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IN THIS ISSUE
 From the HREA staff: Research & evaluation to further our work First issue of "Research in Human Rights Education Papers Series" Young Arab human rights defenders participate in five-day training workshop in Tunis HREA and Amnesty publish manual on service-learning
FROM THE HREA STAFF: RESEARCH & EVALUATION TO FURTHER OUR WORK
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
The human rights education field can now claim a healthy assortment of curriculum and training programmes. It is gratifying to see that human rights education is expanding in the formal and non-formal education sectors, but this should also give us pause. What are the genuine impacts of human rights education on learners? What are the dimensions of success for our programmes? How do these relate to programme design and our understanding of learners and the conditions in which they live and work?
HREA has continuously been engaged in research and evaluation in order to create knowledge of good practice. HREA staff have carried out numerous evaluations and studies and fostered capacity-building in this field through trainings and resource development. One section of our On-Line Resource Centre is devoted exclusively to R&E studies. With the launching of our "Research in Human Rights Education Papers Series" we are extending our commitment even further.
HREA will now be directly supporting the publication of research intended to assist practitioners in designing and carrying out their own programming. We would like to continue to bridge the world of practice with the world of scholarship, and we hope that you will join us by making use of the materials that we will begin to publish. Perhaps some of you will also consider sharing your research through us. However you make use of our supports in research and evaluation, we trust that these resources will assist you in designing effective and transformative programmes.
With very best wishes from the HREA Board and staff,
Felisa Tibbitts
Executive Director
FIRST ISSUE OF "RESEARCH IN HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION PAPERS SERIES"
The first issue of the Research in Human Rights Education Papers Series has appeared. The paper is a comparative study on models of human rights training. "Human Rights Training for Adults: What Twenty-six Evaluation Studies Say About Design, Implementation and Follow-Up" examines trainings for human rights defenders, police officers, government officials and the general public. Among its main recommendations are: 1) programmes need to more consistently deliver the interactive, experiential and transformative adult education methodologies that they all agree are essential to effective human rights training; 2) programmes need to emphasise comprehensive mechanisms to follow-up with participants after the formal training programme is complete; and 3) programmes should explore how they might carry out reliable and comprehensive research and documentation of their work as the HRE field as a whole lacks solid longitudinal evaluation data on the long-term impact of human rights trainings on participants.
Through the Research in Human Rights Education Papers Series HREA hopes to encourage more research on the impact of human rights education and make the results available to practitioners, to academics and to funders. In 2007 and 2008 HREA will publish three more papers, including a study on the impact of a nationwide human rights education curriculum in the framework of the UNESCO Associated Schools Project in Germany and a review of existing theory about human rights education and learning. Read further and download the research paper.
YOUNG ARAB HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS PARTICIPATE IN FIVE-DAY WORKSHOP IN TUNIS
Fifty young human rights defenders from the Middle East and North Africa met in Tunis from 23-27 April for an intensive workshop on advocacy and the human rights-based framework. The workshop was part of a year-long training programme, "Youth for Human Rights", which provides intensive training and support for young human rights defenders in the Arab World in order to increase advocacy and monitoring capacity and foster regional networking.
 | Participants at the workshop in Tunis, 23-27 April 2007
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The workshop followed an introductory distance learning course on human rights advocacy. From August to December the young activists will participate in a distance learning course on human rights monitoring and the programme will conclude with a five-day in-person workshop on human rights monitoring in Cairo (Egypt) in early 2008. During the programme the young human rights activists from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen and United Arab Emirates will receive on-going support from a mentor. "Youth for Human Rights" is jointly organised by the Arab Institute for Human Rights (AIHR), the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) and HREA. Read further.
HREA AND AMNESTY PUBLISH MANUAL ON SERVICE-LEARNING
HREA and Amnesty International have jointly published a manual on human rights and service learning. Service learning is a method whereby students learn by doing voluntary service in their communities. This programming is usually coordinated between a formal education institution and community based agencies. Service learning fosters civic responsibility and is integrated into and within the academic curriculum of the learners.
 The manual contains lessons and suggested service-learning projects. Five human rights topics are explored: the environment, poverty, discrimination, children's rights to education and health, and law and justice. To learn more about service learning, download sample lesson plans, or to subscribe to our "human rights and service learning" listserv - visit HREA's website on service learning.
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