November 12th -16th, 2001
Hamburg
It has already become a tradition to have the network`s annual
conference in November: This year all the network members, some
guests and Josef Janning (deputy director of the Center for Applied
Policy Research) representing the Bertelsmann Foundation came together
in the North of Germany, in Hamburg. The conference started with
a working group day: The four groups "Tolerance Reports",
"Educational Concepts" and "Evaluation" and
Human Rights Education discussed their working progress and the
format of the forthcoming publications.
UMAC from South Africa: New partner organisation
It was the first time that the new partner organization UMAC from
South Africa participated in the conference. The two UMAC representatives
Mark Jansen and Vukile Nxishi from Cape Town gave an insight into
their work in conflict resolution and their different projects such
as the "Community Safety Forum", the "Militarised
Youth Programmes", and the "Women and Peace Building Project".
Human Rights Education
The conference, putting an emphasis on Human Rights Education, started
with presentations of the network members on their different approaches
to Human Rights Education. They showed how education has to respond
to different cultural and political backgrounds. For example, Human
Rights Education in South America focuses mainly on the political
empowerment of people, as presented by Patricia Morgado from NOVAMERICA
(Brazil) and Fabiola Yanez from PARTICIPA (Chile) whereas the Philippine
approach to Human Rights Education is rather psycho-social and spiritual.
There were also presentations by experts on Human Rights Education
such as Barbara Weber (Human Rights Education Co-ordinator from
the Ludwig Boltzmann
Institute in Vienna, Diego Bang, (Director of the Education
Department of the Danish
Center for Human Rights), Dr. Felice Yeban (Asian
Regional Human Rights Resource Center), Rui Gomes (Training
and Programme Administrator of the Council of Europe from the European
Youth Center in Budapest) and Dr. Norman Weiß (Research
Assistant from the Center for Human
Rights of the University of Potsdam). They elaborated on the
outcomes of the UN Decade of Human Rights Education (which started
in 1995) and challenges for Human Rights Education for the 21st
century.
The panelists agreed that Human Rights Education has to start with
teaching human rights as they are defined by documents and laws
as well as "policed" by international institutions.
A major task of Human Rights Education is to look for methods and
programs in order to make individuals aware of how to stand up for
their rights. The discussion concentrated on the moral and legal
dimensions of Human Rights Education: Diego Bang stressed the legal
side whereas Karl-Peter
Fritzsche and Barbara Weber emphasized that both dimensions
have to be taken into account. In the European context, Human Rights
Education should be part of the formal educational sector whereas
in the Asian Region the informal sector plays an important role
due to social and cultural differences.
As Dr. Felice Yeban pointed out, a lot has been achieved within
the UN- decade since 1995 in the Asian region. In Europe, there
is still work to do to implement Human Rights Education in formal
curricula and to create a consciousness for a culture of Human Rights.
by Eva Rendle
See also the report in
our newsletter "Podium"
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Felice Yeban, Philippine Normal University: "There has been
achieved a lot within the UN-Decade since 1995 in the Asian Region."
Barbar Weber, Ludwig-Boltzmann-Institute, Vienna, focusing in
her work on schools: "It is important to know your rights but
it is more important to learn how to stand up for them."
Professor Karl-Peter Fritsche, University of Magdeburg and UNECSO
chairholder: "Human Rights Education is moral and legal Education
at the same time."
Diego Bang, Danish Centre for Human Rights:"Human Rights Education
is not the same as education for democracy, but Human Rights should
be educated with democracy."
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