FORUM-ASIA’s capacity building programme seeks to build capacity of human rights defenders to defend their own rights and defend others’ rights better”, said executive director Anselmo Lee.

Lee, who participated in the “Roundtable Discussion on Engaging ASEAN Governments on Human Rights Education” scheduled for 23-25 March, in Bangkok, Thailand, presented FORUM-ASIA’s concept, initiatives and plans for human rights education called “Training and Capacity Building of Human Rights Defenders”.

FORUM-ASIA’s capacity building programme seeks to build capacity of human rights defenders to defend their own rights and defend others’ rights better”, said executive director Anselmo Lee.

Lee, who participated in the “Roundtable Discussion on Engaging ASEAN Governments on Human Rights Education” scheduled for 23-25 March, in Bangkok, Thailand, presented FORUM-ASIA’s concept, initiatives and plans for human rights education called “Training and Capacity Building of Human Rights Defenders”.

Organised by the Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism (Working Group) in coordination with the Asia Pacific Resource Center for Human Rights Education (ARRC), the roundtable provided the platform for human rights education actors and practitioners, from various sectors such as NGOs, academe and governments, such as the national human rights commissions.

The purpose of the discussion was to share information, experiences and lessons learned; identify and explore strategies or possible engagements with governments and recommend possible human rights education initiatives for ASEAN.

FORUM-ASIA clarified that as an organisation and network of largely human rights defenders and their organisations, its human rights education program seeks to build capacity of human rights defenders.

“Since a lot of human rights defenders are human rights practitioners in the field, FORUM-ASIA’s approaches to human rights training place more emphasis on action-oriented, wholistic, integrated approaches of learning.

“We combine theory and practical experiences, learning skills and knowledge and plans for putting them to action, local/national and global linkages, and general as well as specific knowledge and topics,” said Lee, during his presentation.

For the year 2006-2007, FORUM-ASIA will continue to hold its flagship human rights education training program, the 10th Annual Asian and Study Session on Human Rights (ATSS) either in October or November this year.

At the same time, FORUM-ASIA will continue developing and implementing the National Training and Study Sessions (NTSS) in targeted Asian countries, that will complement the ATSS in partnership with national members.

FORUM-ASIA also disclosed plans to organise a training course on Asian Civil Society Leadership (ACSL)-Management geared towards strengthening the leadership and management capacity of NGO and human rights leaders and managers.

During his session, Lee pointed out some of the challenges facing human rights education in the region such as:

• 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.

Aside from Lee, Angkana Kraboensang and Sammy Gamboa of the Capacity Building program also attended the round-table discussion.

Human rights practitioners from Japan, Philippines, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, representatives from the academe and the national human rights commissions, including some of FORUM-ASIA’s national members and partners in the ASEAN region also took part in the 3-day consultation workshop.

For further information, contact:
Angkana Kraboensang
Assistant Coordinator, Capacity Building Programme
Tel: +66-2-391-8801
Fax:+66-2-391-8765
Email: [email protected]