HUMAN RIGHTS PROMOTIONPROMOTION

Introduction

National human rights institutions must have a mandate to promote human rights un-der the Paris Principles. This chapter places promotion before protection, not because it is more important, but because the demands and immediacy of the protection man-date can overwhelm resources so that promotion is overlooked. It is important that this should not happen. Institutions must be able to attract and retain qualified communica-tions and public education staff, and to manage media relacommunica-tions.

Quick facts about how the promotional mandate is resourced in NHRIs An OHCHR survey shows that a number of NHRIs are not carrying out human rights education and research, despite having the mandate to do so. Many, particularly in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, have commented that they do not have enough resources or materials to do this work. The survey examined what these activities entail and how they may be undertaken. Its findings help to understand the range of possibilities that exist for promoting human rights and give general guidance on how these may be effectively realized.⁵²

Learning objectives

After reviewing this chapter, the reader will be able to:

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■ Explain why promotion is an important function for an institution and identify the guidelines that it should follow in carrying it out;

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■ Identify and describe the types of promotional activity that are typically under-taken by NHRIs; and

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■ Develop and justify a human rights promotion programme that responds to a country’s needs.

52 OHCHR, “Survey of national human rights institutions”.

a. W

aNd Why is it importaNt

?

Human rights promotion is a core function of NHRIs and a basic element of the Paris Principles. It enables information and knowledge about human rights to be dissemi-nated to the general public and to specific target groups. Ultimately, it creates a culture of human rights so that every individual in society shares the values that are reflected in the international and national human rights legal framework, and acts accordingly. A successful human rights promotion programme moves individuals beyond knowledge into action.

While laws, redress mechanisms and other measures are necessary, they are not suf-ficient. Promotion is needed to ensure that members of society:

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■ Know their rights and the redress mechanisms available to them if those rights are abused;

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■ Understand that others enjoy rights as well, and that everyone shares a responsibility for promoting and protecting those rights.

Officials in positions of authority should understand the human rights obligations they must uphold and act accordingly.

Human rights promotion is integrally linked to protection. Whether human rights viola-tions are intentional or unintentional, structural or specific, a lack of knowledge can result in actions that breach human rights principles. Sometimes traditional ways of thinking and behaving result in human rights abuse. In either case, human rights educa-tion and the inculcaeduca-tion of human rights values can promote change in behaviour with-out the need for punitive sanctions. Successful human rights promotion can therefore help prevent human rights violations from occurring in the first place.

International treaties place an obligation on the State to undertake the promotion.

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (art. 13), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (art. 29), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (art. 10) and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (art. 7), all provide that education in human rights is a State obligation. The declarations and programmes of action that re-sulted from the world conferences, including from the 1993 Vienna World Conference, reflect these obligations.

Institutions may undertake a variety of initiatives to promote human rights, and are limited only by their resources and imagination. The following are common, but this list is by no means exhaustive:

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■ Human rights education and training, including in schools and in the informal sectors, as well as professional training;

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■ Public awareness initiatives, including campaigns, local events and sessions, either for the general public or targeting particular groups;

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■ Media strategies, including press conferences, press releases and newspaper in-serts; radio and television interviews and public service announcements;

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■ Publications, including general information pamphlets, annual and special reports, website material and material developed for a target audience;

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■ Community-based initiatives as a public vehicle for promoting human rights; and

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■ Policy development, to ensure that knowledge is developed and disseminated about emerging human rights issues and the approach that the NHRI takes or will take to them.

The extent to which the above-mentioned approaches are used, or whether others are adopted, will depend on:

– The level of human rights awareness among the population (if it is relatively high, the NHRI may decide not to carry out sessions for the general public);

– Priority human rights concerns (e.g., if the human rights of women are not respected, an institution might develop programming to address this);

– The maturity of the institution (a newly established institution might focus on inform-ing the public about its existence and the services it can offer, an activity that might be less essential for older and well-known institutions);

– The sophistication of the institution (a newly established institution might bring in outside experts to carry out specialized training for the police, for example);

– The literacy rate of the target population (radio spots might replace print publications to reach a remote and largely illiterate audience);

– The financial resources (television spots may be effective, but are also costly unless the station agrees to offer public service announcements); and

– The possibility of cooperation (the cost and complexity of general human rights ori-entation sessions locally can be reduced if done in partnership with local NGOs, for example).

The Plan of Action for the first phase (2005–2009) of the World Programme for Human Rights Education included “education, training and information aiming at building a universal culture of human rights,” as well as awareness-raising and establishing docu-mentation centres (A/59/525/Rev.1).⁵³ It was adopted by the General Assembly in July 2005 and is available from the OHCHR website. The second phase focuses on higher education and on human rights training programmes for teachers and educators, civil servants, law enforcement officials and military personnel at all levels.

53 A. Benavot and C. Braslavsky (eds.), School Knowledge in Comparative and Historical Perspective: Chan-ging Curricula in Primary and Secondary Education (Dordrecht, Netherlands, Springer, 2007).

b. g

1. Programme-based and strategic

Institutions’ promotional activities should be programme-based, i.e., planned and tai-lored to meet defined needs, and should be:

– Appropriate for the audience;

– Designed to achieve their intended results;

– Evaluated to determine the extent to which those results have been achieved.

Programme-based activities should be strategic, cooperative and leveraged.

Strategic approaches are developed through planning, with each element reinforcing strategic priorities. Activities should be progressive (from basic to more specific and in-depth). The development of a publication on human rights and HIV/AIDS, for example, could be coupled with a general awareness programme and lead to a national seminar on the subject. Doing this not only reinforces core messages, but also keeps costs down.

While some promotional activity may be considered core—annual reports, for example, or publications on what the NHRI does—the promotional programme as a whole should respond to identified strategic needs. A strategic approach also implies cooperation with partners. This helps to leverage resources, amplify messaging, improve com-munity relations and minimize duplication. Cooperation also minimizes important gaps in the programme and, to the extent possible, avoids contradictory messages. Some institutions, for example, have created national promotion and education committees that include representatives from civil society for the specific purpose of encouraging and facilitating cooperation.

Leverage is achieved by training trainers, which, if carried out properly, can produce spin-offs, most notably an increase in the number of promotional or training sessions and in the number of persons reached. Two factors are crucial to its success. First, the training must give individuals both the knowledge and the skills to train others. Second, since success depends on the individuals trained having the financial capacity or mate-rial resources to carry the programme forward, it is important to consider and support follow-up activities in the design stage.

2. Learner-centred

Training and educational activities should be participant- or learner-centred, i.e., rec-ognize, first, that each individual involved in the training activity brings something of quality that should be exploited and, second, that individuals learn best by active partici-pation rather than passive listening. Panel discussions, group discussions and break-out sessions, role play, case studies and practical exercises should all be exploited.

Human Rights Training: A Manual on Human Rights Training Methodology⁵⁴ reinforces this approach, stating that human rights training should be:

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■ Interactive: since individuals learn best when they are involved in the process, the experience of trainees should be drawn on through interaction and active participa-tion;

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■ Flexible: the trainer must allow for and encourage participation and not be overly

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■ Relevant: the training should relate to the day-to-day experience of the trainee, especially for professional training;

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■ Varied: varying the training techniques helps keep the trainees motivated and inter-ested.

3. Programmes should exploit the media

As a general principle, when designing promotional and educational activities consid-eration should be given to how the media can be brought in and engaged. Positive media coverage can raise the profile of the NHRI and its work, and encourage access to it. Moreover, media involvement can help to inform journalists and makes it more likely that in their daily work they will have a human rights focus or, at least, a human rights awareness. Staff should have training in communications and media relations, as the media can have a critical role in ensuring that the NHRI is well perceived externally.⁵⁵ There are a number of reasons why it is important for an institution to make its deci-sions public.

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■ Creating a culture of human rights includes promoting an open and honest discus-sion of human rights. The open use of the media encourages this;

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■ The NHRI aims to improve the existing human rights situation. This requires it to be able to communicate openly and to use press organs to inform the public and mobi-lize public opinion;

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■ Impunity thrives in an environment of secrecy. Publicizing perceived wrongdoings opens up the issue to public scrutiny and helps hold the Government and, as neces-sary, the individual accountable for action or inaction;

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■ Reporting on the work of the institution also informs the public about its existence and the ways in which it can assist;

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■ Any public and democratic institution must be open and transparent in its activities.

An NHRI must lead by example in this respect.

Communications planning is a key part of any media strategy. Communications are often treated as a mere add-on. In fact, communications are part of strategic planning and should be closely integrated into it, including an analysis of the strengths and weak-nesses of the NHRI, and the particular characteristics of the media and the human rights environment.

55 See R. Carver, “Developing a communications plan”, ACE Project, Media and Elections, available from http://aceproject.org/ace-en/topics/me.