HREA Electronic Resource Centre for Human Rights Education:
The Bells of Freedom

RIGHTING WRONGS

MORAL VALUE 10; EQUALITY AND EQUITY

EXERCISE 19, THE RIGHT TO DEVELOPMENT

Overview: Article 3 of the UN Declaration on the Right to Development calls for development that benefits the people affected and requires planning in which those affected participate. According to a statement by James C.N. Paul, "There is growing recognition of the need to "democratize" activities carried on in the name of "development" and of the need to make those who engage in these activities more accountable to internationally recognized standards which protect peoples' rights and their environment. Hopefully, these objectives will be reflected in the evolution of international law during the 1990's. The articulation and application of the Human Right to Development should play a central role in these efforts." Third World Legal Studies, 1992.

Objectives: The participants should:
- gain some familiarity with the the right to development in the Banjul Charter
- be able to make the connection that people's participation is important in small matters (Case 1) and large (Case 2)
- be able to justify their views on the value of participation by those affected by a development project

Procedures: Facilitator, open up full discussion of Asfaw's case, remembering what lessons participants drew from it. A reporter may be necessary to keep track of their points. See if these points apply to the larger development scenario described and allow full critical discussion of the irrigation plan. Then close with a discussion of how the Banjul Charter should be understood. The facilitator should take steps to study a copy of the complete UN Declaration on Development

Materials: African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, UN Declaration on the Right to Development

Sequence: Step 1. Ask the participants if they have had the experience in their lives that some activity affecting them would have turned out better if they had been consulted, but the people in charge did not care to hear them?

Step 2. Tell the participants the story of the "all knowing engineer." named Asfaw.

ASFAW'S CASE (1)

Step 3. Ask the respondents by the "go around" method to say what the lessons of Asfaw's story are?

Step 4. Facilitator input: Ask the participants to consider Case (2). Suppose that an international funding agency has loaned a very large sum to the government to construct an irrigation system that will divert streams and rivers from their natural course. Suppose there will be inevitable social disruption as a result with local village people forcibly displaced.
Suppose a study shows that an increase of water-borne or water-related diseases is commonly associated with irrigation projects. Also, suppose that the new water routes will affect those displaced to new locations in such a way that women and children water carriers will have three times longer to walk to fetch water. Ask if participants see any lessons from Asfaw's case that can be applied to the big irrigation project.

Step 5. Tell participants to imagine that the funding agency in step 4 has been warned of possible opposition to proposed plan, and as a result they have sent in a consulting sociologist from Sweden to ask people like them to name various human rights and related issues that the agency should take into account in the irrigation plans. She tells local people she wants the ideas they would like to see on what she calls a "List of Human Rights to Development." Engage in some brainstorming whereby participants try to think up some proposed human rights that they would like to see in this important "List." The facilitator will have to keep careful account of those ideas that are mentioned, perhaps with the help of a volunteer report.

Step 6. Next, explain to the participants that in fact there is a UN Declaration on the Right to Development. Read parts of it. Explain also that the African Charter on Human and People's Rights has a "right to development" provision. Read the latter to them, and ask participants to try to explain what they think it means. What do they think it should mean? How could they make Article 22 more action oriented? More helpful, for example, to those affected by the water irrigation plan in Case 2?

Appendix, African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (1986), Article 22; UN Declaration on the Right to Development

African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights
1. All peoples shall have the right to their economic, social and cultural development with due regard to their freedom and identity and the equal enjoyment of the common heritage of mankind.
2 States shall have the duty individually or collectively, to ensure the exercise of the right to development.

UN Declaration on the Right to Development, (1986) Article 2
1. The human person is the central subject of development and should be the active participant and beneficiary of the right to development
2. All human beings have a responsibility for development, individually and collectively, taking into account the need for full respect for their human rights and fundamental freedoms as well as their duties to the community, which alone can ensure the free and complete fulfillment of the human being, and they should therefore promote and protect an appropriate political, social and economic order for development.

Overview: Domestic violence is a serious problem world-wide. It includes physical and sexual violence among members of a family and members of the same household. In these cases, one person gains power and control others by use of physical or emotional coercion. Some have argued that domestic violence is a private matter, nobody's business outside the family, and is shielded by the right to privacy. Opponents to tackling violence against women as a human rights issue claim that it has nothing to do with human rights. Drawing from a very traditional and limited view of human rights, they argue that human rights only concentrate on relations between the state and the individual and that what people do together in their "private lives" is excluded. Women seeking change have refused to accept this reasoning because they say the government and other authorities do have a responsibility to respond to even private forms of violence. By refusing to deal seriously with women's complaints, the state conspires in the violence. This view has won international support in the World Conference on Womens' Human Rights (Beijing, 1995) and is reflected in the recent appointment (1993) of a UN Rapporteur on Violence against Women.

Objectives: By the end of this exercise, the participants should:
- demonstrate a serious concern for violence against women as a human rights violation
- show analytical skills in sorting out the arguments regarding "rights in conflict"
- understand how the notion of privacy has been used to obstruct women's human rights
-be able to bring their new perspectives on violence against women into their daily lives
- offer recommendations about how to improve conditions to a UN fact-finder

Procedures: The facilitator will quiz the participants on their view of myths and facts about the scope and causes of domestic violence. A hypothetical scenario is presented and should supply the facilitator with the basis to prompt participants to distinguish correctly between the allegedly contending rights to privacy and the right of women to be free from violence, even in the domestic setting.

Materials: UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (1993)

Sequence: Step 1. Facilitator, outline the argument over privacy rights versus issues of domestic violence. Ask if participants have questions and whether they understand this important argument? Ask for participants' views on the subject and then note new developments since 1993 noted in the Overview statement above..

Step 2. Go through a process of contrasting myths and facts by reading a myth statement and getting participant's response. Then tell them the fact statement --again asking for response.

Myth: Domestic quarrels, beatings, and fights are characteristics of the lives of uneducated and poor people, members of lower social classes and inhabitants of slums. For people of higher economic cultural or education classes, such occurrence are more rare.

Fact: Violence against women does not know any borders. It happens everywhere in all social classes and groups.

Myth: Domestic violence is now rare. It is an occurrence of the past when people were more violent and women were considered the property of men.

Fact: The incidence of domestic violence is very frequent in our time. Legal experts and women's human rights advocates in many countries consider it to be one of the most under-reported crimes.

Myth: Women provoke the beatings by their attitudes or action. They deserve to be beaten because they have disobeyed their husbands or have done something "wrong."

Fact: This common belief illustrates that the problem of battered women is a social one which is deeply rooted in the way men and women are brought up to regard themselves. Also, this kind of thinking shows how our society draws connections between marriage and property, ownership, sex and violence. The reality is that no human being deserves to be beaten and that those who use such violence will find any excuse for their actions, even claiming that they have a right to privacy allowing them to hurt others behind closed doors.

Myth: If women wanted to, they would leave. If they stay, they must find some twisted pleasure in the beatings.

Fact: Women do not leave for many reasons, including the shame of admission, fear of future beatings or increased violence, economic dependence, lack of financial or emotional assistance, and lack of a place to stay, or more likely, a combination of factors.

Myth: The law provides adequate protection for women involved in domestic violence.

Fact: the law is traditionally weak in this area. Police around the world hesitate to interfere in what they term "domestic disputes," or "private relationships." Criminal codes of many countries do not include special provisions for women against domestic violence. Most legal systems view the problem as a competition between the two sides with equal power, (when in fact this is not the case --the male perpetrator usually has more power in many respects, socially, economically, and even legally). Some judges even view wife-beating as a natural part of family life.

Step 3. Ask the participants to speak about these issues, referring to people they know, but not by name.

Step 4. Ask the participants to image a scenario involving Mara, a young woman aged 20 who lives with her mother and step-father.

Mara's step-father regularly slaps Mara's mother in the face. Mara tells him to stop, saying that she will call the police if he does it again. When he next beats Mara's mother, Mara goes to a friend's house to call the police, but they refuse to intervene, saying, "that's just a private matter; if it was so bad, your mother would have called." The abuse gets worse, and eventually the step-father kicks Mara hard in the kidneys, and she is rushed to the hospital. Although she survives, she will suffer kidney damage for the rest of her life.

Step 5. Tell participants that in 1994, the UN finally responded to violence against women as a human rights issue by appointing a Special Rapporteur on Violence Against women. This is a global fact-finder. His/her job is to report back to the UN on how extensive the problem is from one country to another, and what can be done about it. What would you tell the rapporteur if that official came to Ethiopia to ask people about the problem of domestic violence against women and what could be done to alleviate the problem.

Appendix for Exercise 20: The UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (adopted by the General Assembly in 1993)

Article 1. The... term "violence against women" means any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such action, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life.

Article 4. States should condemn violence against women and should not involve any custom, tradition or religious consideration to avoid their obligations with respect to its elimination. (d) develop penal, civil, labor and administrative sanctions in domestic legislation to punish and redress the wrongs caused to women who are subjected to women. (e) consider the possibility of developing national plans of action to promote the protection of women against any form of violence or to include provisions for that purpose in plans already existing, taking into account, as appropriate, such cooperation as can be provided by nongovernmental organizations, particularly those concerned with the issue of violence against women.

 

MORAL VALUE 11: GOOD GOVERNANCE

EXERCISE 21, THE POLICE IN DEMOCRACY

Overview: Society needs to cope with crime and at the same time insist on the rule of law. People must understand the causes of crime and in specific cases insist that suspects be treated humanely. Police must act with professional understanding of their roles, respect for the rules of criminal law, and for their functions in a democratic society which respects human rights. This exercise should show the need to follow rules respectfully, no matter how humble the suspect and no matter how apparent his/her criminality may be, because human rights in the criminal field require that suspects be presumed innocent until proved guilty. Like all of us, the suspect is a human being deserving of dignity and respect.

Objectives: The participants should:
- understand the causes of crime in society
- respect the need for fair treatment and protection for suspects, including prompt turnover of the detainee to the courts consistent with the principle of the presumption of innocence
- see the importance that police control their emotions, never insulting a detainee, nor injuring or torturing the person
- develop a sense of respect for fairness in criminal justice
- develop plans about what to do if falsely arrested

Procedures: The facilitator ensures a calm and serious atmosphere in which to organize a "mock court." Care must be taken to allot time carefully so as to include the last step covering opinions about the causes of crime in society.

Materials: Counting items (paper, sticks, etc., five each per participant). UDHR, Ethiopian Constitution.

Sequence: Step 1. Each participant goes around introducing himself/herself to others. Give your full name and where you are from, (Arab Kilo, Piazza, Carcass, Marched, etc.) The facilitator then arbitrarily selects one participant who should then tell the background of any other participant. Similarly, the one described describes another. Personal introductions and mutual recognition of one another will help to ensure the smoothness of the roleplay that is used in a "mock court."

Step 2. The facilitator asks the participants to democratically elect and approve three judges. The facilitator also recruits three volunteers to act as a police officer, a suspect and a victim. Finally, all other participants should be seated in front of the judges. Participants should be reminded to act with dignity, discipline, and showing respect for the court.

Step. 2. The facts of the hypothetical case are read. The facilitator makes sure that each element of the story is heard and understood by all participants. If possible, copies of the case should be provided to the judges, police, suspect and victim. Sufficient time should be given to the actors to prepare themselves. Here is the hypothetical situation:

LEMMA'S CASE.

Step 3. The judges should be reminded to guide and control the trial, including who should speak first, next, etc. The judges should maintain order in the court (no laughing, avoid chaos, etc.) but not use too much formality lest they erode the confidence of the roleplayers. The judges signal the proceedings to begin.

Step 4. Hearing both sides the judges give a rapid judgement: guilty or not guilty. The judges should not try to base their decision on written laws but on their personal experience, moral judgment, and sense of fairness. The judges decide in secrecy, and if they do not reach consensus, they decide by a vote whereby two out of three votes decides.

Step 5. The court is now dissolved. The facilitator asks each participant if he/she has ever attended a court. Those attending should be asked further to tell at least one strong point and one weak point observed during the mock trial. Ask if each is happy with the judgement rendered and why.

Step 6. The facilitator divides the participants into small groups. Each group has a chair person and reporter. Each participant should have five small sticks, pieces of paper, or small stones, or equivalent counting item. In answering questions, each person submits the counting item and should no longer speak after they are all submitted. The questions for the group are:
- why do people commit crimes of petty theft?
- Do you have an experience where someone committed such a crime saying it was necessary?
- what should you do when you see theft? Inform the owner? Restrain the thief? Call police?
- what should the owner do?
- what should the police do?
- what should the suspect do?
- what should the suspect's family do if he/she is detained for a long time?
- what is meant by the universal human right: "Everyone is presumed innocent until proved guilty"?
- what would you do if you were mistakenly arrested (you are not guilty)?

Appendix for Exercise 21. Universal Declaration of Human Rights(1948), Ethiopian Constitution (1994)

"MAKING OUR OWN CHARTER"

Overview: The South African history of the human rights charter campaigns is the story of a long tradition of democratic participation by individuals and organizations in the liberation struggle, the precedent of drafting documents to outline the demands of the oppressed, and the influence of one individual: Professor Albie Sachs. He promoted the idea that charters of rights written by various segments of South African society would help ensure that laws would eventually reflect people's ideas and needs as they defined them. Sachs was disabled in a car bomb blast during the Apartheid period, but he was not deterred in his devotion to human rights. When he spoke to a disabled peoples organization, the idea was born of a charter to catalogue an inclusive set of demands of disabled peoples to guide future policy formulations.

Objectives: At the conclusion of this exercise participants should:
- be able to identify some of the special needs of disabled persons
- justify identifying the needs and rights of the disabled in the form of a brief Preamble to a Charter for the Disabled
- identify a series of human rights of the disabled that specifically reflect their needs and are not inconsistent with existing broader international and national rights standards
- adopt a plan of action to ensure that disable people learn about their human rights

Procedures: The facilitator should do advanced planning for this exercise, telling the participants the previous session what they should do to prepare for this exercise in terms of interviewing people who are disabled, asking them about their needs and basic demands necessary to realize their potential and human dignity. If participants and the facilitator are not able to draft their charter in writing, the facilitator should make alternative arrangements, such as appointing a reliable reporter or using a tape recorder at key points in the exercise.

Materials: A tape recorder or other techniques to register the articles in the proposed charter. Selections from the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, The Convention on The Rights of the Child, and Recommendation 99 from the International Labor Organization

Sequence: Step 1. Facilitator input: Explain that the program of the people's campaigns for human rights charters in South Africa was a program of "participatory research." That is, those who wrote the women's charter, the children's charter, the charter of the rights of persons infected with HIV virus, were not always written by people who fell in those categories. Rather "participatory research" meant that concerned people took it upon themselves to go and talk to people who fell in the charter categories. In that spirit, participants, whether or not they are disabled, should take time (perhaps as much as a few days), then returning from having spoken to people who are disabled. Those interviewed may include the disabled (the blind, the hearing impaired, the crippled, the mentally and physically impaired), as well as parents and employers of the disabled, teachers, social workers and others regularly dealing with the disabled

Step 2. Compile a list of needs that are special to the disability category about which disabled participants know from experience or about which participant researchers have developed information by talking to others concerned with the problems of the disabled. Follow up questions about needs with questions about demands to meet their needs. Be prepared to discuss these in groups meeting for the exercise.

Step 3. Facilitator input: Tell the participants about some of the international standards that have been developed that relate to the rights of the disabled (see Appendix). Explain that they should not feel limited by these standards as they begin to sort out the needs and demands of the disabled and finally to develop their own "Charter of the Human Rights of the Disabled."

Step 4. Organize a "go around" briefly to report from each participant about the kind of information have collected. Cluster various groups around the topics on which people have information: the blind, the hearing impaired, the lame, etc. Each disability group should have a chairperson and two reporters. The first reporter will keep track of discussion reporting on the identification of special needs of the disabled and issues associated with specific problems of the disabled The second reporter will make a list of the rights growing out of basic needs, identifying those rights the group agrees on that should be formulated to respond to the identified needs and problems.

Step 5. The reporters present their information to a plenary session with two volunteers helping the facilitator keep track of all the rights that have been formulated. Then a critical discussion will be led by the facilitator to see if rights called for can be clustered or organized in a coherent manner. After a list of "rights of the disabled" has been formulated, have a final discussion about whether any modifications should be made, any proposals eliminated because they duplicate others, and whether all proposals are important enough to qualify as human rights and not simply wants and unnecessary preferences.

Step 6. The facilitator should make a final reading of the list of rights and ask participants to take a few moments of silence to think about why all of these rights are important. The facilitator then opens a more thoughtful discussion about what ideas should go into a brief "preamble" to the Charter of the Human Rights of the Disabled. Such a Preamble is a "little speech to the world" telling everyone why the rights of the disabled are not only important to them but to everyone. The facilitator may wish to avoid written charter drafting, instead using tape-recording for the key discussions in Steps 5 and 6. To show that this is a serious exercise, the facilitator should present the group with a written Charter of the Rights of the Disabled the next week or after taking time to arrange for written or oral recording.

Appendix to Exercise 22; Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(1976), Convention on the Rights of the Child(1989), International Labour Organization Recommendation on Disabled Workers

MORAL VALUE 12; REMEDYING WRONGS

EXERCISE 23, MAKING A PREVENTIVE STRATEGY

Overview: Human rights education has several broad purposes. HRE is: (1) a visionary plan designed to lay a foundation for tomorrow's society, a society which we hope will be democratic and imbued with respect for the dignity and inalienable rights of all people. (2) a preventive strategy promoting respect for human rights by using an empowering approach to human rights education, thereby providing potential victims with knowledge of their rights and enlightening potential violators about human dignity helping them overcome ignorance and prejudice in response to human rights violations. [HRE as a preventive strategy is the topic of this exercise] (3) a defensive strategy to empower beneficiaries to undertake plans of action in defense of human rights [the subject of the next exercise] .

Objectives: Participants should be able to:
- identify a well defined and agreed upon group of human rights problems they face
- devise a related preventive strategy relying on their participation in promoting HRE
- carry home their human rights vision, their preventive strategies, echoing HRE in their respective communities

Procedures: The facilitator should find creative ways to help prioritize the human rights problems that particularly concern the specific target group involved. Allocate plenty of time facilitating a "preventive plan of action," as the methodology will be repeated in the next exercise focusing on a "defensive plan of action." On the last step, focusing on developing a plan for echoing human rights education, the facilitator must be prepared to supply considerable information about support systems available for promoting non-formal human rights education by participants.

Materials and Resources: Certificates for those completing this exercise, saying: "I AM A HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATOR." Selected provisions of the UDHR (on the duty to promote HRE by everybody); the CCPR (on the right to seek and disseminate information), CEDAW (on state duties regarding education); and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (on HRE as an obligation). Also, the facilitator should have at hand information about human rights education materials, resources and supporting programs staffed with professionals to give technical advice on human rights education.

Sequence: Step 1. Use the brainstorming technique to elicit from the participants the several human rights problems with which they are immediately concerned in their daily lives. Try to follow this listing of rights problems with a constructive effort to come to consensus on a few priority problems, for example form three to six priority human rights problems.

Step 2. After priorities have been set and a few issues of common concern have been identified, ask (for each issue) at least one person speaking from experience.

Step 3. Ask for volunteers to select the issue of their choice and divide up into an action planning group for each issue. The group can be called "The HRE Team." Explain that the action planning group will develop a "preventive plan of action," essentially coming up with a human rights education plan directed towards the victims as well as potential human rights violators. The plan should "echo" the techniques used in these lessons, stating: (1) overview, (2) objectives, (3) procedures, (4) materials, (5) steps to be taken. Someone in each group should take responsibility to "report back" on each of these five education planning components of deliberations. Thus five reporters for each group will be needed. As this is a challenging task, the facilitator may wish to bring other experienced human rights facilitators to act as "floaters" moving from group to group supplying advice as needed.

Step 4. Each five-member HRE team will report back to the entire group, after which the HRE plan of action will be open to general discussion and constructive criticism by all.

Step 6. Facilitator input: Explain various justifications for non-formal human rights education in terms of some of the international instruments presented in the Appendix below.
Explain that participants, equipped with a plan and the support of international and national constitutional endorsements, are now ready to serve their communities as Human Rights Educators.

Step 7. Facilitator: individually congratulate each Human Rights Educator and supply him/her with a certificate saying: "I AM A HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATOR." (supplied by APAP)

Appendix for Exercise 23 . International and National Support for HRE in the UDHR (1948); The Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights(1976);, The Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(1976), The Constitution of the EFDR (1994); and the African Human and Peoples Rights Charter(1986).

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The United Nations Charter calls for "the promotion and encouragement of human rights" and that duty of all UN Members was clarified in 1948 when the General Assembly, with no dissenting votes, adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was proclaimed as "a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations," who were directed to "strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms..." Thus education is identified as a Charter duty: a way of promoting human rights. Additionally, the UDHR Preamble that "teaching and education" are not simply new state functions -- among the governmental duties attending membership in the U.N. Rather, as if to acknowledge popular action at the grass-roots level and the work of NGOs, "teaching and education" are announced as the obligation of "every individual and every organ of society...."

The Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Education always relates to and supports values. But we must be aware of what values we are promoting through education. In this spirit, Article 30 states that one of the goals of education should be "the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms..." (Section 2). The human rights covenants (later developed by the U.N. and coming into effect in 1976 to formalize the basis in international law of the rights declared in 1948) also elaborated on the right to education and the values such education should promote.. Thus, the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights placed the educational objective of strengthening respect for human rights in a cluster of related learning objectives. For example, Article 13 of the Covenant says that "education shall be directed to the "full development of the human personality" and to the person's own "sense of dignity...."(Section 1)

The Covenant also says the State Parties:

further agree that education shall enable all persons to participate effectively in a free society, promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations and all racial, ethnic or religious groups, and further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace." (Article 13, Section 1)

The Covenant on Political and Civil Rights
The Civil and Political Rights Covenant tells us that once a state adopts the system of international human rights, it may not stand in the way of people learning about them. Everyone has "the right to hold opinions without interference," the Covenant says in Article 19, Section 1. Insomuch as education is a process involving the sharing and dissemination of ideas, the enterprise is bolstered by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which sets forth the proposition that:

Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his (or her) choice (Article 19, Section 2).

The Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
The Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (1995) makes strong commitments on behalf of human rights. According to Article 13 of Chapter Three, dealing with "Fundamental Rights and Freedoms," The Constitution says:

The fundamental rights and liberties contained in this Chapter shall be interpreted in conformity with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, international human rights covenants, humanitarian conventions and with the principles of other relevant international instruments which Ethiopia has accepted or ratified.

Insomuch as Ethiopian constitutional rights and liberties are to be interpreted consistently with The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, NGOs have fully legitimate grounds to undertake human rights education. This is because the Preamble to the Universal Declaration, specifies that "teaching and education" are obligations of "every individual and every organ of society...," thereby acknowledging popular human rights educational programs at the grass-roots level and the work of NGOs.

The African Human and People's Rights Charter
The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights presents not only the most straightforward statement in international norm-making regarding governmental responsibility for education, but as well, a significant and unique call for effective human rights education. That is, the Banjul Charter says that signatory African states:

shall have the duty to promote and ensure through teaching, education and publication, the respect for the rights and freedoms contained in the present Charter and to see to it that these freedoms and rights as well as corresponding obligations and duties are understood. (Article 25.)

To say that government responsibility to teach human rights should also ensure their understanding is an innovative standard and an important addition to international discourse. The effectiveness of human rights education should not only be the concern of the Banjul signatories, but of everyone who takes HRE seriously. The standard suggests that those obliged to teach human rights should also ensure that such programs are effective in that people accept and understand their human rights.

EXERCISE 24, MAKING A DEFENSIVE STRATEGY

Overview: There is no such thing as a value-neutral educational process. Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate the integration of the younger generation and adult learners into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity to it, or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world. People so empowered should be able to envision "defensive strategies" designed to undertake plans of action in defense of human rights [as developed in this final exercise]. It should be clear that the objective of such defensive planning, indeed the objective of effective human rights education, is not to sow the seeds of social unrest. Any such suggestion misunderstands human rights and democracy. It is our duty to educate each other and all the people about their rights before the law so that they will be able to be responsible citizens in a real democracy and not a "make believe democracy."

Objectives: Participants should be able to:
- identify a well defined and agreed upon group of human rights problems they face
- devise a defensive strategy involving a plan of action to remedy rights violations
- carry home their defensive strategies, echoing HRE in their respective communities

Procedures: The facilitator should find creative ways to help prioritize the human rights problems that particularly concern the specific target group involved. Try to take plenty of time facilitating the "defensive plan of action." On the last step, focusing on defense mechanisms, the facilitator must be prepared to supply considerable information about legal remedies, bringing along paralegals to act as "floaters" for purposes of giving technical advice to the planning groups set up in Step 3.

Materials and Resources: Selected provisions of the UDHR (on the right to remedies), the CCPR (on penal remedies), CEDAW (on state reporting duties where the state is accountable to the UN for problems not solved), and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (on HRE as an obligation). Also, the facilitator should have at hand information about legal aid groups and sources of legal advice, as well as the assistance of visiting paralegals or legal aid professionals to give technical advice on developing remedies to right wrongs.

Sequence: Step 1. Use the brainstorming technique to elicit from the participants the several human rights problems with which they are immediately concerned in their daily lives. Try to follow this listing of rights problems with a constructive effort to come to consensus on a few priority problems, for example from three to six priority human rights problems.

Step 2. After priorities have been set and a few issues of common concern have been identified, ask (for each issue) at least one person speaking from experience.

Step 3. Ask for volunteers to select the issue of their choice and divide up into an action planning group for each issue: "The Defense Action Team." Explain that the action planning group will develop defensive strategies to remedy human rights violations in the community

Step 4. Facilitator input: Before convening separate planning groups, explain various defense mechanisms that are available to respond to specific human rights violations. These include the following:

Step 5. Convene the groups identified in Step 3. The groups should plan to develop a defensive plan of action focusing on the issue for which the group is responsible. Explain that the facilitator and visiting paralegals will "float" from group to group to provide technical information on human rights remedies using self-help, mediation, documentation techniques and other available justice devices at the provincial, federal and international levels.

Step 6. Someone (or several) in each group should take responsibility to "report back" on defense planning components coming out of the group's deliberations. After reporting back on these items, the Human Rights Defense Plan of Action will be open to general discussion and constructive criticism by all.

Step 7. Ask participants for individuals to volunteer in implementing the action plan, indicating specifically what they can do and would like to do to achieve the defensive goals of the plan.

Step 8. Award each participant who has finished the exercise an "HRE Certificate of Program Completion." The Certificate should carry the statement by the anthropologist, Margaret Mead:

Step 9. Conduct an evaluation of the program.

Appendix for Exercise 24. Remedy and Petition Rights in the UDHR(1948) and the CCPR(1976).

Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 8: Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
Article 9, Section 4. Anyone who is deprived of his liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled to take proceedings before a court in order that court may decide without delay on the lawfulness of his detention and order his release of the detention is not lawful. Section 5. Anyone who has been victim of unlawful arrest or detention shall have an enforceable right to compensation.

Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women
Article 2. Section (c). States Parties agree ... to establish legal protection of the rights of women on an equal basis with men and to ensure through competent national tribunals and other public institutions the effective protection of women against any act of discrimination.
Article 18. States Parties [shall submit to the UN periodic reports every four years] on the legislative, judicial, administrative or other measures they have adopted to give effect to the provisions [of CEDAW], [including in the report]...factors and difficulties affecting he degree of fulfillment of obligations under the ... Convention.

Convention on the Rights of the Child
Article 42. States Parties undertake to make the principles and provisions of the convention widely known, by appropriate and active means to adults and children alike.

 

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HREA Electronic Resource Centre for Human Rights Education:
The Bells of Freedom