What participants said about this course:
"I was very satisfied with the content and format of the course."
"This course exceeded my expectations. Mostly this was in the way that the tutor worked the questions each week, and gave the very thorough and readable background."
"The course met my expectations very well."
"My expectations were satisfied. I was able to learn from the experience of course mates and also gained a lot from the training materials provided."
"I will rate the course as every good. The course provided the necessary theoretical and practical tools for my current work. Experiences from other participants and the instructor were very rewarding."
"This course met my expectations and sometimes exceeded them."
"The course met my expectations extremely well as we covered all the areas of interest I raised before the commencement of the course."
"The was course absolutely excellent, good balance of work, excellent readings, high level discussions, good balance between practical sessions and theoretical, very good coaching and guidance from the supervisor + website perfectly organized."
"I found the course quite interesting. This was my first distance learning course and I found it a rewarding experience. The content of the course was also very good. I estimate that now I know much more about human rights monitoring then I started with."
"The course provided very useful information both on the practical and substantive aspect of monitoring."
"The course was beyond my expectations mainly as it regards the section about interviewing techniques and monitoring torture. The course provided me with such interactive and valuable tools that at some point it seemed to me it was not only a distance learning programme but first and foremost something else I could put it down to experience."
"I found the course very useful and rose above my expectations."
"My overall impression is very positive. The course met my expectations and I am sure to benefit a lot in case of being employed in a human rights organization."
"The course met my expectations in general. I think there was just the right amount of readings and assignments, and the subjects covered were interesting and useful. There was just the right amount of participants as well."
"I found that I learned and gained skills in those areas in which I did not have any profound knowledge and skills, e.g. monitoring discrimination, knowing what advocacy is and how to develop an advocacy plan, etc."
"The course met my expectation very well, I was impressed by how it was effective in terms of stimulating discussion and thinking around the topics covered. I found it very well organized too."
"I thought that at the end of the course I would be able to know about monitoring, its
tools, and methods. The course enabled me to understand comprehensively about the
above mentioned things."
"Being completely new to human rights monitoring, I may not be able to state with detail on this issue. However, I found the sequence logical and found them very consistent with what our organization is doing. I could now easily relate and explain a lot of functions that our organization perform and also can probably evaluate these functions."
"I liked the kinds of topics covered and they were the right amount. But in any short course such as this one I think we will inevitably have topics that individuals might want to focus on more, and I think that's where the final assignment comes in, so all in all I think the balance was right."
"I have no suggestions for improvements - the subject coverage was very good."
"The course was very interactive and effective and permitted for sharing of experiences and knowledge."
"The training is well structured that enabled one to easily comprehend the points and to relate the topics. The topics are also broad enough to give one a basic understanding of monitoring human rights violations."
"I think the topics are sufficient enough and well selected."
"I appreciated the emphasis on soft v. hard law and the importance of politics in the realm of human rights. People idealize international human rights law too much and this course kept participants firmly in a political reality."
"The readings did take about four or five hours a week. This is enough for a person working full-time. I was unable to get to any of the optional material."
"The course content was very in-depth both in respect of reading material and the level of weekly discussion this engendered. It was interesting to note the diversity of areas the content covered with regards to monitoring, and how such monitoring could actually be conducted."
"The topics covered were absolutely relevant to the course and to my work.""The topics of the course were very helpful and broadened my knowledge about human rights monitoring. Because my work relates to human rights but does not allow me to do frontline work, such as monitoring victims by interviewing them, it limits the direct application of my knowledge/skills in my work. However, I hope that in the future or in another future job I could apply this more because I'm very interested in this or that I'm able to do more research on this topic. "
"The topics were to the point and relevant to my work."
"I increased my knowledge on human rights monitoring as well as gained skills in specific human rights monitoring contexts. I think that especially the exercises were very good in terms of learning about the topics addressed every week. The discussions also helped to really think about the implications of executing the work in various contexts in different cultures, religions, countries etc.!"
"The course readings were well selected and easy to digest; especially the ones compiled by our tutor."
"Reading materials were very interesting and useful."
"I would say that, in some areas, the course materials were a little basic for a person who has ten years' experience in human rights law but I still learned enough to keep me engaged."
"The readings gave good theoretical backgrounds."
"The articles that we had to read were the right size as well as the level of difficulty. They were challenging and allowed me to think about the topic. Some of them were also very useful because they provided guidelines, standards etc."
"The readings identified were very useful and shall be useful for future reference."
"The discussion were very interesting part of the whole learning experience. I enjoyed reading the contributions of the participants. It made me realize that each topic can be looked at from different angles and from different cultural perspectives. I was also encouraged by the depth of analytical abilities displayed by most of the participants."
"I have already mentioned above that the depth and variety of views of the participants was enlightening. It may be my own reflection but I found that participants from Asian and Africa giving more space and acceptance to the cultural variables in the human rights discourse."
"The weekly discussions were very useful and helped me to keep up with the readings and to critically examine the perceptions of other participants."
"I thought the weekly discussions were very good. Although I sometimes found the topics very difficult, because of my limited prior experience and knowledge. The level of discussions were high and there was a lot of energy and enthusiasm coming from the participants. This made the weekly discussions even more valuable because shared their view and provided examples to support their argument. I especially found the instructor very good by providing an introduction to the topic as well as providing direction at the end of the discussion by sharing his and general perspective by also involving participants' perspective. "
"The weekly discussions were certainly one of the main strengths of the course. Getting the views and experiences of other students was really invaluable and I thought helped to shape my own thoughts on the issues being discussed. In general I found the comments by other students probably some of the most helpful insights on the course aside from the course instructor. It was important that a range of different perspectives were brought to the discussion in the way they were."
"I enjoyed this aspect of the course very much. It seemed to me that most participants engaged very actively."
"The contributions from other students were very interesting and varied. If I had one comment, it would be that the discussions were going on for too long because after about 10 postings, many people tended to just repeat what others had said, and agree."
"The weekly discussions were very useful and the input from other students an excellent addition to my learning."
"I think the instructor did well in composing the issues for discussion. Participants were also opened with experiences from their regions which was quite good too. Time was however a constraint for one to read all the materials understand the questions and what other colleagues write and be able to respond."
"I'm not sure how much I brought to the discussion, but I did find that contributing earlier on in the week was more helpful in the sense that there was less pressure to add something new and different. Sometimes there simply wasn't much to say. The weekly discussions were also a challenge to keep up with, and while they were difficult for me because I didn't always have access to the internet I did enjoy them and thought they were very necessary and useful."
"I was generally impressed by the level of knowledge and experience of some participants, but think the group was very heterogeneous. While some posting were just entirely interesting, others repeated a lot earlier arguments."
"I enjoyed he contributions from other participants. It gave me new perspectives."
"The input from other participants was very useful; in particular the input from other students an excellent addition to my learning."
"The weekly discussions were providing wonderful opportunity to share ones ideas and to know form other colleagues."
"Several of the participants had very fascinating insights and experiences which they shared. A very useful tool for furthering our understanding of the how concepts are applied differently across the world."
"I tried to complete the assignments on time but found myself lagging behind the schedule on the final project. I also think that written assignments probably demanded more efforts as compared to weekly answers to the question posed by the instructor."
"The written assignments were very good in terms of getting a better understanding of the topics. It also made you develop the skills that are necessary to do human rights monitoring work."
"Since I am not a lawyer I do not think that I will apply the contents of the topic "Administration of Justice", however I think it is am important subject and it was very interesting for me to observe a court proceeding."
"The written assignments were very important for my learning process."
"Very relevant and flexible questions, which required a lot of analysis."
"I thought the techniques in interviewing - including the assignment - monitoring closed institutions and information gathering were very useful. There was less focus on developing an advocacy plan, in terms of actually developing one, but this perhaps would be difficult to do as an assignment. I could learn more on interventions with local authorities and monitoring discrimination - but the discussion with colleagues on the latter helped a great deal."
"I think there was much value in doing the assignment i.e. conducting an interview and elaborating on a topic of interest and others because we needed to apply the skills and knowledge that we were discussing and reading about. I suppose given the limitations of the course being online, from there techniques around interviewing etc. are a matter of practice. In general the assignments were very good, and the feedback provided is always useful."
"The assignments were not too few or too little. The number and the issues were such as to enable one think and participate in the learning process. As said in other sections above, time was quite a constraint, but I think it depends on a person's workload in the office."
"I actually really enjoyed the assignments as they were substantive enough to really get a feel for the topic without being overly heavy and taxing. The assignment which required us to conduct an interview was a clever way of getting us some practical experience despite the course being an online one… I enjoyed that tremendously."
"Krassimir you have been an excellent instructor, wise, balanced, encouraging and enlightening! Thank you! An excellent guide!"
"The instructor's end-of-week comments were most helpful. Often I had a particular point of view at the start of the week and, by the end, I had changed it. This was challenging and engaging. The instructor was not afraid to disagree with us, or contradict us, and this was encouraging. His comments were well thought out, based in our specific discussions, and he clearly engaged with us. His attentiveness to our intellectual and learning needs was more than I expected."
"The pace of the instructors work was well chosen and the arguments well developed. I thought he was an inspired choice.
"The course instructor was very good and helpful. He had time for his students."
"I thought Krassimir was very good. He was responsive and gave helpful feedback. I was always interested to read the instructor messages before and after the discussion forum. They were always useful and I found myself wanting more."
"I enjoyed reading [the instructor's] feedback at the end of each discussion week."
"Many thanks to Krassimir!!! His constructive, supportive feedback helped me very much!"
"I am very satisfied with the instructor. He helped us get an overall perspective of what human rights monitoring entails."
"The Instructor was very helpful through out the course and provided us with insights into the various topics discussed. He is experienced and had an open door policy. He is also quick at responding to our queries and concerns."
"The instructor did well in raising issues for the weekly discussions in his weekly instructions and in harmonizing the different responses of participants for the weekly discussions. It was quite broad to reflect the different views though he took his own position which he is entitled to."
"The instructor was always there. All queries from me were answered in a timely and professional manner."
"I was enlightened by the instructor summing up of each week discussion. It was quite good and after reading the postings of other participants, I eagerly read it to find what was the gist of the whole issue."
"I like the idea of using chat sessions as learning instrument, and it certainly contributes to a sense of community."
"The sessions were quite useful, although due to difficulties of connecting to the internet, I encountered difficulties following through the entire discussions."
"Congratulations on the very much efficient website layout and organization! It is an excellent working tool! Very clear and user friendly."
"The technical aspects of the course were very professionally managed."
"The technical side of the course was very good and I didn't have much difficulty in using the website and to access the course materials; upload my assignments and to add my perspectives for the weekly discussions."
"Online chat sessions were excellent idea. The sessions yielded feeling of nearness with other participants."
"Apart from difficulties with continuous connection to the internet during chat session, everything went on well."
"I unfortunately had trouble logging on for the duration of the discussion and so couldn't get into the chat. I did however read the transcript which was an interesting read. Definitely something that should be continued. As for the technical glitches, guess it is something that can't be helped. No worries."
"The organizers may increase the number of online chats."
"In terms of technology, the chat session was easy to participate in but the timing was difficult because of my job. I think that you cannot win on the timing issue with a global course so it is good that you post the chat afterwards."
"My only comment is about the on-line chat - but as I believe that that is more to do with the fact that I am not very well versed in this process and found it hard to follow."
"Support and advice by both [instructor] and [facilitator] was always given immediately when needed. They responded with a great deal of flexibility to facilitate the participant's needs to fulfill the course requriments. All answers and advice were provided in a very competent and helpful way."
"I didn't have any technical problem with the course. The reading materials were always in my access. I could participate in the discussions accordingly. "
"It was my first distance online learning course. So I have not much experience of this type of medium of instruction. I found it quite good and satisfying. Though in one of the chat session I tried to interact from a local internet café and failed to log on. However, the problem was with the internet provider in Nepal rather than any problem at HREA site. I would again state that it was technically a very good experience. Thanks."
"I thought all was fine, I just had a slow and sometimes non-existent internet connection, no fault of the course. I thought the website was well set-up and easy to navigate for course participants."
"Apart from the section dealing with monitoring refugee/IDP camps -- where the scope of rights we need to monitor are much more complex and broader than in other topics and monitoring situations --, I felt like learning a bit more about how to monitor economic, social and cultural rights. In that connection, I think the learning process focused more on human rights monitoring of civil and political rights."
"I intend to find a job in the nearest future either in UNHCR or ICRC, in any case within protection, so I am sure that all I learnt will be fundamental to my future work as Human Rights Officer or Protection Officer."
"As a human rights officer, every time I am required to go on a fact-find mission I will certainly apply the skills and understandings of human rights monitoring according to the course objectives. In that connection, primarily it will be of great help for preparing a work plan before going (out) to interview victims of human rights violations or witnesses in general - the course section on human rights-based interview technique was a great boost to my current assignment."
"This course has shown me that specialized knowledge, skills and structures are needed to implement an effective and efficient human rights monitoring regime."
"The balance of the course seems excellent. It starts at a very good level, allowing the less skilled such as me time to adjust."
"The course will help me in developing my own ability to conduct human rights monitoring and also to supervise the human rights investigations done by other human rights officers in a more productive and correct manner."
"UNICEF in Sri Lanka is currently developing a monitoring and reporting mechanism for reporting on Child Rights violations in conflict areas. The learning from this course will be used as input into this process, including the training of field based staff."
"I think the theoretical background on using advocacy in the public interest provided me with a valuable starting point on which to further my work with the Stop the War Coalition and the Respect party in Britain. I can understand better the strategies around public advocacy and can make better contributions to meetings and demonstrations, and understand the value of this work better."
"At my organization, I work as monitoring officer. I look at labor and their working conditions, remuneration, working hours and their living standards. The course helps me to do my job precisely and with more confidence."
"Right now I am only in the position to campaign on human rights issues in Israel/Palestine, but through the training course I got a comprehensive view on human rights work, which is important for campaigning as well and with the certificate I will look for job opportunities in the field of human rights monitoring. Besides I will offer the concept of my final project to my human rights organization."
"For instance it afforded me opportunity to know why I need to pay attention to particular details in human rights monitoring interview and reports and the choice of words in a report that could make a difference."
"Now I have more general knowledge on human rights monitoring. When I go out to the field I try to apply the different steps that I learned in the course."
"Though I do work as monitoring officer but before I never looked at it systematically. The course increase my knowledge and improved my learning now which I can apply to my work."
"I am not applying the course directly in my current job, which is in international advocacy. However, I work very closely with the monitoring and documentation unit (helping designing questionnaires for fieldworkers, using their affidavits, doing some second hand monitoring of violations, etc) and it helps me considerably to have studied the vocabulary, concepts and main guidelines of human rights monitoring."
"I am hoping to move into the field of human rights monitoring of IDPs in Somalia. I was looking to this course to provide me with the knowledge to make that move."
"I would like to draw up a comprehensive monitoring plan to follow up on government's obligations under the CEDAW Convention based on specific points raised by the CEDAW Committee in their concluding comments to the Malaysian government."
"I intend to train programme staff on human rights monitoring as well as to use the monitoring plan that I developed as my final paper, to undertake a monitoring exercise on freedom of expression in The Gambia."
"I am particularly grateful for learning about the dynamics between monitoring and advocacy, the protection of victims/witnesses. Two issues I hadn't thought about before."
"What I have learnt in the course would enable me perform better on my job."
"It was a basic introduction to human rights monitoring, according to my expectations. Working full time, being a lot on field trips and create time and energy to really focus on the course was sometimes difficult."
"I would wish to thank HREA for providing me the opportunity to undertake this course."
"The quality [of the course] was very high due to the course instruction, the weekly discussion questions, the exercises, assignments but also due to the participants that came from different countries around the world. Their enthusiasm and activeness also helped to make this course even more valuable. I was able to exchange some views, perspectives as well as asking some course participants for advice. I was even able to meet one of the course participants in Hong Kong! The internet really brings people of different backgrounds together and it was a great feeling to be learn about human rights monitoring together. I think you can get a lot from this course, but it all depends on how active you are and how much you get involved in the discussions etc. "
"The distance-learning course is a wonderful idea. It saves time and money. First, I was not sure about the usefulness of the course but when I started to participate, I found it amazing. It increased my knowledge, learning and skill which I can apply to my work in field."
"I found the course highly relevant and educational and enjoyed it immensely. Many thanks for everyone involved."
"Well done on a great course and I have recommended it to others. Thank you."
"To be honest I find it difficult to make any suggestions, since, with no flattering intention, I must say it is one of the best courses I ever attended!"
"Overall, a very enriching experience. I hope to join in another course in future. Thanks."
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