The HUMAN RIGHTS

EDUCATION & RESEARCH OFFICE

27years

H E R O

1986 - 2013

Learning Approach of the Para-Legal Training

For Muslim Community Leaders & Volunteers

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years27 H E R O

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As human rights educators working with adult learners, we need tools that can help us to put the concepts of an experiential approach into practice. Two such tools, the “4As” and the learning spiral illustrate how a participatory approach can work.

CHR’s Experiential Approach to HRE

4As

Activity

Analysis

Abstraction

Application

1

2

3

4

H E R O

The LEARNINGSPIRAL

The learning spiral

1. Learning begins with the experience of the learners (i.e., their knowledge, skills, values and lived experience of human rights).

2. After the learners have shared their experience, they analyse that experience and look for patterns (i.e., what are the commonalities? what are the patterns?).

3. To complement the experience of the learners, new information and theory from experts are added or new ideas are created collectively.

4. Learners need to practise what they have learned,

practise new skills and strategies, and plan for action. 5. Afterwards (usually when they are back in their

organizations and daily work) learners apply in action what they have learned.

Source: Rick Arnold et al., Educating for a Change (Toronto, Canada, Between the Lines, 1991).

H E R O

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An experiential/participatory approach in HRE promotes and values the sharing of personal knowledge and experience of human rights, and encourages critical reflection on individual beliefs and values. It is founded on principles of mutual respect and reciprocal learning and seeks out and includes the voice of the learners in the learning process. It enables people with different backgrounds, cultures, values and beliefs to learn effectively together and learn from each other.

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Click icon to add pictureAn experiential / participatory approach encourages social analysis aimed towards empowering adult learners to develop concrete actions for social change that are in accordance with human rights values and standards.

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Click icon to add pictureA participatory approach is particularly appropriate for HRE because: • Human rights are part of our life experience and therefore we should look at them from our own realities, share different perspectives and develop analytical skills to understand, exercise and promote human rights;• Human rights are based on values and norms that are evolving; • HRE is rooted in social justice and each person involved in human rights work is an agent of social change;• HRE should spark critical reflection about the possibilities for social change.

What HRE can help us achieve

The 1993 Vienna World Conference on Human Rights considered human rights education, training and public information essential for the promotion and achievement of stable and harmonious relations among communities and for fostering mutual understanding, tolerance and peace.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) cites as a key message that human rights education is an important strategy for achieving several principal goals notably empowerment, participation, transparency, accountability, the prevention of conflict, conflict resolution, peacemaking and peace-building and the more effective protection and realization of all human rights for all.

Sources: Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, Part II, D,para. 78; and www.unesco.org.

H E R O

of innovating human rights education

years27 H E R O

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