WK 414 Training local-level human rights monitors

Laws protecting the human rights of citizens may not be implemented at the local level for a variety of reasons, including discrimination, lack of knowledge and lack of structures for recourse. Training people at the local level to monitor and document human rights abuses empowers communities to change local understanding and practices of human rights while holding governments accountable for their human rights commitments.

Panelists

Featured Tactic: Columbus Igboanusi, League of Human Rights Advocates, Slovakia Complementary Presentations:

• Livingstone Sewanyana, Foundation for Human Rights Initiative, Uganda
• Daniel Conejar, Task Force Detainees of the Philippines

Featured Tactic:

Monitoring Human Rights Commitments at the Local Level Columbus Igboanusi, League of Human Rights Advocates, Slovakia

• View Columbus Igboanusi’s PowerPoint presentation 63 KB
• Read the outline of his presentation
• Read the tactical notebook Monitoring Human Rights Commitments at the Local Level

The League of Human Rights Advocates (LHRA) in Slovakia has developed a network of volunteer human rights monitors within the minority Roma population to ensure that international human rights treaties are implemented at the local level. The monitors learn, often for the first time, about their own rights under national and international law and then work with the LHRA to enforce those rights in their own communities. As a result, a range of human rights abuses occurring at the local level have been exposed.

Complementary Presentation

Livingstone Sewanyana, Foundation for Human Rights Initiative, Uganda

• Read Livingstone Sewanyana’s presentation outline

In Uganda, the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI) trains local leaders to help community members with legal complaints in a way that avoids the problems and frustrations of using the formal judicial system. FHRI teaches these leaders how to educate their communities about their constitutional and human rights. It also gives them paralegal skills, enabling them to provide mediation, counseling and advice so that citizens can obtain redress for abuses and enjoy the full advantages of their human rights.

Complementary Presentation

Daniel Conejar, Task Force Detainees of the Philippines

• View Daniel Conejar’s PowerPoint presentation 281 KB
• Read the outline of his presentation

Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP) trains local level monitors to help document and follow up on grave cases of civil and political human rights violations. Monitors may include individual victims of human rights, their relatives, parish workers, residents in the area, local government committees or organizations that are based in the area or that provide services in the area. TFDP trains them on methods of collecting and recording information and integrates them into TFDP’s work to ensure that monitors feel that they are a critical part of the human rights movement.