HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN ASIA-PACIFIC VOLUME ONE Human Rights Education in Asia-Pacific—Volume One 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, 2010 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 ONE Acknowledgment We thank all the authors for contributing the articles in this inaugu- ral volume of Human Rights Education in Asia-Pacific. We appreciate very much their willingness to share their experiences through this publication. We acknowledge Jefferson R. Plantilla for editing this volume. We also acknowledge 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 EXPERIENCES Community to Community Exchanges: Breaking the Isolation 11 Asian Coalition for Housing Rights Arts and Creativity in Child Protection Work 27 Brian Jungwiwattanaporn Human Trafficking Prevention in the Greater Mekong Sub-region 37 International Labour Organization – Asia-Pacific Regional Office EarthRights International Mekong School: Promoting Public Participation in Mekong Basin Development 52 EarthRights International Training HIV Positive People as Advocates 63 Pacific Islands AIDS Foundation Child Development and Youth Leadership Program 74 Insan Foundation Motivating and Empowering Adolescent Girls in Bangladesh 84 PHREB Legal Literacy: Social Empowerment Towards Democracy and Good Governance 94 Jananeethi Youth and Adult Education for Social Change in the Philippines: Linking Education with NGOs, Social Movements and Civil Society 111 Rey Ty 6 Engaging Non-State Armed Groups Through Human Rights Education: Experience with Youth from Southern Philippines 138 Ryan V. Silverio Fighting against Racism/Bullying and Promoting Diversity in Schools and Communities in Japan 156 Joel Assogba Best Practices in Human Rights Education: The Case of the MMSU-INCHRE, Philippines 171 Marivic M. Alimbuyuguen Right to Health Through Education: Mental Health and Human Rights 188 Riikka Elina Rantala, Natalie Drew, Soumitra Pathare and Michelle Funk The Three Phases of Health and Human Rights Education: A New Cross-disciplinary Opportunity in the Asia-Pacific and Beyond 200 Emily Waller and Daniel Tarantola Graduate Programs on Human Rights: Mahidol University 213 Alexa Johns Human Rights and Democracy Internship Opportunity 224 May 18 Memorial Foundation TRAINING AND SURVEYS Building Human Rights Communities in Education 235 Human Rights Commission (New Zealand) Human Rights Education in Asia-Pacific: A Brief Review 262 Jefferson R. Plantilla APPENDIX Open Letter to United Nations Special Rapporteur Doudou Diene: Report on Education Issues of Foreign Children in the Chubu Region (Japan) 284 Chubu Region Multiculturalism and Gender Equality Research Group Foreword welve years of exclusive focus of this publication on human rights education in the school system yielded more than two hundred ar- ticles from almost two hundred contributors in more than twenty Tcountries in Asia and beyond. Individuals and various types of institutions contributed articles on mainly ground-level experiences on the teaching and learning of human rights. We see many more experiences to document from many more individuals and institutions in the region. And we are continu- ing the task of gathering them. However, as we brought out the twelfth and final volume of Human Rights Education in Asian Schools in 2009, we paved the way for a new an- nual publication that would cover a wider range of human rights education initiatives in Asia and the Pacific. We correctly predicted the availability of many documentations on hu- man rights education experiences that we considered worthy of dissemina- tion to many others. We correctly anticipated the support of individuals and institutions in producing this new publication. We are therefore proud to bring to you this inaugural volume of Human Rights Education in Asia-Pacific. Just like its predecessor, it aims to docu- ment and disseminate to an audience beyond the communities of the con- tributing individuals and institutions the rich Asia-Pacific experiences in human rights education. We thank the contributors in this volume for joining us in this task. We salute their work as much as we wish their initiatives to continue for a longer period. Osamu Shiraishi Director hurights osaka Introduction he vastness of the Asia-Pacific region spawns myriads of social- cultural-economic-political-historical contexts that make weaving a common thread of its historical development a highly difficult task. THuman rights situations vary from country to country, from one subregion to another, from one alliance of nations to another. It is the diversity of the region that makes the experiences on human rights education very interesting and challenging at the same time. The highly differentiated situations in the region provide the ground for a variety of human rights education initiatives to develop and even prosper. This inaugural issue of the publication tries to capture the diversity and richness of the human rights education experiences in the Asia-Pacific re- gion. By compiling various experiences in one volume, it creates linkages between formal and non-formal human rights education initiatives at the local, national and regional levels. The main objective of this publication therefore is to present such di- verse, ground level human rights education experiences and discuss their achievements, issues, challenges and potentials. Just like the Human Rights Education in Asian Schools volumes, this publication is designed mainly for practitioners – the workers at the ground level. To achieve its objective, this publication attempts to • Define areas that deserve greater attention from educators be they about specific rights, issues, sectors/communities, programs, teaching/learning systems, key education players including those that support them; • Tell the stories on how human rights education initiatives began and developed through the patient nurturing of people who were almost always adventurous enough to start something new and challenging; • Stress the common factor of sharing of efforts among people of diverse backgrounds (members of sectors or communities, educa- tors, supporters of human rights education); • Identify nuggets of good experiences such as those that “educate and mobilize,” facilitate “reflection and remembrance,” and “insti- tutionalize, mobilize and deliver;” • Connect the unconnected experiences of the different networks for different issues and yet with similar goals and methods, and lay the ground for cross-fertilization as well as shared analysis of experiences; • Present the widening reach of human rights education initiatives as in the cases of increasing number of schools that incorporate human rights into their systems and the thousands of students who are joining the activities. There are new developments in the field of human rights education in the region that deserve recognition and support. There are programs for hitherto unattended issues (such as HIV/AIDS, human trafficking, religious minorities) that should be replicated. There are studies of concrete efforts by schools that can be used to develop specific programs in schools in other countries. There are courses for non-human-rights or non-human-rights- education practitioners that can initiate them into working in this field. There are likewise graduate programs for those who would like to pursue further academic studies on human rights. The present collection of articles reflects to some extent what this pub- lication tries to achieve. The articles represent quite significantly the vari- ety of issues, situations, players and initiatives on human rights education that exist in the Asia-Pacific. But they certainly do not cover all types and programs of human rights education in the region. These other types and programs of human rights education should be documented and included in the next volumes of this publication. Jefferson R. Plantilla Hurights Osaka Community to Community Exchanges: Breaking the Isolation Asian Coalition for Housing Rights hen the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (achr) was formed in 1988, there was no common or regular forum for members of grassroots or community groups working in Asian Wcities, urban social activists, non-governmental organization (ngo) workers, and professionals to meet and exchange ideas. During the United Nations International Year for Shelter for the Homeless in 1987, several regional pro- cesses were organized which encouraged groups to share their experiences in addressing issues of urban poverty and housing and to discuss regional collaboration. At that time, there was a shared recognition that new ideas and actions were needed to tackle the upsurge of forced evictions in Asia and to develop opportunities for organizations of the poor to gain due rec- ognition and a meaningful role in city management and planning. In the early years of achr (1988-1990), the emphasis was on housing rights and eviction problems in Asian cities. International Fact Finding Missions that put pressure on governments were organized to South Korea (twice), Hong Kong and Philippines with positive outcomes. The second stage of work (1991-1993) developed