[hr-education] Re: Follow-up to the Decade at the international level

I am writing to you from the USA as a human rights advocate rather than as
a representative of an organization. My perspective comes from relevant
graduate and post-graduate education as well as decades of professional
and volunteer accomplishments in such roles as human rights advocate;
counselor; case manager; fundraiser; mentor; executive manager of
business, government, and NGO organizations; and consultant.

George and Cristina, thank you for your suggestions!  They are wonderfully
more specific, innovative, and aware of the political economy of funding
for human rights education than any other suggestions I've received as a
member of this listserv.

The main suggestion I would add is for us to define and disseminate what
consensus we have, e.g., what we mean by "human rights" and "human rights
education." Such clarification would be immensely helpful to us. It would
dramatically boost our capacity for meaningful cooperation both to promote
what we agree upon and to organize ourselves to more efficiently, and
therefore more effectively, pursue the research & development and
dialogue. These are required to broaden our consensus and, consequently,
broaden consensus in the world.

I read the summary of the discussion of human rights and HRE on the list
earlier this year (see
http://www.hrea.org/lists/hr-education/markup/msg00884.html). I see that,
taken as a whole, it does not contain a complete definition of either
human rights or HRE by any of the discussants; that some of the views
expressed appear to contradict or fundamentally disagree with others
expressed; none of the key terms of reference were defined in measurable
or operational terms; and the summary failed to reveal a consensus even in
abstract terms. Does that mean that, until some other statement is adopted
by this forum as its foundational definition of human rights, the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights is to be assumed as the definition
of human rights for purposes of this forum's recommendations?

Jerry Bosworth
USA
E-mail: jbos-d@earthlink.net


On Mon, 9 Dec 2002 17:35:27 +0100, Cristina Sganga <quilombo@xs4all.nl> wrote:

>
>Yes, another field that I think we need to explore is funding. I strongly
>believe that we need to look at donor agencies, which give millions to
>governments in developing countries, as well as agencies like the IMF and
>World Bank and lobby them at the national level asking them what funds are
>they giving to HRE and human rights reform, present viable programmes for
>implementation and offer our expertise to implement such work. Many of
>these agencies have regional offices, sometimes national offices.
>
>Accepting funding from companies and multinationals, I believe, is an
>individual choice depending on the country, the situation and the company
>or multinational. We certainly should charge more for the training we
>provide to government officials or employees, including teachers.
>



======== Global Human Rights Education listserv ========
Send mail intended for the list to <hr-education@hrea.org>.
Archives of the list can be found at:
http://www.hrea.org/lists/hr-education/markup/maillist.php
If you have problems (un)subscribing, contact <owner-hr-education@hrea.org>.
**You are welcome to reprint, copy, archive, quote or re-post this item,
but please retain the original and listserv source.