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Organization Overview & Activities Report
1995-2001 Human Rights Conventions: Summaries About
PDHRE
Sharing Methodology & Learning Materials |
About
the People's Movement for Human Rights Learning
FYI --ABOUT PDHRE - General background information For
all women and men to know human rights and claim them as a way of life. PDHRE,
People's Movement for Human Rights Learning, formerly The People’s Decade for
Human Rights Education, is an
independent, international, non-profit organization promoting, enhancing and
providing learning about human rights as relevant to people's daily lives at
all levels of society, that leads to action. PDHRE was established in 1988 in
an effort to respond to the unmet need for Human Rights Learning at the
grassroots level that needed this knowledge and strategy the most as a
powerful tool for action. Since then, PDHRE has conducted and/or facilitated
Human Rights Learning and training at the community level in more than 60
countries, and produced a unique range of written and audio-visual
pedagogical materials to support learning and dialogue for socio-economic
transformation. PDHRE was instrumental in the creation of the United Nations
Decade for Human Rights Education (1995 – 2004) and is committed to create a
process by which all will know human rights towards social and economic
transformation. PDHRE is convinced
that imposed ignorance is a human rights violation and the learning about
human rights as a way of life is an imperative for meaningful human, social
and economic development. There is none other…-- to break thought the vicious
cycle of humiliation. PDHRE and
its affiliates in Latin America, Africa, Eastern and Western Europe, North
America, and Asia, work as human rights ‘extension services’ in culturally
diverse communities to stimulate develops and facilitates a wide variety of
grassroots programs and projects, where people learn about human rights as a
way of life and claim them. Its trainers introduce human rights in a
comprehensive and integrated way to local concerns and expectations with a
special focus on economic, social and cultural rights, gender equality and
non discrimination. Over the years PDHRE has built up a network of human
rights educators and activists worldwide, an award-winning web site and
learning materials for a variety of target groups. In its community work,
PDHRE reaches out to local community leaders, introducing them to the
holistic human rights framework as related to their specific concerns, and
strives towards a systemic analysis critical thinking to assure economic and
social justice. To achieve this vision, and mission PDHRE is facilitating the
development of Human Rights Cities around the world where communities learn
to use the holistic framework of human rights to re imagine and reconstruct
the lives of all women, men, youth and children—joining in societal
development—belonging in community in dignity with others. To expand
this work, and to argue its imperative, PDHRE has been actively promoting a
dialogue about the holistic vision of human rights at the UN, as deputy of
the NGO Committee on Human Rights. Within these activities, it has promoted
with the government of Benin, and cosponsored by more than 100 countries,
adopted without a vote, the UN GA Resolution A/RES/63/173, The International Year of Human Rights Learning.
This is an important achievement for the long and rich experience that PDHRE
can offer to the world. It is now promoting a five-regional plan to implement
the resolution, starting with 25 countries. This will lead to the beginning
of a process of learning and dialogue at the community level, that will have
in 10 to 15 years all women, men, youth and children know human rights as a
way of life, as relevant to their daily lives guided by the holistic human
rights framework. PDHRE is recognized all over the world in its
commitment to have human rights a way of life, defining human rights in a
new, positive and proactive way, towards the full realization of human rights
for all. For this work the organization's founder, Shulamith Koenig,
received the 2003 UN Human Rights Award. This award was given to Martin
Luther King and Nelson Mandela among 35 others that have received it during
the last 35 years. The PDHRE Board of Directors issued a
Global Appeal for Human Rights Learning, which can be viewed at: http://www.pdhre.org/global-appeal.html , including its highly-acclaimed signatories from around
the world. More information about the organization, its activities and
publications can be found at: http://www.pdhre.org/ . The commitment of PDHR is to facilitate the development
a new political culture based on Human Rights—moving from charity to
dignity…-- human rights as the banks of the river in which life can flow
freely…-- and when the floods come the knowledge and ownership of human
rights become a powerful tool in the hands of people to strengthen the banks
and have life continue to flow freely with choice and dignity.
A Brief
Introduction To Our Thinking
More than any other moral
language available at this time in history, the language of human rights is
able to expose "the immorality and ...barbarism of the modern face of
power... We cannot take rights seriously without taking suffering
seriously..." (- Upendra Baxi, Human
Rights and Inhuman Wrongs) Poverty, warfare, environmental degradation,
the deleterious effects of globalization, discrimination, disease,
illiteracy, and labor exploitation are just some of the threats bearing down
on our right to be human — to live in security and dignity. Yet, every one of the
horrors and threats confronting humanity today could be fought on the grounds
of its being in violation of the human rights declared in the Universal Declaration
of 1948. The rights set down in this and other international covenants,
declarations, and conventions create a space from which a multitude of
struggles to improve the welfare of individuals and communities around the
world can spring. We therefore seek to provide a framework for serious global debate among
groups working for social and economic justice, and their constituencies, who
may not yet have identified their experiences and goals with the rights
stated in international human rights documents and the enunciations of the
major UN-sponsored world conferences. We also seek to engage human
rights-identified organizations in the just and balanced promotion of
economic, social, and cultural rights along with civil and political rights. Ten Guiding Principles for Human
Rights in Society PDHRE
derives its mandate to promote human rights Learning from an underlying
conception of human rights in society reflected in the following ten points: 1.
Contemporary enunciations of human
rights standards echo people's struggles. Diverse human rights movements are
flourishing worldwide and the moral heroism of victims indicates future paths
of struggle. 2.
The human right of individuals,
groups, associations, and nations to learning human rights is an
individual and collective human right-- as a way of life. 3.
Human rights learning aims
to achieve universal commitment to the dignity and worth of each human
person. It should be a collective endeavor of all individuals and agencies;
it should be participatory and an exemplary practice of the virtues it
proselytizes for others. 4.
The evils that have plagued
humankind from time immemorial persist, among which are injustice,
exploitation, patriarchy, impoverishment, tyranny, civil strife, genocide,
catastrophic state failures, and calamitous abuses of power. Their
persistence produces humiliation and despair, but it also spurs action for
change, and learning human rights as a ay of life can help to define
this social transformation. 5.
Human rights learning has to
reinforce the human right to peace, which includes the human right to a
denuclearized earth, immunity from all weapons of mass destruction and the
armament process, and the human rights of all to benefit from peaceful uses
of science and technology. 6.
Genocidal practices are the most
massive form of human rights violations, and every human being should be
empowered through human rights learning to delegitimize, expose, and
undermine the very possibility of the emergence of such practices everywhere. 7.
Women's human rights are now fully
recognized. Human rights learning must empower struggle against all
forms of patriarchy everywhere and accelerate the full accomplishment of a
world based on respect for the dignity of all women. 8.
Dignity of labor is an ineluctable
aspect of human interdependence, social cooperation, and just development.
Human rights education must aim to promote conditions which foster respect for
the inherent dignity of human labor and the rights of workers. 9.
The mission and the mandate of
human rights learning extends to the creation and development of
cultures of human rights wherein the basic material and non-material needs of
all human beings are met and all victims of historic discrimination,
including indigenous peoples, excluded peoples, and ethnic minorities stand
redressed. 10. The
Decade for Human Rights Education and now the process called for by the
UN is intended to have people working together to build stronger
solidarities in struggle whose collective conscience is transformed by the
message of dignity and equal worth of every individual person. The dedication
of nation-states and the United Nations system to human rights education is a
first step. But each individual human being has a stake in human
rights learning as an empowering and inspirational strategy for the
pursuit of an improved common future.
People's Decade of Human Rights Education PDHRE
Board Elected
Presidium Susana Chiarotti Virginia B. Dandan Peter Leuprecht Adama Samassekou
Kamal Hossain Betty Reardon Stephen Marks Daniel Solomon
Neshad R. Asllani, MD Upendra Baxi Wolfgang Benedek Fantu Cheru Ivanka Corti Satya Das Cees Flinterman Richard Goldstone Iva Kaufman Miloon Kothari Walter Lichem Orly Lubin Kathleen Modrowski Jean-Louis Roy Elsa Stamatopoulou Danilo Turk Burns H. Weston Advisor Shulamith Koenig Robert Kesten
PDHRE
Regional Offices PDHRE- Latin America. This Regional Office is in
collaboration with: INSGENAR (INSTITUTO DE
GENERO, DERECHO Y DESARROLLO) The Institute of Gender,
Law and Development in Rosario Argentina, promotes women's rights through law
and policy reform and works to bring about the domestic application of
international human rights norms for the achievements of women’s rights.
The institute conducts on-going seminars and training on cultural, civil,
economic, political and social human rights from a gender perspective, and
promotes advocacy and action on these issues as related to women’s
lives. Contact Person: Ms Susana Chiarotti PDHRE- South Asia. This Regional Office in
collaboration with: YUVA (YOUTH FOR UNITY AND VOLUNTARY ACTION) YUVA, based in Mumbai and
Nagpur, India, is dedicated to educating and empowering street children and
developing advocacy and policy on the issue of child labour. Over the years
it has worked with more then 40,00 children, training youth to develop
self-help educational programs, support groups, and hotlines on issues of
heath and child labour. It also conducts training for marginalized groups
such as the Dalit people in slum areas, focusing on systemic change towards
poverty alleviation with a special focus on women’s issues in these
communities. Contact Person: Mr. Minar Pimple PDHRE-Africa. This Regional Office, was newly
established in Bamako, Mali, on June 22, 2000, for the purpose of promoting
Human Rights Education, in particular through the creation of the Institut
Africain d' Apprentissage de l' Education aux Droits Humains /African
Learning Institute for Human Rights Education (INAFAEDH/ALIHRE) Leadership of the team
includes several members who participated actively in the creation of the
national initiative. Its goal is the promotion of HRE using the "PDHRE
approach", and taking into account Malian and African realities and
positive values, in particular the values of solidarity, sharing and
consensus. PDHRE- Europe. In partnership with ETC European
Training and Research Centre for Human Rights and Democracy Contact Person: Prof. Wolfgang Benedeck PDHRE- South East Asia and Pacific is now in formation. The creation of the PDHRE office has been undertaken by Member of the PDHRE Board and Chairperson of the ESCR Committee. Contact Person: Virginia B. Dandan For more
information, please contact PDHRE:
The People's Movement for Human Rights Learning (PDHRE)
/ NY Office |
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