronically, scanned to a .pdf or .jpg image, and attached to an email that contains the contact info of the author, or physically by post or carrier, with a letter containing the contact info of the authorThe manner of submission will not influence the judging.

Students from grades 5-8 who choose to submit their posters electronically participate by sending the scanned version of their contest submission to the email bezkorupcije2017@gmail.com or (for submissions in Albanian) pakorrupsion@gmail.com with the scanned permission slip signed by their parent or legal guardian. The body of the email the submission is attached to must contain information on the participant: First and last name, country of residence, grade and school, contact email and phone/mobile number, and the title or slogan of the poster. The subject of the email should be the name of the contest Без корупција or Pa korrupsion!  The posters and permission slips sent electronically should be in .pdf or .jpg format.

High school students:

High school students are invited to create an original video that addresses the contest theme: Youth for a corruption free society. How does corruption influence you, your community and the society in your country? What would you like to see done differently­?  How can you stop or prevent corruption in your school, community and your daily life in general? What would you do to promote meritocracy in school – a school environment free of cheating and plagiarism?  Upload the video under your own username, captioning the video with the hashtag #безкорупција or #pakorrupsion.  The video submission can be uploaded in any format or size accepted by YouTube, but should not be longer than three minutes.  Once a video is uploaded to YouTube, it is considered a final submission and may not be modified, edited, or replaced.  Individual contestants may submit no more than one video.  The submitted video must be the original work of an individual student and between 1.5 and 3 minutes long. Videos should, in a creative and innovative way, address the issue of how each of us can fight corruption in our everyday lives.

Students from high school grades 1-4 participate by uploading their contest submission video to YouTube using the hashtag #безкорупција. After uploading the video to YouTube, participants send an email to bezkorupcije2017@gmail.com or (for submissions in Albanian) pakorrupsion@gmail.com containing the link to the video, with the information on the participant: Name and last name, date of birth, home address, grade and school, contact email and phone/mobile number and the title of the video. The subject of the email should be the name of the contest Без корупција, or Pa korrupsion and the signed permission slip or the statement confirming the work is original, depending on the age of the participant, must be attached. The statement should be in .pdf or .jpg format.

Submissions that do not have the signed permission slips/statements attached will be disqualified. By submitting the posters and videos, participants agree to their publication on social and other media.

The selection process

All submission will be evaluated by a committee and the best in all categories will be selected based on the following criteria: creativity, innovation, understanding of issues and problems of corruption, ideas and suggestions, and overall impression. Technical performance, technology used and the image quality will not be crucial in the selection, but the committee will pay attention to them. The committee will also take into account the age and maturity of the contestant.

The committee will select national winners in both categories, regional winners in both categories and an overall regional winner.  

The organizer reserves the right to review and approve any proposal and suggestion, and eventually remove the proposal to prevent possible manipulations and irregularities.

All eligible submissions will be made public on the Facebook page of the contest Bez Korupcije Без корупција Pa Korrupsion and participants can invite friends to vote (Like) their proposals and with it, to assist the committee in selecting the winners of their choice, even though participants will be awarded solely by decision of the committee.

The contest commences on November 6, 2017.  Entries may be submitted between November 6 and November 27.  Judging begins on November 28, 2017 and ends on December 5 2017. The winners will be officially announced and notified by International Anti-corruption Day, December 9, 2017 on the Facebook page “Bez Korupcije Без корупција Pa Korrupsion” and the U.S. Embassy’s social media channels.

Content Requirements

  1. Submissions must not contain obscenity, explicit sexual material, nudity, profanity, graphic violence, calls or incitement to violence, commercial solicitation or commercial promotion. Submissions must conform to local law and must not contain content or images that could be considered abusive, inflammatory, denigrating, or disrespectful to any of the Contest Sponsors, or to any groups, individuals or institutions.  Submissions must adhere both in appearance and in fact to the norms of civil discourse.  In other words, the content of all submission must be suitable for a global, public audience.
  2. Submissions must be original content created by contestant and must not contain any elements that are protected by someone else’s copyright or otherwise subject to third party intellectual property or proprietary rights, including privacy and publicity rights (except as expressly permitted below in (d)). Contest Sponsors recognize no allowance for “fair use” of copyrighted material, nor do Contest Sponsors recognize allowance for use of licensed materials created or owned by a third party.
  3. Contest Sponsors reserve the right to disqualify, in their sole and absolute discretion, any submission that does not adhere to these criteria and to the intent and substance of these Official Contest Rules.
  4. In the event of any question or difference of views regarding compliance with, interpretation, or application of these content requirements or other provisions of these Official Contest Rules, Contest Sponsors reserve the exclusive right to resolve such questions or differences of views in their sole discretion.
  5. By submitting a video or the poster to the contest, the contestant affirms that he or she has obtained written consent from all individuals whose image or likeness appears in the video or poster (or from the individuals’ parent/legal guardian if any such individuals are considered a minor in their country of residence), and that he or she has obtained the necessary rights, licenses, consents, and permissions to use all material such as music, images, text and other content in the submission. The contestant further affirms that he or she is prepared to provide reliable documentation of any and all such consents, licenses, etc., upon request.  Failure to obtain such rights, license consents, and permissions may result in the disqualification of the video submission at the Contest Sponsors’ sole and absolute discretion.
  6. Editing of Video: All conventional video-editing techniques are allowable.  Videos may be edited through any program and in any format, but must be compressed and submitted in a format accepted by the YouTube platform.

Eligibility

  1. Contestants must be enrolled in school and not younger than 10 on the date of entry into the contest. Parental or legal guardian consent is required for individuals under the age of 18 as described above under “How to enter.”  Contestants must be residents of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro or Serbia and may not be U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents of the USA.
  2. The individual submitting the entry will be considered the contestant and will be the only individual eligible to compete for the prize. Organizations are not eligible to compete for the prize, either as an entity or through representation by an individual.  In order to be eligible for the prize, the contestant must provide complete and accurate information.
  3. The following individuals are not eligible to participate in the contest: Employees, interns, directors, and officers of the Contest Sponsors, or the U.S. Government, or any employees, interns, directors, or officers of any agencies, companies or entities involved in the administration, advertising, judging, creation, development, execution, and/or fulfillment of this contest, and the immediate family members (defined as spouse, recognized partner, parent, child, sibling, and spouse or “step” of each) and those living in the same household of each such individual.
  4. Once a submission has been accepted for entry into the contest, the contestant’s name (or User ID, if the contestant wishes to remain anonymous) and country may be publicly identified at the sole discretion of the contestant.
  5. Winners may be invited to participate in a public celebratory event organized by the Contest Sponsors.

Selection of Winners

  1. All contest submissions are subject to pre- screening by US Embassy employees to ensure compliance with these Official Contest Rules. Any submission out of compliance will not be posted.  The US Embassy reserves the right in their sole and absolute discretion to verify in the final analysis whether a potential finalist or potential winning submission has fully complied with these Official Contest Rules before posting to the contest site, awarding prize, recognizing as winner, etc.
  2. Judges: The contest committee will be comprised of staff from the U.S. Embassies in the participating countries
  3. Judging Criteria: The best contest submissions will be chosen by the committee. The committee will look at creativity and imagination in storytelling and originality of the idea. Technical performance and technology used are not crucial element for evaluation. Judges will take into account age and maturity of the contestant. Submissions will be judged on a scale of 1 to 5.
  4. Winners: Each winner and/or finalist will be required to sign and return to Contest Sponsors a statement of eligibility and liability/publicity release, and provide a short bio (where applicable) and a brief statement about the submission; otherwise the winner or finalist will be ineligible for any prize. The inability of Contest Sponsors to contact a potential winner may result in disqualification and/or selection of an alternate winner from among all remaining eligible submissions.
  5. Winners and finalists may be announced on the Embassy website and/or social media pages. Winners and finalists may choose to use an alias instead of their real name and may request other identifying information be kept private.  

Prize(s)           1st Prize: iPad Mini 2

                        2nd Prize: GoPro Camera

                        3rd Prize: Kindle

Winners have to confirm the acceptance of the prize in an email reply within three calendar days.  If the acceptance is not confirmed by the required date, the Contest Sponsors reserve the right to select an alternative winner.  Each winner must provide a valid physical mailing address where a prize, if any, is to be shipped.  Contest Sponsors are not responsible for any problems related to the shipping of any prize, including, but not limited to, theft, delay, damage, or destruction/accidental loss by the shipping carrier.

a.       Any unused portion of the prize is not transferable, convertible, or exchangeable and cannot be taken as cash.  All taxes on or in connection with any prize, and the reporting consequences thereof, are the sole and exclusive responsibility of the winner.

Liability and Rights

a.       Contest Sponsors do not endorse any submissions or messages expressed therein, and Contest Sponsors expressly disclaim any and all liability in connection with the submitted materials including potential disputes between collaborators related to a submission.

b.      The contest and its sponsors do not permit copyright infringing activities or infringement of any other intellectual property rights, and Contest Sponsors reserve the right to remove and disqualify any submission they deem to be in violation of another party’s copyright or other intellectual property rights.

c.       Contestants retain sole ownership of their original work.  The submission remains the intellectual property of the contestant, and the Contest Sponsors and U.S. Government make no claim of copyright as to the work of any individual who enters the contest.  Contestant specifically agrees to give the Contest Sponsors permission to use all content submitted for purposes of judging the contest.  Finalists and/or winners will be required to grant Contest Sponsors, with proper attribution through whatever means they deem appropriate, a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sub-licensable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, and/or display the submission, in any media formats and through any media channels in perpetuity in connection with the activities and operations of the contest.

d.      The contestant assumes sole responsibility for the contest submission and the material contained in it, and for any consequences of submitting or posting it.

e.       Contest Sponsors reserve the right at any time, to verify the validity of entries and of contestants and to disqualify any contestant or entry deemed not in compliance with these Official Contest Rules.  Contest Sponsors also reserve the right to request further documentation, at their sole and absolute discretion, to verify eligibility and compliance with these Official Contest Rules.

f.        If a prize or any portion thereof is unavailable, Contest Sponsors, in their sole discretion, reserve the right to substitute the prize with another prize of equal or greater value and/or specification.

g.      Contest Sponsors reserve the right, at any time and in their sole discretion, to disqualify and/or deem ineligible any individual who they reasonably believe (i) has violated the Official Contest Rules; (ii) has violated the terms of use of the platform, or (iii) is acting in a bad faith, or in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner, or with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any other person.

h.      Contest Sponsors reserve the right to modify, suspend, terminate or cancel the contest at their discretion for any reason.

i.        Contestant agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Contest Sponsors, their parent, subsidiary and affiliated companies, officers, directors, employees, interns,  and agents, from and against any and all claims, damages, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs or debts, and expenses (including but not limited to attorney’s fees) arising from the (i) violation of these Official Contest Rules;  (ii) violation of any third party right, including without limitation any copyright, trademark, intellectual property, privacy, publicity, or other proprietary right in connection with the contest; or (iii) any claim that a contest submission caused any harm, including financial, to any third party. These indemnification and hold harmless obligations will survive indefinitely beyond the conclusion of the contest.

j.        The conduct, judging, and awarding of prizes will be carried out in full compliance with applicable U.S. law and host country law.  In the event of a conflict between U.S. law and host country law, U.S. law shall apply.

k.      Contest Sponsors and the U.S. Government will take reasonable measures to protect privacy data, personally identifiable information, and other sensitive data of contestants.  Contact information provided by contestants may be stored by the U.S. Embassy in Zagreb and may be used to contact contestants for other purposes in the future.  This information may be shared with the co-sponsors of the contest and/or be made available to third parties to the extent permitted by law.

l.        Contest Sponsors assume no liability or responsibility for any loss or harm resulting from any user’s participation in or attempt to participate in the contest or ability or inability to upload, download, send via post or carrier, or otherwise submit their contest entry or access any information in connection with participating in the contest.  Contest Sponsors assume no responsibility or liability for any problems related to the shipping of the contest submission, including, but not limited to, theft, delay, damage, or destruction/accidental loss by the shipping carrier technical problems, or technical malfunctions arising in connection with the operation of the contest, including: hardware or software errors; faulty computer, telephone, cable, satellite, network, electronic, wireless or Internet connectivity, or other online communication problems; errors or limitations of any Internet service providers, servers, hosts or providers; garbled, jumbled or faulty data transmissions; failure of any email transmissions to be sent or received; lost, late, delayed or intercepted email transmissions; inaccessibility of the contest site in whole or in part for any reason; traffic congestion on the Internet or the contest site; unauthorized human or non-human intervention in the operation of the contest, including without limitation, unauthorized tampering, hacking, theft, virus, bugs, worms; or destruction of any aspect of the contest, or loss, miscount, misdirection, inaccessibility or unavailability of an email account used in connection with the contest.

m.    Use of contest site is at user’s own risk.  Contest Sponsors are not responsible for any personal injury, property damage, or losses of any kind which may be sustained to computer equipment resulting from participation in the contest, use of the contest site or the downloading of information from the contest site.  By participating in the contest, the contestant releases Contest Sponsors from any and all claims arising from or relating to such contestant’s participation in the contest, whether directly or indirectly.

n.      Contest Sponsors are not liable in the event that any portion of the contest is cancelled or delayed due to weather, fire, strike, acts of war or terrorism, or any other reason.

By | 6 November, 2017 | Topics: Education, News

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