IN THIS ISSUE

WELL WISHES FOR 2004 FROM HREA STAFF


In this first issue of "HREA Online" in 2004 we briefly report on several HREA activities, including an exciting new collaboration with the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission. In 2004 HREA will continue human rights education programmes with partners in Croatia, Serbia, Egypt, Morocco, China and the USA. Our Distance Learning Programme enters its third year, offering professional development opportunities to activists from around the world. This year we will also organise a Global Consultation on human rights education, together with the Asian Regional Resource Center for Human Rights Education (ARRC), Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), the Instituto Interamericano de Derechos Humanos (IIDH), the Moscow School of Human Rights and l'Union Interafricaine des Droits de l'Homme (Burkina Faso). We will keep you posted.

Wishing you an active, healthy, inspired and succesful 2004!

Felisa Tibbitts
Executive Director

HREA HOSTS SESSION WITH COUNCIL OF EUROPE COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS


As part of a distance learning course on the European human right system HREA hosted an on-line forum with the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr. Alvaro Gil-Robles. A former National Ombudsman in his native Spain, Mr. Gil-Robles answered questions about his work during a one-hour chat session on 13 November 2003.

Mr. Gil-Robles was appointed the first Commissioner for Human Rights in 1999 by the government leaders of all 45 member states of the Council of Europe. "It was felt that added value might be accrued by providing an institution with a mandate to promote the "effective respect" for human rights, that is to say to intervene in respect of specific human rights problems, through investigation and mediation with national authorities," said Gil-Robles about his mandate.

The distance learning course Introduction to the European System of Human Rights Protection and Promotion is offered annually in partnership with the Council of Europe. Further information about this course and the transcript of the chat session can be found at HREA's website.

HREA STARTS WORK WITH NORTHERN IRELAND HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION


HREA has started working with the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission in the development of teaching materials on the draft Bill of Rights. A Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland was one of the recommendations of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement.

Staff members Ellie Keen and Felisa Tibbitts visited Belfast several times last fall to meet with Commission staff, teachers, educational authorities, students and community members to discuss the project. They have drafted lesson activities for use in schools in grades 6 through 12, which are being pilot tested throughout Northern Ireland. The teacher manuals will be published later in the year. Stay tuned!

IN MEMORIAM: MAREK NOWICKI (1947-2003)


We are saddened by the death of long-time human rights activist and educator Marek Nowicki. A nuclear physicist by training, Marek was active in the underground opposition movement in communist Poland in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1989, following the collapse of communism in Poland and throughout Eastern Europe, Marek Nowicki was elected president of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights.

Marek was one of the authors of the "Charter of Human Rights" that was in part incorporated into the new Polish Constitution in 1997. Marek was also a widely respected lecturer, trainer and advisor. He wrote numerous publications on human rights, including screenplays. Marek also initiated the Helsinki Foundation's Human Rights School.

Marek inspired and actively supported the human rights movement in post-communist states. During his life time he became a symbol for the non-violent struggle for human dignity and civil rights. Marek Nowicki died in Warsaw on 10 October 2003. He was a member of HREA's International Advisory Committee. We will remember Marek as a passionate educator and advocate for human rights.

Upcoming HREA distance learning courses in 2004

HREA is offering nine distance learning courses in 2004, including new courses on Rights-based Programming, the African human rights system and a course on Human Rights Advocacy for human rights activists in the Middle East/North Africa (in Arabic). Find our more about these and other upcoming distance learning opportunities.

"Popular Education" now available in Spanish

HREA and the Inter-American Institute for Human Rights (IIDH, Costa Rica) have published a Spanish edition of Popular Education for Human Rights: 24 Participatory Exercises for Facilitators and Teachers, written by Richard Pierre Claude.

This 100-page training manual includes exercises designed for non-formal grass-roots education. It is organised around specified values, for example, respect for dignity and fair rules, links between human rights and responsibilities, building civil society, confronting prejudice, and "information for empowerment". The manual's highly participatory methods can be adapted to diverse settings and cultures and, while designed for popular education, nevertheless have been successfully used in programmes of formal education as well.

Copies of the manual are available on-line in English, Chinese and Indonesian. Hard copies of Educación Popular and the English edition can be ordered on-line.

HREA joins new European network

A new network for "Democracy and Human Rights Education in Europe" (DARE) was established in Antwerp in June 2003. DARE is a Europe-wide network of NGO's and other organisations devoted to promoting a deeper understanding and commitment to human rights and democracy through education within the enlarged European Union and beyond. HREA is represented on the Board of DARE. As part of the network's activities, in December 2004 HREA will be organising an international conference on the impact of the UN Decade for Human Rights Education. For more details view the list of HREA activities in 2004.

HURISEARCH - a new tool for finding human rights information on the Web

HREA has assisted HURIDOCS International with the implementation of a new search engine for human rights information. "HURISEARCH" allows searching sites of non-governmental human rights organisations in 58 different languages. Learn more about HURISEARCH.

Multingual HREA website launched on Human Rights Day

You can now access our extensive education resources, human rights news and human rights learning tools in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. On Human Rights Day HREA officially launched its multingual website, now available in all official UN languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. In 2004 a Dutch, German and Portuguese version of the site will be created as well.

How You Can Help

HREA supports human rights and educational institutions in transitional democracies in developing human rights curricula and training materials. With your donations we can continue to assist our colleagues in their important work. Find out how you can contribute.

Tell a Colleague

If you have colleagues who may be interested in HREA Online, HREA's quarterly e-mail newsletter, please forward this newsletter to them. They can sign up here.