Spanish

Building Child Friendly Villages

kantin — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:43:39 -0500

by Bhuwan Ribhu

Download full notebook below. [*note]

This notebook will introduce and share the concept of Child Friendly Villages or Bal Mitra Gram (BMG) which directly address the multi-dimensional problems that generate, maintain and perpetuate the child labour situation. BMGs attack the triangular paradigm, a vicious circle of illiteracy, poverty, and child labour. The BMG is an innovative concept that offers a long-term, sustainable solution to a wide variety of problems such as child labour, trafficking for forced labour, poverty alleviation, and illiteracy, among others. BMGs aim at prevention while understanding the root causes to ensure sustainability and permanent settlement of the child labor problem. Not only does the BMG programme aim to withdraw children from work while enhancing the quality of education, it also aims at a holistic development of villages towards the creation of a child friendly society. Throughout the whole process emphasis is given on child participation, community mobilization, promotion of education, victim empowerment, gender equity and awareness of gender issues, while drawing upon the convergence of various poverty alleviation schemes and programmes, and ensuring long-term sustainability of the initiatives through the creation of sound community organisation and building a resource base.

A BMG village has no child labour. All children receive compulsory, good quality education, and the voice and opinion of the children ar eheard and taken into account. To date there are more than 150 Child Friendly Villages and currently BBA is working in an additional 43 villages to make them Bal MItra Gram. This notebook will outline how the BMG approach is child-centric and ensures participation of children, making it a comprehensive programme.

*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.

Organizing caravans to overcome militarization

ahorwart — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:46:15 -0500

Since 1996, the Ruta Pacifica, a feminist, pacifist, anti-military organization, has been organizing caravans of housands of women from all over Colombia to the regions hardest-hit by conflict. Each caravan is a symbolic gesture against the war and a practical opportunity for women to come together to exchange ideas and demand an end to human rights violations. As a result of the ongoing civil war in Colombia, different areas of the country have become increasingly isolated from one another, as the roads and borders between them are frequently controlled or blocked by the various armed groups. By traveling these roads, the caravans of women break through not only the physical roadblocks, but the psychological barriers of despair and isolation that allow the war to continue.

Ruta Pacifica has achieved ten national mobilizations in the states of Antioquia, Chocó, Putumayo, Magdalena Medio, Bogotá, Cauca, and Bolívar with the participation of close to 20,000 women and a distance of more than 1,700 kilometers. One caravan, to the region of Putumayo, included 100 buses carrying 3000 women who, along with the residents of the area, marched in the streets of the main city and held a convocation about the effects of the war. In order to ensure the safety of the travelers, Ruta Pacifica carefully planned all stages of the mobilization. Before the group left, they developed a map of possible risks, and a contingency plan to deal with those risks.

This notebook shares how Ruta Pacifica implemented the mobilizations and involved the women in training sessions to learn about logistics, protection plans, and to clarify the political ideology they were marching to represent. Equally important in their plan of action was the evaluation and documentation of the marches. For the media and for its own assessment purposes, Ruta Pacifica compiled and archived physical, photographic and audiovisual evidence of each event. Among the results of this evaluation process were the development of an organic and systematic method of mobilization, a more cohesive ideology within the movement, and an improvement in regional and national communication. Ruta Pacifica found that after the caravans, its members had a better collective and individual understanding of what it means to be a pacifist and a feminist and created a more stable network of international connections.

De la protesta a la propuesta

kantin — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:17:46 -0500

By Paulino Montejo Silvestre

Download full notebook in Spanish below. [*note]

Indigenous peoples that choose to be a part of this network actively participate in government activities, ensuring that the indigenous voice is heard when public policies that affect the Amazon are being created. The movement pressures and lobbies for the inclusion of specific participants on government commissions and builds strong bonds between the participants and the government, as well as participants and their indigenous communities. The COIAB has helped develop indigenous-friendly policies in the areas of indigenous health, education and the environment, among others.

The Brazilian Amazon, with 9 states, covers approximately 60% of the national territory of Brazil, and the indigenous population of this area comprises about 60% of the total indigenous population of Brazil.

COIAB was formed in 1989 as an indigenous organization, dedicated to the defense of territorial rights, rights to health and education, and the protection of the identity and culture, the evironment, the biodiversity and the traditional practices of the indigenous people of the Brazilian Amazon.

COIAB has divided the region into 31 areas based on geographic and sociocultural criteria. COIAB’s political action includes 165 villages and more than 75 indigenous organizations. Its thematic areas include protection of indigenous lands, economic sustainability, and cooperation and alliances between indigenous organizations. COIAB was founded on the philosophy that the indigenous populations are in a position to speak for themselves, because it is they who know their reality and their needs. COIAB currently participates in more than 18 commisssions at the federal level, 10 in the state of Amazonas, and 9 in the network of NGOs involved in the indigenous movement.

COIAB monitors the government agenda through the office of representation in Brasilia and through allies in government positions. It presents proposals to the government through public hearings, seminars, training workshops, and meetings with government officials. To ensure that the lobbying activity stays true to the needs and lives of indigenous people, COIAB regularly consults with the indigenous organizaitons that make up its political base.

*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.

Las Iniciativas Populares

kantin — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:59:00 -0500

By Maria Batch, Argentina

Downlaod full notebook in Spanish below. [*note]

La Iniciativa Popular está contemplada en la Constitución Argentina en el artículo 39 a partir de reforma de 1994. Por las dificultades que tienen los ciudadanos para lograr las firmas del 1.5% de los electores en al menos 6 distritos nunca antes del 2002 llegó al Congreso un proyecto presentado, haciendo uso de este instrumento constitucional.

Poder Ciudadano logra en el transcurso del año 2002 que se conviertan en ley dos Iniciativas Populares: Derogación de las Jubilaciones de privilegio y "El hambre mas Urgente" .

Este éxito se debió a la alianza de Poder Ciudadano con un medio de comunicación para la primera y en la segunda iniciativa se suman varias OSC y medios gráficos, radiales y televisivos.

Las características fundamentales que se tuvieron en cuenta desde Poder Ciudadano a desarrollar para alcanzar los logros mencionados son:

Transversalidad: es articular la acción con distintos espacios. Puede ser geográfica, temática, organizativa, en el foco de acción y temporal (coyuntura, mediano y largo plazo).

Escala masiva: permite instalar el tema y desarrollar la estrategia, involucrando a una cantidad de ciudadanos y ciudadanas que legitimen las acciones.

Anclaje social: es la condición que se da cuando los ciudadanos y ciudadanas se apropian de un tema y lo convierten en acción concreta.

Masa crítica: es fundamental para poder operar herramientas de participación o desarrollar acciones de incidencia, conformar el grupo de trabajo adecuado para llevar adelante la estrategia.

Poder difuso: sirve para forzar la voluntad política necesaria para incidir en las políticas públicas. Permite expandir el poder tangible de la sociedad civil a través de alianzas con otros sectores y generar un poder que no pueda ser medible y fácilmente neutralizado por el poder político.

*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.

Women Making Peace: Mobilizing Ourselves Against the War

bharris — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:08:21 -0500

By Amanda Lucia Camilo Ibarra, Ruta Pacifica, Colombia

Download full notebook below. [*note]

Since 1996, the Ruta Pacifica, a feminist, pacifist, anti-military organization, has been organizing caravans of thousands of women from all over Colombia to the regions hardest-hit by conflict. Each caravan is a symbolic gesture against the war and a practical opportunity for women to come together to exchange ideas and demand an end to human rights violations. As a result of the ongoing civil war in Colombia, different areas of the country have become increasingly isolated from one another, as the roads and borders between them are frequently controlled or blocked by the various armed groups. By traveling these roads, the caravans of women break through not only the physical roadblocks, but the psychological barriers of despair and isolation that allow the war to continue.

*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.

Together We Are Stronger

bharris — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:08:19 -0500

Together we are Stronger

By Erika Bocanegra, Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos, Perú

Download full notebook in English and Spanish below. [*note]

Peru’s Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos (National Coordinator for Human Rights, CNDDHH) is globally recognized as one of the most successful and effective coalitions in the world. We always talk about the importance of bringing ourselves together in order to have more strength and greater impact, but few have been able to achieve this as successfully as the Coordinadora.

Unfortunately, the global experience of the human rights movement is filled with coalitions that have failed as a result of division as well as lack of advocacy. This notebook analyzes the characteristics of a strong coalition and shows how to successfully fight against an authoritarian government, like that of Fujimori in Peru the 1990s.

The Coordinadora is a coalition of 63 human rights organizations in Peru. Founded in 1985, it has survived by its ability to join together and adapt itself to the changing political environment. The Coordinadora is composed of diverse organizations–urban and rural, Catholic and Evangelical church groups, national and regional focuses, among others. This broad variety in institutional profiles has legitimized CNDDHH at both the national and international level.

Among the strengths that have made the Coordinadora a significant reference point for the defense and promotion of human rights in Peru, and throughout the Americas, is the ability to make innovative political decisions while maintaining its unity, adhering to principles that guide their actions and utilizing mechanisms to find agreement about priorities in order to act with coordination because "together we are stronger."

*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.

The Power of Place: How historic sites can engage citizens in human rights issues

bharris — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:08:18 -0500

The Power of Place

by Liz Sevcenko

Download full notebook in English and Spanish and a brief summary in Russian and Armenian below.[*note]

Read an interview with the author
See Phillipe Duhamel's creative take on this resource at interTactica!

In this notebook the author describes how human rights activists as well as the museum community can make more effective use of the spacial impact of historic sites to help educate people about social change and human rights. The Tenement Museum in New York City has joined with more than a dozen other institutions that have focused their attention on "sites of conscience"–places where terrible human rights abuse has occurred that should never be forgotten. Their goal is not only to remember the past, but also to use the emotional power of these places to catalyze critical thinking about the ongoing social issues of today, through dialogue and educational activities.

Around the world, people instinctively turn to places of memory to come to terms with the past and chart a course for the future. From makeshift roadside memorials to official commemorations, millions of people around the world gather at places of memory looking for healing, reconciliation and insight on how to move forward. Memory is a critical language and terrain of human rights. It’s here, through the process of preserving the past, that evidence of human rights violations is maintained and made public, issues this evidence raises are debated and tactics for preventing it from happening again are developed. In short, these places can be critical tools for building a lasting culture of human rights. Our project is to take a fundamental human instinct and develop it as an identifiable, self-conscious tactic in the service of human rights and social justice.

The Lower East Side Tenement Museum preserves a five-story building at 97 Orchard Street, home to over 7,000 immigrants from more than 20 different nations from 1863 to 1935. The Museum restores the tiny apartments of the diverse immigrant families who lived there and tells the stories of their daily challenges and triumphs in America. The human rights issues they faced – labor exploitation, racial and ethnic discrimination, poverty and immigration restrictions – are very much alive today. Located in a neighborhood that is today nearly 40 percent foreign-born, the Museum hosts public dialogues on immigration, welfare, housing, cultural identity and other related issues; teaches English and activism to new immigrants; and promotes immigrant voices and issues through changing arts programs. The Museum believes that historic sites can be powerful catalysts for public awareness and action on human rights issues.

To promote this idea the Museum initiated the International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience. The Coalition was founded in 1999 when the Tenement Museum brought together leaders of nine historic sites from around the world: the District Six Museum (South Africa); Gulag Museum (Russia); Liberation War Museum (Bangladesh); Lower East Side Tenement Museum (USA); Maison des Esclaves (Senegal); Memoria Abierta (Argentina); National Civil Rights Museum (USA); Terezín Memorial (Czech Republic); Women’s Rights National Historical Park (USA); and the Workhouse (United Kingdom). The group pledged to work together to develop effective strategies for activatingour places of memory as centers for dialogue on contemporary issues.

Our goal is to transform historic site museums from places of passive learning to places of active citizen engagement. We seek to use the history of what happened at our sites – whether it was a genocide, a violation of civil rights, or a triumph of democracy – as the foundation for dialogue about how and where these issues are alive today and about what can be done to address them. We define sites of conscience as initiatives that:

Interpret history through sites;
Engage in programs that stimulate dialogue on pressing social issues and promote humanitarian and democratic values; and
Share opportunities for public involvement in issues raised at the site.

The Coalition conducts program development workshops, staff exchanges and web-based resource exchanges. We also collaborate with leading human rights organizations to link our histories with currentcampaigns and inspire citizen participation in current struggles for truth and justice. The Coalition is currently coordinated at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum.

Read an interview with the author
See Phillipe Duhamel's creative take on this resource at interTactica!

*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.

Taking on Our Own Defense

bharris — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:08:16 -0500

By Miguel Angel de los Santos

Download full notebook in English and Spanish below. [*note]

Chiapas, one of the Mexican states, has a major record of human rights violations especially regarding Indigenous and rural peoples. Previously, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) dealt with this problem, denouncing the violations and giving legal assistance to the victims. The model raised by the Network of Community Defenders constructs a new tactic in the defense of human rights. It proposes that victims and their communities become involved by electing their own defenders. This role has proven to be highly effective in practice–particularly using their own language–and has gained attention in communities.

This notebook presents a contextual framework that helps to understand of the circumstances that have caused the proposition, as well as the process of the formation and the development of the network itself. One of the most important elements of the model is the organized participation of the community in order to design their own defenses. In the context described in the notebook, the model of intervention that created the Network of Community Defenders has proven to be effective. It is possible, nonetheless, to think that with appropriate adjustments one can develop ways to adapt the tactic with populations equally marginalized such as women and migrants, among others. The actions of the Network of Community Defenders have created other interesting experiences in Chiapas for adapting the tactic. For example, a group of women’s rights defenders emerged from the community, appointed under similar mechanisms, called "barefoot lawyers."

*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

Public Audiences

bharris — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:08:11 -0500

Public Audiences: Creating Space to Recognize Victims of Internal Conflict in Peru

By Sofia Macher, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Peru

Download full notebook below. [*note]

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Peru is one of the most recent experiences of processes of transitional justice, institutionalized with the aim of exploring the truth hidden behind a past characterized by massive abuse of human rights. One of the central activities in this process is the Public Audiences, created with the aim of legitimizing and dignifying the personal experiences of the victims in order to support the therapeutic and recuperative work on their behalf.

The TRC was created by the President of the transitional government in June of 2001. It was made up of 12 commission members, all Peruvians, and duration of two years. It did not count on jurisdictional powers: its mandate was to document the grave violations of human rights committed during the twenty years (1980-2000) of the internal armed conflict. However, the Public Audiences were formal sessions in which a victim or family member of a victim would give an account of what had happened before a group of people that had the ethical authority stemming from the State to listen and express their solidarity and acknowledgement. Unlike other Truth Commissions, the purpose of these sessions was not for investigation, but instead an audience for the restitution of rights, of citizenship, and of dignity for the victim, an audience to listen in respectful silence, lending ears to and giving voice to those who had never before been given such things. All these people were assaulted by the State that had the obligation to protect them, and were later rejected by society. Many of them were displaced to other areas, condemned to fear, to silence that broke with the social support of their own communities. The Public Audiences are, so to speak, a step towards the restitution of this so necessary support. But the audiences also had an effect on society itself. Knowing a personal history, one that is parallel to the official history -- that until that moment everyone had believed and known -- had a much greater impact than the Commission’s final report could have ever had. Having heard hundreds of testimonies from different areas of the country, it put on the table the horror to which no Peruvian could feel unconnected.

This notebook shares the way in which the TRC in Peru implemented its Public Audiences in order to dignify the victims, contributing to the general recuperation of society. Certainly there are similarities with other processes and experiences (South Africa or Nigeria, for example), but there are also new aspects that are important since a new format was created that permitted Peru to begin a process of laying the foundations to generate change in the interior of the State, and also in society itself. The lessons of this experience can be useful for any focused process, more so in reconstructing the psychosocial fabric of the people and the victimized society, than in blaming the perpetrators. It is also helpful here to emphasize the effort of the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) to support these learning processes.

*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.

Promoting Human Rights Professionalism in the Liberian Police Force

bharris — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:08:10 -0500

Promoting Human Rights Professionalism in the Liberian Police Force

By Cecil Griffiths

Download full notebook below.[*note]

In this notebook, we learn about the efforts, ability, and commitment of law enforcement personnel–one of the most difficult groups to reach regarding human rights–to address and confront human rights issues and violations from their own perspective and within their own ranks. The Liberian National Law Enforcement Association (LINLEA) was established by law enforcement personnel themselves to address issues of poor leadership, blind loyalty, and lack of professional training, each of which have contributed to a poor quality of services and a high incidence of human rights abuses. LINLEA has worked to promote professionalism as a way to enhance human rights standards and reduce incidences of abuse. This tactic provides insights into how the law enforcement profession itself can understand the connection between professionalism and human rights–exposing abuses when they occur–to send signals to government and civil society that action can and must be taken to address abuses.

As dictated by canons of police ethics, which instruct officers to respect the constitutional rights of all people to liberty, equality, and justice, law enforcement officers are supposed to be the leading human rights protectors and promoters everywhere in the world. Unfortunately, due to lack of training and discipline, poor leadership, and political manipulation, law enforcement personnel often engage in unprofessional conduct that leads to abuses of human rights. In 1993, after the war in Liberia, we evaluated the situation within the police department. An estimated 40 percent of law enforcement personnel had not received basic training. Discipline levels were very low. More recently, we have seen how a regime can appoint law enforcement officials who can be manipulated to perpetuate, through oppression, suppression, and intimidation, the regime’s tenure. To address these issues of unprofessionalism and human rights abuses, we decided to establish a professional association: The Liberian National Law Enforcement Association, or LINLEA.

LINLEA promotes training opportunities for law enforcement officers; advocates for a merit-based system of promotion, the appointment of qualified administrators, and fair and impartial adjudication of complaints against officers; and discourages partisanship and political manipulation of law enforcement agencies. At LINLEA we use a variety of means to achieve our objectives. We host professional training workshops for law enforcement officers, and organize public lecture forums and radio programs to discuss issues related to the administration of justice. We publish a journal to educate readers on the role of the criminal justice system, its problems and challenges, and issues of democracy and human rights. In addition, we advocate for reforms of law enforcement and criminal justice institutions, conduct research on the causes of crime and the responses of the criminal justice system, and publish our findings and recommendations. As our organization has grown in size and credibility, we have also been able to call attention to internal problems and unprofessional behavior in the department, and demand justice for victims–including unfairly accused police officers. We are beginning to monitor and catalogue police abuses.

LINLEA now has over 500 members, including nearly 20 percent of the police force, as well as many members of other law enforcement institutions. Through our Center for Criminal Justice Research and Education, we have been able to provide leadership and human rights training for 223 senior law enforcement officers. The Center has also conducted a training workshop for law enforcement trainers and curriculum specialists of law enforcement agencies, and a workshop on Policy Formulation and Development for law enforcement planners and administrators.

We believe that an association of this sort is the most effective way to bring about change in police behavior. Human rights organizations can raise awareness of the nature and incidents of human rights abuses in society. But when a professional body related to law enforcement becomes involved in highlighting and exposing these abuses, it sends a different signal to the government and to the police department itself, a signal they are more likely to heed. In this notebook I describe the creation of our police association, and the development of our work supporting within the police force a professional attitude that is respectful of human rights. I then discuss some of the questions relevant to the use of this tactic in other contexts. Whether you are a concerned law enforcement professional or a human rights activist, it is my hope that this analysis will help you consider how steps can be taken to professionalize the police and improve its human rights record in your own situation.

*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.