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Learn how to apply human rights principles in community settings, with a focus on violence against women. Accredited FETAC course with practical projects. Developed in collaboration with Amnesty International, Community Action Network, and Ballymun Community Law Centre.
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An alternative approach to using the ECHR outside the courts Rosalind McKenna Amnesty International
Human Rights Based Approaches Project “Human Rights and Collective Action”
Who? • Residents of Ballymun • Amnesty • Ballymun Community Law Centre • CAN (Community Action Network) • Mayo Women’s Support Services • Participants in Pilot
Where did this all start? • Ballymun 2004 Human rights foundation course • Fight for Your Rights
Human Rightsfoundation course • 15 hours over 5 weeks • Aimed at community activists, staff of community groups and local agencies • Delivered 5 times between 2004 and 2006 • Between 5 and 15 participants in each course
Why the FETAC Route? • Accreditation is meaningful to the target audiences • Demonstrated need for the course across the country • FETAC provides a mechanism for getting the message and tools out to a much larger audience
Partners • Monica Manning • Community Action Network • Frank Murphy • Ballymun Community Law Centre • Mayo Women’s Support Services • Castlebar, County Mayo
Collaboration • Meetings began October 2006 • Feedback from Ballymun participants was basis for focus and design of the course • Input from MWSS shaped content • Participants in the pilot provided critical inputs and feedback
Overall Aims The participants will: • Acquire a basic understanding of human rights law and concepts • Develop an awareness and understanding of a human-rights-based-approach (HRBA) • Understand how the principles of community development an HRBA intersect • Explore the implications of what a rights-based-approach means for a community organisation • Develop skills in applying a human rights-based approach in a community setting
Pilot • November 2007, Castlebar • 2 x 3 day sessions, 1 day follow-up in January 2008 • 17 participants, all women • Focus was violence against women • 11 applied for and received FETAC accreditation, 9 with merit • At least 2 concrete projects have arisen from work done on the course
What we learned? • The legal input was the session participants were most eager for. It could have been expanded to a full 3-days. • The success of the legal input is directly attributable to the manner in which it was delivered. • It was done in the most accessible and easily understandable way possible.
Even the most experienced activists had trouble making the links between law and actual rights or issues • Course is best structured around a theme or issue common to all participants • Assumptions cannot be made about starting points of understanding
What now? • Module Descriptor has been released • Workbook • Trinity School of Nursing and Midwifery • Hope for future collaborations with Frank and Monica
For further information contact rmckenna@amnesty.ie Thank-you