Human Rights Advocacy Utilizing Religious Perspectives and Opinion Leaders

bharris — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:08:03 -0500

by Mashadi Said

Download full notebook below. [*note]

The National Working Group for Human Rights Dissemination and Promotion (NWG) in Indonesia developed a human rights education curriculum for all age levels in both public and private schools. In order to create support for such a human rights curriculum that also encompassed religious educational institutions, an effective tactic was to engage key and respected leaders–community and religious leaders as well as teachers–in the development and training of the human rights curriculum.

By taking the time and effort to engage opinion and religious leaders in the process, the NWG was able to develop their critical support and integrate their needs and concerns in order to overcome barriers and challenges to human rights education. To date, 400 opinion leaders including community and religious leaders and teachers as well as 1,000 civics teachers in both government and private schools have been trained by the Department of Education in using the curricula. There have also been 31 provincial committees on human rights that have been set up to provide training and on-going support to the trainers. Guidelines and reference materials have been developed and are soon to be published. These materials address human rights values as in the Indonesian cultural and religious context and designed with the consultation and assistance in order to overcome the perception that human rights values are Western concepts that impinge upon Indonesian cultural and religious values. Instead, the process has lead to a mutual recognition of basic human values.

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Educating the Next Generation

bharris — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:08:00 -0500

By Kozara Kati and Robert Gjedia

Download full notebook below.[*note]

In this notebook, we learn about utilizing political opportunities to partner with government and turn an ambitious vision into reality. The Albanian Center for Human Rights (ACHR) successfully collaborated with the Albanian Ministry of Education to bring human rights education into all public schools in the country. They took advantage of the post-communist transition period, negotiating with the new democratic government officials to launch a long-term process in which they would prepare Albanian citizens to participate fully in a democracy. They focused on the next generation – the children – and on ensuring they learned about human rights. Coming out of a political context in which all policies were decided and enacted on a national level, they were able to create a vision to affect the entire education system and have a nationwide impact.

They sustained momentum by bringing in international support and educational experts and by effectively cooperating with the government’s Institute for Pedagogical Research (IPR). Because of their efforts and this cooperation human rights education was incorporated into the public school system and several teacher training programs.

After 45 years of an oppressive and isolationist communist dictatorship, in 1991 Albania faced a new world of democratic possibilities, with mountains of inherited political, economic and social problems and an institutional infrastructure ill-prepared to face them. Education was a particular challenge. To make the most of their new democracy, Albanians needed an educational system that prepared its citizens for critical thinking and encouraged political participation. Instead, it had the remains of a dogmatic and rigid communist educational system and curricula, which could not adequately teach students their rights and duties in this new society. The Albanian Center for Human Rights (ACHR) developed an ambitious plan to integrate human rights education into the official curricula of all public schools in the country.

In this tactical notebook we describe how ACHR took advantage of the unique political moment provided by the post-communist transition, negotiated collaboration with the Albanian Ministry of Education and its Institute for Pedagogical Research (IPR), and implemented the plan. By the end of the decade, we had developed special curricula material in many subjects for all age groups, trained thousands of teachers to use the materials, set up 42 pilot schools throughout the country, and initiated a curriculum in the teachers colleges to integrate the teaching of human rights into their preparation.

*Note: You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the files marked with an asterisk (*). You can download a free version of this program from www.adobe.com.