Project profile — Strengthening Human Rights Education Globally

This project aims to build safer, more equitable communities with greater respect for human rights and democracy by empowering key actors, including children and youth, to become agents of change in their communities. These key actors include human rights educators, local government officials, and representatives of community-based organizations, civil society organizations, women’s associations, and national human rights institutions. The project provides these key actors with human rights education based on international and regional norms and standards to help them to: (i) build their knowledge and skills and work together to strengthen the protection of human rights; (ii) engage in community actions to reduce violence, advance gender equality and ensure respect for human rights; (iii) influence policy-makers to ensure services for children and youth fulfill state human rights obligations; and (iv) share best practices and participate in national and international networks. Some project activities include: (i) providing training and support to an average of 90 human rights and human rights education practitioners from about 50 countries each year through Equitas’ International Human Rights Training Program, a three-week course given in Canada; (ii) holding two regional human rights training sessions in East Africa and two in West Africa; (iii) conducting three online training programs; (iv) supporting national-level actions in four selected countries (Senegal, Tanzania, Haiti and Colombia) focused on protecting the rights and promoting the participation of children and youth. The project expects to reach 8,400 people (including 5,610 children and youth) directly, and 922,000 people (including at least 372,000 children and youth) indirectly. This project is implemented in collaboration with Equitas’ local partner organizations in many countries.

The expected intermediate outcomes for the project include: (i) civil society organizations, national human rights institutions and government departments in 80 countries, undertaking more effective initiatives in human rights education; (ii) community actors, including children and youth, working collaboratively to put in place new structures leading to greater protection of human rights and greater participation in community development; (iii) key actors in targeted communities leading actions to reduce violence, advance gender equality and ensure greater respect for human rights; (iv) government authorities, national human rights institutions and other stakeholders engaging in action to ensure that policy-making and the delivery of services for children and youth are fulfilling state human rights obligations; and (v) key actors working collaboratively, sharing best practices and participating in human rights and gender equality networks.

Results achieved as of March 2019 include: (1) trained 551 human rights defenders (279 women) from 92 countries through the annual International Human Rights Training Program (IHRTP) in Montreal and Regional Human Rights Training Sessions in East and West Africa. This contributed to the increased capacity of participants to implement effective initiatives in human rights education using international and regional human rights standards and mechanisms; (2) implemented 71 community action projects to address human rights challenges at the community level. This includes 7 in Colombia, 31 in Haiti, 22 in Senegal and 10 in Tanzania. These projects involved 12,052 direct beneficiaries (at least 60% women and girls); (3) 282 intermediaries (155 women) worked collaboratively with community members, including children and youth, to address human rights problems in their respective communities; and (4) 61 strategic actions taken by stakeholders (44) and duty-bearers (17) to support improved implementation of policies and greater fulfillment of state obligations.