Results achieved as of the end of the project (June 2013) include: equipping over 1,550 human rights educators from 1,100 civil society organizations, national human rights institutions and government agencies in 88 countries with knowledge and skills to: (i) promote human rights principles and values; (ii) increase participation of women and vulnerable groups in decision-making processes that affect them; (iii) mobilize communities for collective action; (iv) engage in policy dialogue with leaders and government authorities at community and national levels on human rights issues; and (v) build networks to enhance solidarity and collective action for greater respect of human rights. Project results also include: (i) conducting program activities in 25 countries that reached over 4,520 people from marginalized communities empowering them to improve respect of their rights; (ii) producing and publishing a handbook jointly with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and distributing it worldwide to help human rights educators improve the monitoring and evaluation of human rights education activities, leading to enhanced lessons learned and best practices, and higher quality human rights education interventions. In Haiti, for example, an educational toolkit ("I get involved, together we rebuild") was produced and distributed to help local community workers integrate human rights considerations in their post-earthquake reconstruction efforts, and a women’s violence prevention centre was created to help prevent violence in displaced persons camps. In Tanzania, an Equitas-trained human rights educator applied human rights education approaches to her work with 48 women’s groups. Participants became more confident in asserting their rights in their communities and even began combining economic efforts for their empowerment through group savings and borrowing. Participating women saw a ten-fold increase in their incomes, and the proportion of women elected to political positions rose from 8% to 25% for the Kilimanjaro region in the 2010 elections. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, an Equitas-trained human rights educator trained 150 local investigators to document and prosecute rape cases. As a result, 430 new cases of sexual violence were documented, 114 are being processed, and 42 have resulted in sentencing between 36 months and the death penalty. To date, 253 victims have received reparations. These results are helping people and institutions to better promote the adoption of, and compliance with, international and national human rights standards, principles, and values in their own countries and regions.
