Learning ? To Integrate Human Rights - International Human Rights ...

Learning - To Integrate Human Rights A Report
of
The International Human Rights Trust
The work of the International Human Rights Trust is supported by:
The Commission of the European Union and the Irish Department of Foreign
Affairs Printed by Genprint Ltd. Dublin. Ireland, February 1999.
The International Human Rights Trust
The International Human Rights Trust was established in Ireland in 1996
to promote respect for the norms of international human rights law. Its
activities include education, research and the advancement of effective
training in diagnostic monitoring and development of human rights. The
Trustees are David Begg, Noeline Blackwell, Karen Kenny and Brian
McKeown.
The study "Towards Effective Training for Field Human Rights Tasks" by
Karen Kenny was commissioned by the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs.
This is a synthesis of lessons to be drawn from the training experiences
of the large UN human rights operations to that date. The study was
subsequently discussed at a round table consultation of international
human rights experts in Dublin in November 1996. The roundtable was
sponsored by the Department of Foreign Affairs of Ireland and the Office
of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organisation of
Security and Co-operation in Europe, Warsaw. A Statement of Principles
and of needs was adopted.
In 1998 the Trust published a discussion paper Towards a Human Rights
Partnership for Effective Field Work, emphasising the importance of
meaningful participation from host societies if field human rights work
is to be relevant and contribute to the sustainable improvement of the
human rights situation.
As part of the on-going follow-up to the study, in 1997 the Trust was
engaged to advise the expanded OSCE Mission to Croatia on training its
250 new members to ensure that sustainable human rights approaches inform
their work (after the UNTAES withdrawal from Eastern Slavonia).
The Trust is currently working to help identify practical mechanisms to
recommend to ensure meaningful participation from host societies in field
human rights work of international organisations. The results will be
published in 2000 and their application will then be considered at a
Forum of concerned actors.
The work of The International Human Rights Trust is supported by the
European Commission and the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs. Key principles and approaches The above study on training, the Statement of Principles and the
Partnership discussion document encapsulate the principles which guide
the work of the Trust, especially the Sustainability Principle which
requires:
"That Human Rights Operations must be based on the assessed needs of a
host society, and co-ordinated with other complementary initiatives, so
as to best contribute to a sustainable improvement of the human rights
situation as part of an overall human rights strategy. This requires the
active participation of the host society."
The sustainable approach to human rights operations has received the
support of the Development Committee of the European Parliament and of
the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson.
The Co-Directors
Brian McKeown is an independent development and human rights advisor. He
was Assistant Secretary General of CIDSE, International Co-operation for
Socio-Economic Development in Brussels 1968-72 after which he became
founding Director of Trocaire, the Irish international development
agency. During 21 years as Director, he worked on development and human
rights issues throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America. He was a
founding Board member of the Asia Partnership for Human Development, a
consortium of international and Asian development agencies and headed the
CIDSE consortium for Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. He was the first elected
President of the European Union-NGO Liaison Committee which established
the European Union's co-financing scheme with NGOs and a member of the
Irish Government's Advisory Council on Development. He is a founding
member and Trustee of the African European Institute (AEI)- Association
of Western European Parliamentarians for Southern Africa (AWEPA).
In 1995 he was appointed the European Union's Coordinator for the UN
Human Rights Operation in Rwanda (HRFOR). More recently, he has acted as
a consultant to the European Union on human rights issues including
leading human rights identification missions to Togo and the Democratic
Republic of the Congo. He has recently been conferred with the Knighthood
of the Order of Gregory the Great for his life's work for development and
justice. He is co-founder and co-Director of The International Human
Rights Trust.
Karen Kenny is an independent advisor on the law and practice of human
rights and humanitarianism. Previously she was a United Nations staff
member appointed to plan and conceptualise what became the UN's Human
Rights Field Operation in Rwanda (HRFOR), was on the staff of the first
UN human rights operation in El Salvador (ONUSAL) as well as at the
(then) UN Centre for Human Rights working on various UN fact-finding and
investigative mandates concerning the former Yugoslavia 1992-94. In this
context, for the Security Council's Commission of Experts she coordinated
a team of 40 to investigate allegations of widespread sexual assault in
former Yugoslavia.
More recently, she advises a range of inter-governmental organisations
from Unicef to ECHO on integrating human rights into their work at all
levels from policy to training - as well as advising humanitarian and
human rights NGOs. She is currently honorary research fellow in the
University of Nottingham's Human Rights Law Centre and appointed as
expert member of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs Standing
Committee on Human Rights. She authored Towards Effective Training for
Field Human Rights Tasks (1996) as well as the discussion paper Towards a
Human Rights Partnership for Effective Field Work (1998). She co-authored
with Brian McKeown The European Union and Human Rights Field Operations:
if, when, how and with whom, a policy discussion paper requested by the
European Commission; and as team leader for The Philippines advised it on
strategy to maximise the human rights impact of its funding there.
She has designed/delivered operational human rights training for the
range of field human rights actors from international military and police
to civilian personnel in many countries. Since 1996 she has co-designed
and co-delivers the Canadian Pearson Peace-Keeping Centre's annual two
week course on human rights in UN field operations and was team leader
for advising the OSCE on a human rights training plan for its expanded
OSCE Mission to Croatia. She is co-founder and co-Director of The
International Human Rights Trust.
Comments are invited:
Karen Kenny BrianMcKeown
99 Burford Road 7 Seafield, Corbawn Lane
Nottingham NG7 6BA Shankill
UK Co Dublin Ireland
Tel/fax: +44 115 9789339 Tel: +353 1 2826759
e.mail: 106347.3500@compuserve.com Fax:+353 1 2822538
e.mail:mckeowns@indigo.ie Contents
1 of 2
Introduction 7
Summary 9 Part I The Current Situation 13
1. Context 13
2. Three Layers of Change 13
2.1 Restructuring 15
2.2 Expanding field work 15
2.3 Potential to integrate human rights 16
3. What do we mean by 'learning'? 17
4. Observations on the current situation 18
4.1 Fragmented learning 18
4.2 Change should be based on learning 21 PART II PROPOSALS: A LEARNING RESOURCE CENTRE 25 1. Overview 25
2. Establish a Learning Resource Centre 26
2.1 Aim: to enhance strategy development 26
2.2 Authority, independance and credibility 27
2.3 Methodology 28
3. Implementation in three phases 30
3.1 First phase beneficiary is OHCHR 30
3.2 Second phase beneficiary is the UN system 33
3.3 Third phase beneficiaries outside the UN 34
4. Close 34
Contents
2 of 2 ANNEX Ia SAMPLE UN LEARNING PROCESSES 37
1. Learning in the UN system 37
2. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights 37
3.Office of Internal Oversight Services 38
4. Peacekeeping - DPKO 41
5. Peacekeeping: OHCHR and field practice 44
6. Learning at the humanitarian-human rights interface 44
7. Others learning in related areas 48 ANNEX Ib BACKGROUND NOTE ON INTEGRATING HUMAN RIGHTS 49 ANNEX Ic DISCUSSION PROCESS 53 ANNEX Id INTERNATIONAL FORUM, GENEVA, conclusions and recommendations
57
1. Introduction 57
2. Issues 58
3. OHCHR as focal point for human rights learning 59
4. Reciprocal support for follow-up 60 ANNEX Id INTERNATIONAL FORUM, GENEVA, participants 61 ANNEX IIa A LEARNING STRUCTURE 65
1. Single authority 65
2. Doctrinally coherent 65
3. Credibility, authority and independence 65
4. Accountability 66
5. Transparency 66
6. Timely, relevant, auditable outputs 66
7. Mixed discipline team 66
8. Focus political and financial support for learning 67
9. Permanent status 67 ANNEX IIb LEARNING METHODOLOGY 69
1. The learning cycle 69
2. Range of methods 71
3. Inputs 72
4. Analysis 73
5. Output 74
6. Dissemination - feedback 75
7. Auditing 75
Introduction[i]
".....it has become apparent to all that the UN is as much in
demand as in need of change....we are learning