Guidelines for General NHRI Training on Human Rights Protection and Promotion

Annex 4: Guidelines for General Human Rights Training

Overview: NHRI staff should have functional knowledge of human rights, as well as technical knowledge related to their particular positions. This requires a structured training and mentoring programme for staff, which should be based on a human rights development plan. The plan should be aimed at supporting professional learning and development requirements of staff, based on their job descriptions. In some countries, government departments are required to spend 10% of their budgets on staff training, but it is not unusual to see staff training for NHRIs fall well short of that level.

Donors and the international community more broadly, should coordinate their efforts to ensure that training is coordinated, progressive, and responsive to the needs of the organisation and the staff based on the assessment.

Getting Started: Training programmes should be based on an assessment of training needs. The assessment should be linked to job descriptions and strategic decisions about the phase the NHRI is in, and its priority areas.

NHRI staff training should be conducted systematically to achieve results. Participants should be able to explore and understand approaches to human rights education and training, including the larger context in which NHRIs operate. Courses should take into consideration:

• The NHRI's overall human rights focus and its education work on particular issues;
• Involvement of other local, national and regional actors and NHRIs working on similar issues within the society;
• The broader international human rights community addressing similar issues nationally, regionally and globally;
• The human rights situation and context of the  participants; and
• Situating these issues in the global human rights environment.

Dos and Don'ts:

Do

• Start with a needs assessment based on the HR management programme;
• Adopt a participatory approach, based on adult learning principles;
• Ensure the training is grounded in human rights education methods;
• Draw on experts from the country and region, where possible;
• Structure the sessions, as much as possible, as "train-the-trainer sessions", where participants are required to train others, as part of the programme;
• Emphasise experiential learning and mentoring, so that participants can internalise and operationalize what they have learned;
• Use evaluation as a developmental tool on a continuing basis, and test the learning as a development tool;
• Involve civil society as trainers, participants and facilitators, wherever possible;
• Try to structure training from the general to the particular, from the basic to the advanced;
• Ensure that staff integrate new ideas and practices with their work. Refresher courses can be added as needed;
• Avoid "training fatigue" by building in time to absorb and operationally the work; and
• Involve NHRI members and senior staff, but also ensure to build in separate leadership develop courses and opportunities for this group.

Some key messages about basic human rights training:

• They should move in sequence from the general to the particular, with sufficient time between courses to absorb and internalise learning.
• Staff need to be given the time and opportunity, as part of the training, to integrate the new ideas and practices into their work. Refresher courses can be added as needed.
• Civil society should part of the delivery and participants in training, wherever possible.
• UNCT staff should help develop and participate in training, to build their own capacity.

Don't...

• Have lengthy off-site training that stalls the NHRI operationally for long periods.
• Organize multiple trainings in sequence or "back to back".
• Have summative evaluations as the main evaluation activity.
• Treat training as an "information dump." Rather, focus on long-term learning and integrating what is learned into operations.
• Conduct one-time evaluations at the end of the session. Instead, evaluate on a daily basis and adjust.

General Training in Human Rights Protection:

Objective: To ensure that those involved in programme activities have sufficient human rights knowledge to carry out their activities. Sample course areas include (in alphabetical order):

• Alternative Dispute Resolution
• Case Management
• Civil and Political Rights
• Core Protection Issues for NHRIs
• Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
• International Human Rights Protection System
• Introduction to Investigative Techniques
• Introduction to the Principles of Human Rights
• Monitoring
• Public Inquiries and Systemic Approaches
• Role of National Human Rights Institutions

Thematic Issues:

Objective: To ensure that those involved in programme activities have sufficient human rights knowledge about cross-cutting thematic issues. Sample course areas include:

• Rights of Indigenous Peoples (where applicable)
• Rights of Detainees
• Rights of national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities
• Rights of IDPs and Refugees
• Rights of Persons with Disabilities, including HIV/AIDS
• Rights of the Child
• Rights of Women, including gender sensitivity training

General Training in Promotion

Objective: To ensure that commission employees involved in developing and delivering education and sensitisation programmes have the knowledge skills and abilities to carry out their functions in a thorough and professional manner.

• Developing effective public education programs
• Developing effective web sites (undertaken with IT specialist)
• Participatory Training Methodology / Adult Centered Learning
• Making effective presentations
• Report writing (annual reports, periodic reports, preparing summary documents)
• Communications and media liaison

Resources

See the Resources Section for Chapter 8