Dear Colleagues, I would like to ask your attention for the following. The Special Programme on Africa of Amnesty International Dutch Section is planning to publish a handbook on Economic Social and Cultural rights for human rights activists and development workers in Africa and we are putting out a tender for writing this handbook. We are looking for somebody with: - Demonstrable experience in designing and writing user-friendly, practical handbooks or similar material, using plain English; - Experience with monitoring and documenting human rights violations and knowledge of practical research methodology; - Knowledge of and/or experience with campaigning in the African context, preferably on human rights or development issues; - Knowledgeable about the different aspects of working on ESC rights and well-informed about the current state of affairs in this field (which is still developing); - Demonstrable working experience with civil society organisations in Africa. For more information about this project and the tender please see the document below. We would kindly ask you to forward this tender to anyone you know that might be interested and who meets the requirements. Best wishes, Peter _________________________________ Peter van der Horst Coordinator Special Programme on Africa Amnesty International Dutch Section PB 1968 1000 BZ Amsterdam Netherlands tel. + 31 20 626 4436 fax + 31 20 624 0889 e-mail: < > www.amnesty.nl/spa.shtml ----------- Amnesty International Dutch Section Special Programme on Africa 17 February 2006 DESIGNING AND WRITING A ESC RIGHTS HANDBOOK SERIES In 1998, the Special Programme on Africa (SPA) took the initiative to publish a Handbook on Monitoring and Documenting human rights violations in Africa, called Ukweli. We formed an Editorial Advisory Committee with a number of experienced human rights activists from Africa and Amnesty International researchers. The Committee advised to publish a user-friendly handbook consisting of a main booklet with general guidelines for monitoring and documenting human rights violations and a series of companions on specific rights violations. One of the questions was: do we deal with civil and political rights as well as with economic, social and cultural rights? The Committee advised to focus on CP rights only as at that time monitoring and documenting violations of ESC rights was still in an embryonic stage. In the meantime numerous organisations have developed activities on ESC rights and many manuals and handbooks have been published. The question is whether any of those manuals is the user-friendly, practical guide that activists and NGOs in Africa need and will use. We know from experience that many African activists will shy away from voluminous manuals, while we hear that Ukweli is much appreciated because it is concise, practical and easy to use. It assists activists in establishing step by step whether a certain incident constitutes a specific human rights violation. To have a look at the Ukweli material, please visit our website http://www.amnesty.nl/spa.shtml We think it is the right time to publish a similar handbook series on ESC rights. An increasing number of organisations in Africa is specialising on ESC rights, in general or on specific rights. Besides, more and more development organisations start using a human rights based approach, while human rights organisations are beginning to include ESC rights in their work. As all rights are interdependent and a holistic approach is needed to really contribute to the protection, respect and fulfilment of all rights, especially for the marginalised and vulnerable groups, we very much welcome and encourage these developments. This would not necessarily mean that all organisations are going to do the same work. We may want to consider not focussing only on monitoring and documenting violations of ESC rights, but also on promotion, campaigning and mobilising communities. This may have consequences for the format of the new series. We may need to develop different material for promotion and campaigning as the booklets on specific rights might become too bulky. Content and format will be discussed in a first meeting of a new Editorial Advisory Committee that we are now setting up. The committee will be comprised of potential users, complemented with some experts. Organisations that are already active in the field of ESC rights will be the focus group we have in mind when designing and writing the handbook. However, we will also aim at encouraging human rights activists on the one hand and development workers on the other to work on ESC rights. Human rights organisations would be encouraged to do their advocacy on the basis of well-documented cases, while development workers would be encouraged to adopt a human rights based approach to development. Aiming at such a broad group of potential users means the handbook series must be practical and user-friendly: * Issues should be explained in clear, plain language, not using long sentences or words that are not very common. We need to realise that many users don't have English (or French and Portuguese) as their first language. * Using short, concise paragraphs. * Using bullet points for sub-issues and numbering of steps. * A design that creates a logic, practical, step by step guide for the potential users (NGO staff). The writer(s) SPA is looking for a consultant who will be able to design and write material as described above. We may want to consider to sub-contract people to contribute on specific rights, but they will need instructions on format and style from the consultant. The writer will follow the advise of the Editorial Advisory Committee and work under supervision of SPA. Requirements * Demonstrable experience in designing and writing user-friendly, practical handbooks or similar material, using plain English; * Experience with monitoring and documenting human rights violations and knowledge of practical research methodology; * Knowledge of and/or experience with campaigning in the African context, preferably on human rights or development issues; * Knowledgeable about the different aspects of working on ESC rights and well-informed about the current state of affairs in this field (which is still developing); * Demonstrable working experience with civil society organisations in Africa. Schedule * The writer will participate in the first meeting of the Editorial Advisory Committee to discuss design and content of the material. Planning: April/May 2006; * Designing a format of the handbook series and an outline of the content and writing some first draft chapters, sufficient for the Editorial Advisory Committee to get a clear idea what the Handbook will look like; * Discuss design and first draft texts in second meeting of Editorial Advisory Committee; * Writing the material, probably with contributions from others on specific rights. Assuming that the Handbook will become a series of smaller booklets, the texts for the different parts could be written gradually; * Requesting and incorporating individual comments of the Editorial Advisory Committee. Timeline We would expect a design and first draft texts within 3-5 months after the first meeting of the Editorial Advisory Committee. We would expect the writing process to start immediately after the second meeting. The required time for this project can only be established after the first meeting of the Editorial Advisory Committee. Tender Please send us * CV * Previously written handbook or similar material * A letter including - why you meet the above requirements - how you intend to work on this - the problems you anticipate - the time you would need to write a booklet like the main Ukweli and one companion - your consultancy fee ======== Global Human Rights Education listserv ======= Send mail intended for the list to < >. Archives of the list can be found at: http://www.hrea.org/lists/hr-education/ **You are welcome to reprint, copy, archive, quote or re-post this item, but please retain the original and listserv source.
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