HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN ASIA-PACIFIC VOLUME TWO Human Rights Education in Asia-Pacific—Volume Two Published by the Asia-Pacific Human Rights Information Center 2-8-24 Chikko, Minato-ku, Osaka 552-0021 Japan Copyright © Asia-Pacific Human Rights Information Center, 2011 All rights reserved. The views and opinions expressed by the authors in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of HURIGHTS OSAKA. Printed and bound by Takada Osaka, Japan HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN ASIA-PACIFIC VOLUME TWO Acknowledgment We are grateful to the authors who worked with us in completing this second volume of the publication. We thank Patrick Earle and his colleagues in the Diplomacy Training Program, and Suruchi Pant and Madhyama Subramanian of the Regional Office for South Asia of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime for their help in sending their respective articles. We also thank Rohini Ghadiok for her help in preparing the article of the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development. We are saddened however by her untimely demise. Many of them graciously waited for the delayed printing of the publica- tion. Thank you for your important articles as well as for your patience. We acknowledge the support of Aparna Basnyat of the Regional Centre for Asia and the Pacific of the United Nations Development Programme (undp), who provided different undp contacts in several countries in Asia. Several of the contacts helped get the articles in this volume. We look for- ward to having undp contacts in other countries to also help us in the com- ing volumes. We acknowledge also Jefferson R. Plantilla for editing this volume. Finally, we give credit to Fidel Rillo of Mind Guerrilla Inc. for designing the lay-out and doing the lay-out itself. Table of Contents Acknowledgment 4 Foreword 7 Introduction 8 I. SECTORAL EDUCATION Human Rights Education: A Tool for Social Change in the Pacific 13 Kathryn Choules Access to Justice: Community Legal Education Center 23 Ginney Liu and Clémence Calzaroni Empowering Returned Filipino Women Migrants and their Children: The Batis Center for Women Experience 43 Andrea Luisa C. Anolin and Lara Salud C. Javier II. TRAINING FOR PROFESSIONALS Human Rights Promotion: The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission 61 Abdul Karim Azizi and Yeseul Christeena Song The Evolution of the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institution’s Regional Training Program 73 Suraina Pasha Diplomacy Training Program: 20 Years of Commitment 83 Diplomacy Training Program Monitoring the Justice System in Timor Leste 97 Judicial System Monitoring Programme Strengthening the Justice System in Timor-Leste 107 Justice System Programme, UNDP Timor Leste 6 UNDP and the National Human Rights Commission of Nepal 115 Tek Tamata India: Strengthening Safety Nets to Counter Human Trafficking 125 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Feminist Legal Theory and Practice 137 Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development III. FORMAL EDUCATION Child Rights Education in Japanese Schools 149 Akito Kita What Do Textbooks Teach – and How? An Approach to Assessing Modes of Human Rights Education 163 Bettina C. Rabe Evaluating Human Rights Education in Osaka Senior Secondary Schools 191 Shinichi Hayashi Reflections on a Master of Laws in Human Rights Program in Asia 215 Kelley Loper Human Rights Education at Curtin University: The Interconnections of Education, Research and Advocacy 225 Caroline Fleay and Linda Briskman Promoting International Human Rights Standards 239 Jefferson R. Plantilla APPENDIX Final evaluation of the implementation of the first phase of the World Programme for Human Rights Education Report 271 About the Authors 301 Foreword iversity is key in developing human rights education programs, modules, materials, and methodologies. It is a necessary element in ensuring relevance and effectiveness of the human rights education interventions.D While we see common elements in many of the human rights experi- ences undertaken within differing contexts in the Asia-Pacific, we also ap- preciate the diverse elements that define these experiences. It is important that we note both the similarities and differences in un- derstanding the continuing efforts on the ground aimed at making human rights better understood and applied to concrete issues. We also see the importance of recognizing the many faces of the human rights educator. We therefore thank the authors in the second volume of this publication for allowing us to put into print their documentation of these diverse and important experiences. Once more, we bring out another collection of human rights education experiences that everyone can learn from. Osamu Shiraishi Director hurights osaka Introduction n the history of Asian and Pacific initiatives on human rights edu- cation (in whatever form), one important component is education on domestic legislations. Laws have always been considered an important Ipart of solving problems or fulfilling certain needs. Legal education has been used for at least four decades as an approach to the empowerment of grassroots communities. Its evolution includes the incorporation of international human rights standards in the learning and analysis of laws that affect issues faced by communities, particularly of the poor, marginalized and disadvantaged peoples. For a long time, legal education has been dominated by non-govern- mental organizations (ngos) such as those engaged in community organiz- ing, implementation of social and economic programs for the poor, delivery of legal aid or assistance, protection of natural resources and the people dependent on them, advocacy for legal and policy reform, and also the so- called “human rights work.” Paralegals (at one time called legal facilitators by an Asian ngo) person- ify the idea behind legal education. Paralegals are seen as proof of the capac- ity of “ordinary” people to use law without having to have formal education on law. They are seen as partners of the legal professionals (lawyers mainly) in addressing legal issues affecting grassroots communities. Paralegal train- ing therefore has become a regular component of many legal education pro- grams targeting groups or communities of peasants, fisherfolk, indigenous peoples, women, urban poor, workers, etc. Legal education, however, is not necessarily human rights education. While a most natural facility for human rights education, many legal edu- cation programs fail to relate to the international human rights standards. Some ngos have to consciously incorporate the international human rights standards into their legal education curriculums. Others use the interna- tional human rights standards in critiquing domestic laws, and thus under- stand the laws from the human rights perspective. However, with the increasing number of domestic legislations that sup- port ratified human rights instruments (particularly on children, workers, women, indigenous peoples, and persons with disabilities), the use of inter- national human rights standards on issue-based legal education programs has become easier. Corollarily, government staff training programs increasingly include the international human rights standards in learning how related laws should be implemented. During the last few years, judicial training in Asia and the Pacific seems to be incorporating the international human rights standards in its curriculum. But there are still many challenges to face before human rights educa- tion becomes fully mainstreamed into the existing legal education programs of both ngo and government education programs. The availability of educators who have training on human rights and human rights education remains a big challenge for the government staff training programs, and those for grassroots communities. Equally challenging is the task of translating the international human rights standards into local contexts and domestic legal concepts. Presented as mere international concepts, human rights can be seen as disconnected from domestic issues and sometimes considered irrelevant. A search for lo- cal “roots” of human rights is a need. There can be domestic laws, and their corresponding governmental policies and program, that refer to ratified in- ternational human rights instruments. There can be decisions of the highest court of the country that recognize, explain and apply the international hu- man rights standards. There can also be local expressions of human rights (current formal declarations, or historical documents or accounts) such as those that promote freedom, justice, equality, right to life and personal se- curity, etc. “Domesticating” the international human rights standards is key to addressing this problem. But it can also be “rediscovering” or “retrieving” domestic ideas akin to the international human rights standards that have to be given prominence in human rights education programs at least as start- ing point of the discussion. Crossing the “human rights” boundaries is also a challenge. In the past, human rights were considered to be mainly civil and political rights. Political repression had also been related in many cases to acts that violate civil and political rights. Human rights (defined as civil and political rights) work has therefore been equated with acts that invite political repression. As a consequence, many other issues were not discussed in human rights terms. Many ngos likewise avoided identifying themselves as organizations working on human rights issues. Finally, the linking of human rights with local values,