Human Rights
Facilitating Awareness Raising & Education on Human Rights
Objectives
- To deepen understanding on human dignity and human rights.
- To create awareness of Christian responsibilities towards the protection and promotion of human rights.
- To increase the scope for social action on human rights issues by churches and their members.
Activities (to achieve the Objectives)
- Conduct workshops on basic education and awareness on human rights. The aim of these workshops is to explore human rights in the context of the church and cultural traditions, using local examples as case studies to enhance learning. Focus will also be placed on the UN Declaration of Human Rights and other important conventions on human rights.
- Implement a curriculum on Human Rights with the Theological Schools. A staff of the Pacific Theological College is writing a manual on this to be used in their teaching curriculum.
- Articles on human rights provided by PCC to be published in the SPATS (South Pacific Association of Theological Schools) publications.
Programme Assessment
Performance
Much of the work done so far has been on education and awareness programmes, in collaboration with the Regional Rights Resource Team (RRRT) of the South Pacific Community.
Relevance
The four workshops conducted in Tonga, Kiribati, Solomon Islands and Maohi exposed the need for education and awareness on human rights to help them in their daily life encounters and relationship building. Thus, the educational work will continue to be a priority for the programme in 2010.
Other areas like the rights of women and children, self-determination (eg. West Papua and Kanake issues), development and livelihood were also addressed in the four workshops.
Outcomes of other workshops planned for the year will be used to design activities that will be implemented in 2010 and beyond.
Outcomes
The workshops addressed the following areas in detail:
- Climate change and resettlement of populations, with implications on land and resources.
- Trade inequality and its impact on economic growth.
- Unemployment, poverty and bridging the gap between the rich and poor.
- Gender and children violence.
- Ethnic conflict stemming from political corruption.
More collaboration and advocacy work on the environment and climate change needs to be done, with emphasis on the UN Convention on the Rights of Forced Climate Migrants.
More activities on Women and Children’s rights, self-determination of people groups, and the right to development and livelihood need to be implemented in the coming programme years. The publication of printed material to promote these initiatives.
The planning and implementation of these activities need to be more creative.
Work Done Up to Date
- Workshop on Human Rights, Governance and Leadership: Tahiti 19–22 October 2009
- Workshop on Human Rights, Governance and Leadership: Fiji 7–10 December 2009
Planned Activities
- Capacity Building, Education & Training on Human Rights: Samoa, June 2010
- Capacity Building, Education & Training on Human Rights: Vanuatu, July 2010
ArticlesHuman dignity and justice