• Human Rights:
• Human Rights:
• Increasing Knowledge and Awareness

Increasing Knowledge and Awareness

Increase levels of awareness and understanding of human rights among key actors and agencies in member countries through education and training

The Human Rights Unit (HRU) identifies particular groups (governmental and others) whose activities touch closely on the human rights of persons in the Commonwealth, or who stand to benefit the most from increased human rights educational activities. Recent activities include: 

Human Rights Training for Police Trainers in the Commonwealth

The Commonwealth Human Rights Training Programme is designed to provide police trainers with the practical tools in human rights applications.  The programme focuses, among other issues, on the significance of human rights to the fundamental duty of police officers in 'protecting and serving' the community in which they operate.  Both normative and legal issues as well as practical aspects are included in the training module about the relevance of human rights to ordinary police duties. On occasion, prisons trainers are included in the workshops. 

In a pilot project, the Unit worked with police training institutions from five West African Commonwealth countries. The workshops led to the development and publication in November 2005, of the Unit's Manual on Human Rights Training for Police in Commonwealth West African Countries, which was launched in December 2005.  The manual has since been revised for Commonwealth-wide application human rights in the training of the police. This 'Commonwealth Manual on Human Rights Training for Police' was launched on 12 June 2006 at a curriculum development workshop for trainers from the police services of seven East African and Indian Ocean countries.

The training of police trainers programme has now reached police trainers from 25 Commonwealth countries in East, West and Southern African, Indian Ocean, and the Pacific. In 2007, the training programme will extend to South Asia and the Caribbean.

Download

Commonwealth Manual on Human  Rights Training for Police Training

For more information on the Commonwealth Human Rights Training Programme for Police, contact us.

News Articles

Human rights cardinal in governance of any country, Zambia says

Human Rights Training for Maldives Police

New Commonwealth Manual on Human Rights Training for Police

Enhancing Human Rights Awareness Among Cameroonian Police and Prison Officers

Human Rights Curriculum Development for Universities, and other Training Institutions.

HRU has developed a model human rights curriculum for Commonwealth law schools, colleges and universities. This is intended as a resource to assist tertiary educators seeking to develop existing courses, to establish new courses in human rights, or to build human rights into other courses. It is hoped that the resource will enable educators to fashion a course that is country-specific and suits their students' needs, and draws upon best practice models of what a notional degree component (or other) course on human rights might look like. The comprehensive model curriculum for law schools, which contains links to many web-based databases on human rights education, may be adapted by educators to form the basis of a comprehensive course plan and outline. It is available for download here (PDF) or here (Ms Word)

In addition, HRU has produced model short courses in human rights (orientation, certificate, and diploma courses), which are not necessarily aimed at undergraduates or at law schools. Institutions which offer a course based on these short course model curricula may enter into an agreement with the Commonwealth Secretariat whereby the course is jointly certified by the institution concerned and HRU. This is a copy of the basic Commonwealth model curriculum for a short course in human rights (PDF) and here (Ms Word)

Through a pilot project with four Indian universities seeking to strengthen the availability of human rights education, and with the Commonwealth Legal Education Association, HRU has produced country-specific model short and degree component courses on human rights for Indian universities and institutions. These will be posted to this site shortly. As an example of the India programme, since late 2005 over 300 police officers have now obtained their jointly certified Commonwealth Orientation Course Certificate in Human Rights through the YCM Open University, Nashik. HRU will be developing other country-specific courses in 2007 in partnership with local educators and the Commonwealth Youth Programme.

Enhancing human rights education in the school system

The Fiji Colloquium and Workshop for Judges and Lawyers

The Human Rights Unit recently partnered with the Pacific regional office of the UNHCHR, Interights and the Fiji National Human Rights Commission to hold a "Colloquium and Workshop for Judges and Lawyers on the Justiciability of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the Pacific region" held in Suva, Fiji, from 1-3 June 2006.

The event was convened in the context of the United Nations Framework on Regional Cooperation for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in the Asian-Pacific Region, which aims to promote consideration of the establishment of regional and/or sub-regional human rights arrangements for Asia and the Pacific. Twenty one judges and four lawyers from twelve Pacific countries attended the colloquium and workshop. The workshop examined the approach of judges and lawyers in a number of jurisdictions to the civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights embodied in the international human rights treaties, in particular the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and also considered the approach of regional and international decision-making bodies to these rights.