Investigating, Monitoring, and Reporting on Human Rights Violations
Full Review
Reviewed by: Ronda Bresnick Hauss, Licensed Clinical Social Worker and founder of the Quiet Waters Center for Trauma, Stress and Resilience, PLLC; Washington, D.C., USA
Review posted 3 August 2005
Review No. 54
Content: An excellent and practical course for any human rights activist, organization, or interested member of civil society wanting to hone their practical skills on investigating, monitoring and reporting on human rights abuses.
Publication Date: 1 July 2004
Audience: Users are likely to be from human rights organizations, NGOs, or members of civil society interested in monitoring and investigating on human rights violations and abuses.
Size: 304 MB
Price: £20 for CD-ROM / £800 for course.
£400 for course participants from developing countries.
Manual needed: No
How to order:
Order online.*
Order by mail:
Fahamu
Frewin Court
51 Cornmarket Street
Oxford OX1 3HA, UK
E-mail: info@fahamu.org
Tel: +44 (0)845 456 2442 or +44 (0)1865 727006
Fax: +44 (0)845 456 2443 or +44 (0)1865 727909
Fahamu website.**This link takes you outside the ADBI website. Please use the back button to return to ADBI.org.
Content
This interactive CD-ROM is a distance learning course divided into three sections: Phase one includes a 6-10 week distance learning module involving the interactive CD-ROM, group discussion via e-mail with other students, assignments to be handed in and evaluated, and communication via e-mail with a tutor. The e-mail discussions and feedback usually take place once a week. Phase two includes a 2-4 day workshop. Phase three is a 6-8 week long distance learning module involving implementation of a practical project, taking an advanced course using the interactive CD-ROM, as well as further group e-mail discussions and contact with the tutor.
There are four assignments in the foundation module. The assignments are graded in relation to prepared model answers and are judged to be either excellent, good, satisfactory or fail. Those who fail can resubmit assignments taking into account the feedback provided by their tutor. If they fail to submit up to three assignments, or if three are graded as unsatisfactory, then the participant does not pass the course. Assignments tend to get longer as the course goes on.
The first three weeks of the course address human rights fact-finding, the standards that are used to measure human rights issues, where information is found on human rights, and the types of evidence used in human rights investigations.
Week four addresses how to gather distinct types of human rights information on torture, sexual violence, political killings, refugees, and social and economic rights.
Week five teaches in detail how to consistently record the information and gives an introduction on the use of computer databases.
Week six covers how to develop the basic skills needed to prepare, conduct, and record an interview with a victim or a witness of a human rights violation.
Week seven looks at how to plan and prepare a fact-finding team to investigate a human rights event or an institution, such as a prison.
Week eight focuses on how to work with other institutions, including other human rights organizations, NGOs, and police in the research and investigation of human rights abuses. It discusses how to involve communities in fact-finding.
Finally, there is a section on how human rights fact-finders can take care of themselves and cope with issues related to job stress, confidentiality and security.
The 2-4 day workshop is devoted to practicing skills that have been learned in the course, especially interviewing skills.
The advanced course focuses on planning and writing a human rights report; organizing and conducting monitoring of public events; organizing and conducting basic media monitoring; monitoring government adherence to international human rights treaty obligations and planning to monitor elections. The assignments for the advanced course are more rigorous than the foundation course.
At the end of the course, students undertake a major piece of research or monitoring with their organization that will constitute half of the total assessment. The project must be practical, one that can be carried out within a limited timeframe, and must demonstrate the student’s ability to apply what they have learned in the course. In addition, the student must provide a coherent written account of the project.
User-Friendliness
The interactive CD-ROM contains all the course material that is needed. The course is not available online but is easily viewed with a computer with a minimum of 64 MB RAM and a CD-ROM drive. The CD-ROM will operate on Windows 95 or later versions or MAC OS 9 or later versions. The CD-ROM includes Acrobat Reader to view and print documents. Course participants must have access to the Internet in order to be able to communicate via e-mail to the course tutor and other students.
Navigability
It is relatively easy to navigate around this CD-ROM. It has a site map that can be opened simultaneously with any chapter being read and provides a detailed outline of the chapter’s content. It also has a bookmarker that allows “folding down” the corner of as many virtual pages a user may wish to mark and there is also an electronic note-taking function. In addition, the search function will link to all occurrences of words, phrases, and topics in a search string. Finally, it is very easy to move from the CD-ROM back to any other open program on the computer by pressing the <Alt> key and the <Tab> key simultaneously. Interactivity
The interactive options of the CD-ROM are very effective teaching tools. They offer real life examples from newspaper accounts and other relevant sources on human rights abuses. Students prepare their assignments based on these examples and then discuss the assignments with other students and their tutor via e-mail. Assignments are clear, challenging and are intended to deepen the understanding and skills of human rights workers. In addition, a large resource center is provided, which has links to many useful web sites, legal documents, articles and books for students to use. Distribution
The cost of the CD-ROM as a stand alone product is £20. It can be purchased online using major credit cards. The course cost is £800; however the course is £400 for participants from developing countries. This pricing information is confusing because only the lower price is published in the course information on the Fahamu website.
The tuition for the course does not include the cost of the workshop, and that cost depends on the location of the workshop as well as the distance traveled by the facilitators. A regional workshop would be scheduled in the country where the largest number of participants comes from. The course would be scheduled according to need rather than on a fixed schedule.
Sustainability
The course content has a high degree of sustainability because it sets forth basic principles of human rights investigation, monitoring and reporting.
Post a Comment
We welcome your feedback on either this CD-ROM or the review. Post a comment.
ADBI is not obliged to acknowledge or publish comments and may abridge or edit them before web posting.
Comment(s)
There are [0] comment(s) for this entry. Post a comment.
| 
About ADBINews & EventsSpecial ProgramsPartnerships
CD-ROM Reviews
Back to Top
