WUNRN

http://www.wunrn.com

 

http://learnwhr.org/programs/whri-six-week-institute/

Women’s Human Rights: Building a Peaceful World in an Era of Globalization

Six-week Women’s Human Rights Education Institute (WHRI)

Facilitators: Alda Facio with: Angela Lytle, Angela Miles, Martha Morgan; and special guests Debby Danard, Mary Eberts, Julie Groulx & Denisse Temin

Offered in Partnership with Fundacion Justicia y Genero, Costa Rica

May 21  -   June 28,  2012

Limited to twenty Canadian and international participants–apply early!

New!  For the 2012 WHRI, we are introducing a slight change of format—five weeks of intensive class followed by field trips to relevant NGOs in Toronto in the sixth week, as well as time for research and building connections with other activists and human rights defenders.

OVERVIEW

This unique educational institute brings feminist perspectives and an activist orientation to the inextricably related issues of peace, human rights and life-sustaining development. Participants will gain an understanding of the global economic, ecological, legal, cultural and political contexts of this work, as well as of the groundbreaking work that is currently being done and has been done over decades by women and men around the world.  Participants will develop a practical understanding of the UN Human Rights system and how to apply a women’s human rights framework to a multiplicity of issues.  Participants will also develop practical facilitation skills to help them become human rights educators in their own regions and organizations.

Important milestones such as the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, The African Protocol on Women’s Rights, the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women, UN Security Council Resolutions 1325 and 1820, the Beijing Platform for Action, and the Jakarta Principles, among others,  will be featured as resources for social change. Effective ways of using them as tools for education and practice will be explored.

FRAMEWORK

The six-week WHRI brings together a balance of academic/theoretical inquiry and engaged, activist praxis.   Human rights, peace, and emerging alternatives to globalization are examined both as interconnected elements of a socially just and sustainable world and as alternative ways of knowing, acting, being, and interacting. Women’s human rights are both the subject and the guiding framework of the institute.  This is reflected in the teaching principles and methodology. The WHRI aims to create a safe, supportive, and celebratory space that allows for collective sharing and knowledge-building alongside skills training . Classes are participatory, incorporate a broad variety of readings, videos, and activities, and in an effort to promote integration and well-being, participants are offered gentle yoga classes twice a week.

All instructors have extensive activist experience at local, national and international levels and are known for their theoretical, academic and policy contributions in these areas. To maximize each individual’s learning opportunity, participants are limited to TWENTY and come from all regions of the world, many with a great deal of experience in the field of women’s human rights.

Participants will have the unique opportunity of having an extended period of time to learn from their instructors and a multi-national group of participants, to theorize about their own work through the lens of women’s human rights, to develop new techniques as women’s human rights educators, and to prepare an action plan for how to implement their learning.  Those who enrol in the six-week institute should apply with a seed idea for a women’s human rights project they will implement after the institute ends, or a description of a project/program in process that will be augmented by their learning at the institute.  Each participant will receive feedback on her/his plan during the institute, and should submit a report on her/his implementation activities six to eight months after the WHRI ends.  The best among these reports will be made available on our website; thus course participants will help to build a body of theory and praxis on women’s human rights education and activism that will be available for others working in this field.

Possible project areas include: developing and executing a training on women’s human rights within one’s home institution/at the grassroots level; using the most recent CEDAW committee’s concluding observations for one’s home country as the basis for a campaign to promote awareness/implementation domestically. 

If you have any questions about the post-WHRI process, please contact Executive Director Angela Lytle at info@learnwhr.org.

Course Topics Include:

  • The UN System and Women’s Human Rights
  • The Herstory of Women’s Human Rights Activism
  • Globalization and Feminist Frameworks
  • Activism and Education for Women’s Human Rights
  • Bodily Integrity
  • Violence and Peace
  • CEDAW and Women’s Human Rights Framework
  • Sexual and Reproductive Rights
  • Women’s Holistic Wellness
  • Alternative Visions for a Global System based on Human Rights and Equality
  • Visitations to NGOs of interest in Toronto (final week)

Note:  The one-week CEDAW for Change module is embedded within the six-week WHRI, and thus all participants in the WHRI will automatically be enrolled.   Some additional participants will join the institute only for the one-week CEDAW for Change session.