Experiences from an education veteran

Sermons on gender equality in Turkish mosques or South African grannies running for their rights. The results of human rights education take different forms of expression, and Vibeke Eikås is familiar with most of them
Publisert: 29. nov 2011, kl. 11:38 | Sist oppdatert: 8. des 2011, kl. 15:32
“Learning about human rights may for some imply an individual change of attitude and behaviour. For others, human rights education participants may emerge as activists and achieve social change for the community. Any such improvement shows the importance of human rights education.”

Vibeke Eikås speaks from experience. In 1996 she started as the programme manager for Amnesty International Norway’s human rights education programme - Teaching for Freedom. Since then she has been working with human rights education in Amnesty International, mainly through the 2000-2009 Rights-Education-Action Programme, and has cooperated with local Amnesty people in more than 30 countries in the world.

Sermons on woman’s rights
Through all these years, Vibeke has observed human rights education in different settings and with different target groups. When the religious leaders in Turkey finally agreed to include the speaking of woman’s rights in their Friday prayers is something she particularly remembers.

“It was an amazing event. Amnesty in Turkey had been working for more than a year to get this agreement. This project is still going on, reaching a large number of people through the mosques” Vibeke says.

An important reason as to why the programme gave results, according to Vibeke, was the competence and sensitivity of the local trainers. It was essential to have a good dialogue in the workshops on women’s rights and not offend the participants or cross boundaries.

Vibeke emphasizes that a crucial part of any human right education is to adjust the teaching to the specific target group’s culture.

“The education must be done by trainers who speak the local language and are familiar with the beneficiaries. It must be concrete and realistic and respond to people’s needs", she explains.

Skilled trainers
While the training of religious leaders in Turkey was set around a big, round table, the training of wardens in Morocco had a different style. Far up in the mountains, Vibeke witnessed role plays with powerful prison administrators in the role of prison employees and prisoners.

“Before the project, the prisons in Morocco were extremely strict and enclosed. The rights of the prisoners were not well respected. The project contributed to change this however, and made it, among other things, easier for prisoners to have visits from their family and friends.”

Vibeke attributes the success in Morocco to a strong organisation and skilled human rights education trainers.

“These local human rights educators have also multiplied their expertise by training teachers all over the country and ensured sustainable human rights education in the future” Vibeke says.

Running grannies
The goal for human rights education is that those who benefit from the education will have knowledge of the relevance of human rights to their own lives and understand what human rights are. They will also be able to use these rights as an instrument to make changes in their lives.

If you are a granny in South Africa, one such instrument can be to run for your rights.

Together with a community based organisation, Amnesty South Africa initiated a micro project concentrating on the rights of elderly women. The women were not aware of their right to retirement pension, and through the project they learned about these rights. The grannies responded with a running action, which attracted a lot of local media attention.

“It was great to see. It showed in a small way the concrete results of the education” Vibeke says.

According to Vibeke, a project which has had a more extensive impact is the human rights education course that was developed over years by Amnesty International Moldova in close cooperation with the teachers in the country.

“This course has now been integrated as an optional subject in the Moldovan secondary schools” she says.

Building close relationships
During her carrier, Vibeke has been in more than 20 countries, visiting local Amnesty International partners for project implementation.

She values the opportunity to see the positive results, and to personally meet both the beneficiaries and the people working on the project. She emphasizes that having close personal contact with those involved in a project is essential.

“My role was to be a coordinator. It is the people in the different sections and structures who actually do the work. To go through with a project you have to build trust so that they understand that we are not there to control the project, but to support it” Vibeke says.

Now Vibeke retires, handing over the relay baton to Annette Schneider, the new Manager of International Human Rights Education Centre.