What participants said about this course:
"This course met all my expectations and it helped me to apply in my working place in every aspect."
"The course has met almost all my expectations but I believe that only one subject has not given an appropriate attention which is ( the structure of the monitoring reports)."
"The course was very well organized, i.e. the readings were very well related, the instructor was helpful and did informative introductions and the timing, schedule, workload was proper. Especially the staff involved in carrying out the course was very nice. Discussions were interesting and contributory. Overall the course went very smooth and better than I expected. The exercises were very relevant and the course offered much more than a reading list."
"This course met my expectation much more than I expected because I have gained experience from the instructor and my course mates."
"In my learning during the course I gained a lot of knowledge based on my human rights needs in different areas, I can say now this course was narrowed the gap of my human rights monitoring knowledge, My interviewing skills was increased."
"Generally, I found the course very useful and my interest was sustained in spite of so many competing deadlines and absence on due medical reason. The organizers were very friendly, constantly encouraging us as group and as individuals. The feedback on assignments and the e-discussions were very constructive and informative. There were times one could not make the deadline for contributions, but the avenue was open to contribute at anytime."
"The course was very interesting and I learned many interesting concepts about human rights monitoring."
"The course entirely met my expectations in terms of familiarizing with international human rights standards. The course enriched my knowledge of the most prominent human rights documents, which serve as starting point for legislative norms worldwide. At the same time it enriched my knowledge of internationally accepted procedures, such as interviewing and observing."
"I think I got to learn a lot from the course, in this area in which I did not have much knowledge before. Especially interesting for me and relevant to my work was monitoring of detention places and of closed institutions."
"The course fully met my expectations. Just an advice: more reference to training materials, toolkit, handbook, etc. I think they are very useful especially for those who work in the field or in country where human rights are constantly violated."
"It has been well placed and covered the right number of topics; every topic was inline with course plan."
"The topics were just enough, interesting and educating, as I graded above."
"I would suggest including some topics which are significant nowadays, such as monitoring of right of people living with HIV/AIDS, and other vulnerable groups of people."
"Course readings were not hard and I did not meet any difficulties also the reading time was enough and well prepared."
"The readings exposed me to the practice of human rights monitoring and the methods."
"The readings were very relevant, of appropriate difficulty and the workload was very good arranged for one week."
"I would like to suggest the use or at least the reference to more training materials."
"Sometimes the readings could focus even more on the practical side rather than on the substantive side of human rights issues."
"Tools for the structural analysis of information gathered by human rights monitors could be strengthened. More materials should be provided on the effects and causes of human rights violations."
"I would need some more case studies (even as complementary bibliography). Some readings are available on the internet, which should be mentioned, so we could download the complete handbooks, for instance, the Training Manual on Human Rights Monitoring). The readings could also be a little bit more pluralistic, as there are many cases from East Europe, published by the Helsinki Foundation."
"Weekly discussion on the learning forum was very interesting and provided opportunities share ideas with other participants, reading other ideas was my best thing to do on weekly discussion."
"Reading the contributions of other course participants has introduced me to different cultural context and it was one of my reading favorites."
"The on-line discussions were well managed; the time frame was also adequate."
"The contributions enabled me to learn from other students and to get a picture of what is happening in different countries and culture and how the people are reacting to the issues."
"The pool of participants from diverse institutions, regional and specialization should be sustained."
"We had a group of very competent participants, very interesting comments."
"The discussions enabled me to put forward my thoughts and ideas."
"The discussions were very well indeed; they made me read the articles more carefully and think about them. Also I got to learn a lot from the experiences of other participants thanks to the weekly discussions. Also I meet colleagues who are interested in my work, and I got to have very nice connections."
"It was very interesting to get to know many colleagues who are very well experienced indeed. I am very glad to have met some of whom I will be keeping in touch."
"I actually printed out and read all documents you recommended; sometimes I would have appreciated a broader discussion with the group on specific topics discussed in these texts. After all, I feel the distance learning approach is very well designed and useful for people who really have the discipline and motivation to go through. But it is also true that someone who does not work so much and study can also fulfill the requirement. [Names of instructor and facilitator] did a great work in helping us to improve the learning process!"
"They [discussions] gave me an opportunity to digest what I had read and to bring my experiences to the learning process."
"I was satisfied in the way that we learned a lot from the instructor as well from the other participants."
"Written assignments were very good, according to the clear explanations of the course instructor who always did before the assignment; it helped me to develop practical skills."
"The exercises made me to get into the issue better. I think the number of exercises is just good. And the instructors are very helping."
"The instructor facilitated my learning through weekly Instructor Messages and built on the work of the group through weekly feed back messages and always creates and encourages every learning activity in the way he provides helpful feedbacks on my written assignments."
"The instructor's comments which he provided after taking the participants assignments were very helpful."
"The instructor was very helpful and encouraging. A lot of thanks to [instructor's name]."
"Congratulations, very competent instructor! And assistance of [name facilitator] was also very helpful."
"On a scale of 1-10, I will rate the instructor on 9. His coordination was excellent and comments very encouraging."
"I would like to have more chat session with the other participants and to receive more information about the organizations working in human rights monitoring."
"I would increase the number of chat sessions. It's a very interesting moment to exchange with the others participants but it takes time to know each others and to talk freely."
"[Course website] worked successfully in terms of my access to course materials, HREA staff responds very well to my technical needs and my questions."
"The only thing I had difficult in was the online chat sessions. Of course it is very difficult to arrange the perfect timing for everyone since there are participants from all over the world. I had difficulties because they coincided with my busy work time. Also there had occurred some technical difficulties. But these are small things and in general I am very happy with the way course went on. I can’t think of much to recommend."
"Fixed time [of the chat sessions] is difficult, perhaps split into two days/moments of the day? More required preparation could also be helpful in enhancing discussion."
"The course was very well organized technically."
"There should be audiovisual sessions that can be interactive session."
"Audiovisual media should be used to make the lessons more effective. These could be posted on the website for access by students."
"The course some times need to organize a kind of meeting that the different classmates can have a debate to discuss face to face also to make some times teleconference discussions."
"My rating [of technical aspects] will be 10 here. Compared with other distance learning we had in UNICEF, this should be rated very high."
"I am going to organize a few workshops in Turkey in the upcoming months. As this is my first experience in human rights monitoring, it is more an introductory phase and I will build more on my knowledge in the future. For the moment I can not anticipate more than the workshops but I will try to improve my knowledge and experience and produce some papers relevant to my work (prevention and rehabilitation of torture) and maybe field studies."
"I anticipate applying the course within my workplace organizing training to the members of our human right local monitors."
"I will use the skills to plan and implement projects and also to monitor and evaluate. I intend to develop more projects on human rights monitoring, awareness and activism using the skills."
"I 'am leading now the Darfur issue in my organization Amnesty International Grp11 New York and the courses were helpful for me in my work."
"First, I will suggest including this course in the training plan for our staff. Second, I will benefit from the knowledge obtained during the course while monitoring of IDP settlements and detention places with juvenile offenders."
"In particular the methodological approach to setting up a monitoring project, reporting etc has helped me a lot and I hope to use it in my work."
"Conducting visits to the detention facilities is the essential tasks of our mission so I believe that the skills and information earned in this course will reflect its positive impacts on my performance and has empowered my ability and qualifications in: conducting interviews with the victims; monitoring the closed institutions; and developing work plans in preparing reports in cooperation with related NGOs."
"Application of the course content started from the beginning of the programme. The knowledge gained was used during the UNICEF Global TOT on human rights based approach to programming in October 2007. Other follow up aspects have already been integrated into the 2008 workplan for the Gender and human rights unit. I plan to go back to read many of the materials again as this will further enable me to utilize more of the knowledge gained at work. Thanks for retaining students on-line access."
"In the first place, I'm actually using the monitoring approach in my work with an early warning system for social conflicts. My goal is to adopt this methodology to the specific needs of an overall conflict observatory."
"I have already applied part of it because in late December we (UNHCR, UNICEF and NOVIB Netherlands) organized human rights monitoring course by the Protection Monitoring Partners which are local organizations based in through out Somalia, and in fact I was one of the best facilitators as the trainees said because of the new skills and knowledge I gained the course."
"I'm part of an international network on indigenous rights and my paper seeks to help with some indicators on the specific issue of previous consent for indigenous peoples. We are now discussing my final paper (which was a first step forward to analyze this) and are trying to develop concrete indicators for this observatory."
"I will definitely use my acquired knowledge in order to set up training on human rights monitoring."
"I learned a lot and I could understand the main concepts of human rights monitoring."
"There are some minor changes which could be useful, but in general I was very happy with the course. May be you could reconsider the learning sequence and order of lectures, as some chapters are a little bit redundant. Virtual working groups and more chats between the participants could also be a good option. I sometimes found the leading questions not so much related to content of our lectures, and would have had appreciated a profounder discussion on some topics. It is not always clear that all participants really did read the main documents."
"I needed more information on identifying human rights standards in developing monitoring indicators. In addition, hands on experience on analyzing information gathered could be strengthened."
"I very much enjoyed taking part in the course. It taught me a lot and also make things through in a different way. Particularly the exchange with participants from different backgrounds and professions was stimulating."
"The learning methodology was also very effective and flexible for busy professional. I particularly appreciated the balance created between academic knowledge and practice all through the course I have also have recommended this to my other colleagues."
"The course gave me new insights into human rights monitoring. It also gave me professional approaches and thoughts on the topic."
"It was very useful for me, and gave me an excellent overview on the monitoring issue. I have a master degree on human rights, and the course complemented my previous knowledge in a very practical way."
"On a scale of 1-10, I will rate the course an 8. The coverage and scope was fine for the duration given for the course. Reading materials were not overwhelming and constant feedback and guidance was provided by the course coordinator. Most of my expectations were met and a few are yet to be met."
"Thank you very much for the course!"
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