Human rights practitioners from various entities such as the NGOs, academe and national human rights institutions as well as the UN agencies in South East Asia recently came up with a series of recommendations for ASEAN governments on human rights education in the sub-region.
The three-day “ Roundtable Discussion on Engaging ASEAN governments on Human Rights Education” held in Bangkok from 23-25 March 2006 identified key regional (ASEAN-level) and national proposals for human rights education.
Human rights practitioners from various entities such as the NGOs, academe and national human rights institutions as well as the UN agencies in South East Asia recently came up with a series of recommendations for ASEAN governments on human rights education in the sub-region.
The three-day “ Roundtable Discussion on Engaging ASEAN governments on Human Rights Education” held in Bangkok from 23-25 March 2006 identified key regional (ASEAN-level) and national proposals for human rights education.
HRE goals for the ASEAN region proposed by the roundtable participants are the following:
- Compliance with international human rights education (HRE) standards(eg., the World Programme for HRE);
- Strengthening of the dialogue/engagement between ASEAN, the United Nations, and other partners regarding Human rights and the rights-based approach and HRE in ASEAN;
- Establishment of an ASEAN Regional HRE Training and Resource Center;
- Development and implementation of Joint ASEAN HRE projects;
- Creation of an ASEAN Committee on HRE;
The national HRE proposals are:
- Adoption of a national HRE plan;
- Adoption of HRE policies and programs for schools, critical government agencies, and the general public;
- Establishment of mechanisms for dialogue between and among government and HRE providers;
- Encourage creation of national human rights institutions.
The three-day roundtable was organised by The Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism, in coordination with the Asia Pacific Regional Resource Center for Human Rights Education (ARRC).
Participants from various organisations discussed their experiences and initiatives in human rights education and shared both challenges and opportunities. Anselmo Lee, Forum-Asia’s (FA) Executive Director, presented the regional organization’s human rights education and capacity building programs and plans.
The roundtable realised that there are various levels of developments in human rights education in the ASEAN countries. While there are countries that are “at the level of raising awareness, others are transforming government systems to be rights-based, and a few are already addressing the need to sustain their levels of achievement at the maximum,” the roundtable summary report states.
Participants identified some challenges and difficulties that “should be considered in engaging governments on HRE”. These are:
- Government’s negative perception of human rights
- Democratic space directly proportional to HRE
- Bureaucratic obstacles
- Lack of adequate resources to sustain HRE initiatives
- Lack of willingness by the government to commit
- Compartmentalization of HRE
Anselmo Lee, FA Executive Director identified some of the major challenges in human rights education (HRE) from the perspective of a regional human rights NGO and urge the roundtable participants to help address and engage ASEAN governments on these.
Among these challenges are:
- conceptual confusion or lack of clear understanding about “new types” or emerging context of human rights violations/issues in Asia such as:non-state actors (TNCs, IFIs, ODA)
- conflicting values underlining human rights norms, for example (Asian versus western values and universality issues)
- wholistic understanding of human rights in relation to other major global thematic issues (peace, democracy, development, security)
- multiple approaches to human rights education and capacity building (research, campaigns and advocacy, role of other movements)
- linkage between domestic and international human rights standards and mechanisms
- better coordination among HRE institutions and groups
- the need for multi-stakeholder approach
- development of effective, diversified, and integral human rights training modules and manuals.
