The International Coordinating Committee and its accreditation process
C. p ubliC eduCatioN
3. Educational initiatives in the informal sector
Educational initiatives need to reach people outside the formal school system, in par-ticular street children, working children and homeless children and young adults. Non-governmental organizations working with these groups sometimes offer informal educational opportunities.
Similarly, governmental and/or community efforts can be mobilized towards literacy training for adults. Again, some institutions cooperate in these efforts, sometimes simply by developing human rights-related material that can be used to teach literacy.
Professional training: General
Professional training generally includes four components:
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■ An information component—what human rights are and why they are important;
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■ A knowledge component—what particular rights standards are and how they ap-ply to the professional context;
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■ A practical component—applying human rights standards to the work of the professional being trained; and
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■ An awareness component—how can the attitudes and behaviour of the profes-sional being trained change so that human rights violations do not occur?
Professional training aims at a complete understanding of human rights standards and supports the transformation of knowledge into operational skills. The sessions are, therefore, longer and more detailed than general awareness sessions and often involve outside experts. For these same reasons, professional training programmes tend to be relatively costly.
National human rights institutions should start by seeking the agreement and co-operation of the organization itself to carry out professional training. Where this willingness is lacking, ongoing negotiations may be necessary, with the organization and with Government leaders to build support. There may be instances where profes-sional training is the result of a binding ruling as a result of a human rights violation or a complaint, and the organization can be shown that its potential liability may be mitigated if it can demonstrate that it has provided appropriate human rights training to its employees.
While NHRIs may conduct training programmes, especially at the beginning, most de-sign their efforts so that ongoing responsibility for the training rests with the employer.
For this reason, they often use a training-of-trainers (TOT) approach in professional training.
Professional training courses must:
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■ Suit the particular audience;
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■ Emphasize international and national human rights standards applicable to the day-to-day tasks of the professionals being trained;
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■ Use experienced trainers drawn from the same field as the participants;
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■ Ensure that trainers use adult-centred learning and TOT techniques;
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■ Create the expectation that those trained will themselves all conduct training or dis-tribute pertinent information;
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■ Alternatively, focus on those already involved in training others in the profession, so that they develop the knowledge and skills necessary to incorporate human rights effectively into their own teaching programmes;
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■ Be evaluated.
Materials on the relevant human rights issues should be made available in writing both during and after the course to make them easier to share. Effective pre-course question-naires allow trainers to prepare a programme that precisely meets the educational needs of the audience and provide them with information about expectations. Post-course evaluations allow trainers to gauge what participants have learned from the course.
They can also help NHRIs modify and improve their courses, which should be a continu-ous process.
Since the objective of the training is not only to ensure that professionals understand the appropriate human rights standard but also to effect change, longer-term evaluations should be considered. For prison guards, for example, an institution may want to see if it can establish a correlation between training and the incidence of alleged or proven human rights violations.
Professional training: Training law enforcement personnel, prison officials and the armed forces
Prison guards, law enforcement officials and army personnel deal with populations that are particularly vulnerable to human rights abuses. In addition, they have specific and direct obligations to ensure that human rights standards are respected in their day-to-day work, including through their specific operating procedures. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has a range of material available for training this group of professionals:
No. 5 Human Rights and Law Enforcement: A Manual on Human Rights Training for the Police
No. 5/Add.1 International Human Rights Standards for Law Enforcement:
A Pocket Book on Human Rights for the Police
No. 5/Add.2 Human Rights and Law Enforcement: A Trainer’s Guide on Human Rights for the Police
No. 5/Add.3 Human Rights Standards and Practice for the Police: Expanded Pocket Book on Human Rights for the Police
No. 11 Human Rights and Prisons: A Manual on Human Rights Training for Prison Officials
No. 11/Add. 1 Human Rights and Prisons: A Compilation of International Human Rights Instruments concerning the Administration of Justice
No. 11/Add. 2 Human Rights and Prisons: A Trainer’s Guide on Human Rights Training for Prison Officials
Other professionals
National human rights institutions also train judges, lawyers, parliamentarians, Government officials, journalists, members of NGOs, social workers, doctors, commu-nity leaders, etc. Typically, the purpose of training these groups is to ensure that they have the appropriate human rights knowledge and insight to carry out their work ef-fectively.
For example, human rights law is not universally taught in all law schools and has of-ten only relatively recently been introduced. Judges and senior lawyers may not have the training necessary to argue human rights cases or apply human rights principles to decisions. An NHRI may wish to fill this training gap. Parliamentarians have the main responsibility for passing laws and promoting and overseeing Government policies and practices. It is important that they should understand human rights principles to ensure that their work is consistent with, and supports, those principles. The media play a crucial role in explaining and defining the issues of the day, and can be a watchdog for executive, parliamentary and judicial action. It is therefore important that they should understand human rights so that they can take a human rights perspective in their work.
As with professional training for law enforcement officers, prison officials and the armed forces, a TOT approach may be the most efficient.
No. 8/Rev.1 The Istanbul Protocol: Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
No. 9 Human Rights in the Administration of Justice: A Manual on Human Rights for Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers
Promoting human rights through seminars/workshops56
A “seminar” is a gathering of individuals who share an interest in a human rights is-sue primarily for the purpose of sharing information, ideas and knowledge. Several variations are possible: a seminar on “human rights and HIV/AIDS”, for example, might bring together activists to share information and to better define current difficulties and needs. Another may bring together activists and medical practitioners, to discuss the hu-man rights dimensions of the problem so that medical practitioners are better equipped.
Here, one purpose is to share information, but also to raise awareness of human rights among medical practitioners in a less formal and threatening environment than a formal training initiative. Finally, a seminar might bring together activists, relevant Government officials and representatives of the medical community in a public session to discuss the issue and raise awareness among the general public.
A “workshop” is a gathering of experts on a human rights issue for the purpose of developing a specific product—a recommendation, a plan of action, a declaration, etc.—related to the matter being addressed. To continue the example, a workshop on
“human rights and HIV/AIDS” involving activists and Government officials would aim to develop a protocol for ensuring that the human rights of people living with HIV/AIDS are protected in employment. Workshops tend to be more formal and result-driven than seminars and may require the services of a strong facilitator to ensure results.
Workshops assume that there is sufficient common understanding and acceptance of the human rights issues involved by the participants to ensure that a positive result can be achieved.
56 For the purpose of this publication, the definitions of “workshop” and “seminar” set out in Professional training series No. 6, Human Rights Training: A Manual on Human Rights Training Methodology (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.00.XIV.1) will be used.
Both types of activity require careful planning: the precise purpose must be defined;
the programme must support the achievement of the objectives; participants must be selected; background material may be required; and the event must be evaluated to determine the degree to which it achieved its objectives.
As with other promotional activities, consideration should be given to developing a me-dia strategy for seminars and workshops so as to ensure that the issues discussed and the conclusions reached are widely disseminated. This may be especially important for workshops, and an advocacy and follow-up strategy may be necessary to ensure that any recommendation or advice is acted on.
d. p
ubliC aWareNessNational human rights institutions should promote a wide understanding and accep-tance of human rights principles. They may seek to do this through programmes of public awareness sessions and/or the use of the media.
Sessions to promote public awareness may be of two general types:
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■ General or public awareness campaigns, during which basic information on hu-man rights is presented to the public and the role of the NHRI is explained;
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■ Targeted campaigns, which focus on a specific right or set of rights.
National human rights institutions tend to use general public awareness sessions at the start-up stage, shortly after their establishment, especially if they perceive the human rights culture to be weak or underdeveloped. Such sessions may let the public know more about the NHRI itself and the services it offers.
General campaigns, while effective, can be relatively costly and labour-intensive. They involve face-to-face meetings throughout the country with as many people as possible.
They are also difficult to evaluate. Given the scale of the effort, therefore, general pub-lic sessions typically involve cooperation and coordination with others. Consideration should be given to using media campaigns as an adjunct, or as an alternative, to these kinds of sessions. Public sessions can also be done quickly and informally, and usually involve a representative of the institution meeting with the general public or a specific group. Targeted sessions may be used when the institution perceives that a type of right is not widely understood or honoured, or to encourage a better understanding and ac-ceptance of human rights principles in important and/or emerging areas. For example, where women’s rights are not well understood or accepted, targeted campaigns focus on making women more knowledgeable and men more respectful.
Media campaigns
In many countries, the media are the most important vehicle for expressing ideas and forming opinions. Free and independent media can be useful partners in human rights promotion:
Radio and television:
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■ National human rights institutions can develop regular, independent radio pro-grammes using, where possible, free or subsidized airtime. This is an easy and cost-effective way of reaching a large audience, especially in countries where the media are on the lookout for low-cost programming;
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■ Phone-in radio and/or television programmes are quite popular in some countries and can be used both to gauge public opinion on topical issues and to present a human rights analysis of them;
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■ Short advertising clips and public service announcements.
Radio broadcasts may be advantageous where literacy is low and television not widely available. Where resources allow and there is sufficient access by the general public, tele-vision can provide certain advantages, including, of course, the ability to present images.
Print media:
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■ Newspaper inserts (particularly effective where literacy levels are high and newspa-pers enjoy a wide circulation);
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■ Inserts on themes or to commemorate an international day, such as inserts on wom-en’s rights in collaboration with United Nations agencies, ministries with a stake in the issue and women’s NGOs to commemorate International Women’s Day;
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■ Guest editorials for printing in newspaper op-eds.
Where the press is well established, inserts can be an effective and relatively inexpensive way of providing information to the public.
Many NHRIs use press conferences organized around commemorative days or when they release their annual report, for example. Most will also routinely issue media re-leases and/or background documents to inform the media of their work, including deci-sions reached in a human rights investigation. News conferences can be effective but only if the institution has something truly newsworthy to communicate. Press releases and media background documents may be picked up, but usually only if they set out the issues in simple terms and in ways that attract media attention.
The Internet remains a potent tool for disseminating information about the NHRI:
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■ NHRI websites, containing their own information and publications, and links to on-line material, video clips and other interactive media. While this may be of limited use in reaching the public in countries where literacy is low, it ensures that human rights defenders, NGOs and the international community have access to current information about the NHRI and the human rights context;
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■ Social media, such as Facebook, YouTube and networked information sources, can offer accessible and timely information about the NHRI and its activities, especially to younger people.
National human rights institutions should develop a media strategy, including objectives (who is to be reached, how, the extent of coverage and the evaluation of the strategy).
The NHRI must have spokespersons authorized to speak on all or some issues, with back-up contacts and media protocols on the types of issues that spokespersons can address. Virtually all media operate with short deadlines; delays in getting comments to them can mean that opportunities are lost. The strategy should also be realistic about potential media pick-up. Even if a substantive report presents cogent and important in-formation, it may be unrealistic to expect the media to develop their own analysis. Press releases and background documents facilitate and improve coverage by simplifying this task for the media.
Institutions’ officials and communications staff should receive proper media training, including in handling interviews. Staff should also be trained in the preparation of press releases and the organization of press conferences. Given the important role the media can play, many NHRIs employ public relations experts or media officers to ensure that all avenues are fully exploited in their efforts to promote human rights.
e. p
ubliCatioNsThis section will look at options that are widely used by institutions:
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■ Core publications;
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■ Annual reports;
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■ Specialized human rights publications.
All of these can be produced in hard copy and online. Online publications must comply with international accessibility standards for persons with visual disabilities.