AI-Thailand Human Rights Education Program

Human rights education (HRE) is preventative human rights work promoting awareness and understanding of the full range of human rights and equipping people with the knowledge, attitudes, behaviour and skills necessary to respect and defend those rights. It is an integral part of AI's activities. AI sections in more than 50 countries have adopted a range of approaches to HRE. Work in the formal education sector includes lobbying governments to ensure human rights are incorporated in the curricula of schools, universities, military and police academies and the civil service. Work in the informal sector include education programs for networks, such as journalists, medical personnel, trade unions, women, community groups and many others types of activist groups.

Human rights education has been of substantial importance to the development of human rights awareness in Thailand. The first Human Right Education training workshop took place in 1996.

Since then, AI Thailand has organized a number of training workshops for professional groups such as teachers,journalists,trade unionists, and students. These workshops were particularly fruitful in the formal sector. A close alliance was formed with the UNESCO affiliated schools, which have an institutional commitment to furthering international relations. Teachers developed lessons and adapted and translated existing Amnesty HRE resources, leading to the publication of the first HRE curriculum in Thailand. Furthermore, participants in early workshops returned to serve as co-facilitators in later workshops, leading to the building of a core of approximately ten committed and experienced HRE trainers.

Amnesty's HRE efforts have also led to a collaborative relationship with the Ministry of Education, which is actively exploring the integration of HRE into the Thai curriculum. These training workshops done by external resource persons have helped to develop a pool of local trainers though not all of them are AI members. The HRE training team has also initiated highly successful human rights summer camps for students, and members of the team have recently received a grant from the Royal Institute of Thailand for a pilot course in human rights and conflict resolution, which if successful the Institute will see to implement in schools across Thailand.

AI-Thailand's HRE efforts have also included outreach to a number of different institutions, including workshops, exhibits, and presentations at international schools and Bangkok public middle and secondary schools. Human Rights courses are also offered to post-graduate, vocational and business colleges, and NGOs audience such as the Thai Foundation for Children and sex worker clients of EMPOWER.

AI Thailand's HRE work has led to extensive networking in the formal education sector and the NGO community and done much to raise the profile of AI among youth and educators. The HRE program has been supported directly and indirectly by UNESCO , UNICEF , individuals, governmental and business sectors for producing materials e.g. manuals, posters on the Convention on the Rights of the Child ( </>CRC ) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ( UDHR ), and conducting workshops. Furthermore, AI Thailand has produced the first HRE curriculum materials available in the country.

Information Resources

United Nations Database on Human Rights Education
United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education (1995-2004)
International Human Rights Instruments
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu6/1/edudec.htm