Human rights course provides concrete tools for participants

Development aims to help the targeted people. But if focus is strictly on the end result, development programmes risk violating the fundamental rights the programmes set out to further. That is why human rights must be used even when people are setting out to developing their programmes. This was the theme at a three-week course at the Danish Institute for Human Rights with participants from five countries.

“I thought, I really knew what I was doing as a programme manager in a small town in Kenya,” Ms. Karen Njalale from the Refugee Consortium of Kenya, explains.

“But mostly I would think of human rights only in the implementation. But now, I will try and include the rights holders, we are trying to help, when the programming of the development work begins,” Ms. Njalale says.

She works with Somali refugees’ rights on the Kenya-Somalia border. Concretely, she will include the refugees’ needs and wishes earlier in her work than before.

This is one of the key points of the course, according to senior adviser at the Danish Institute for Human Rights, Olga Ege, who led the course.

“Traditionally, focus in the world of development has been on the end goal. And while admirable, far more sustainable and long-lasting results can be achieved when using a human rights based approach, thus including perspectives of the target group from the beginning. Rights-holders themselves are the best people to describe and prioritise their problems,” Olga Ege says.

Learning from colleagues

The course itself does not only preach inclusion – the participants themselves have to contribute and shape the course as well. An important point for Mr. Samson Asiimwe of the Democratic Governance Facility in Uganda.

“This is way more hands on. Traditional lectures provide no space for experience sharing. Here, the instructor is a colleague and we learn from each other’s’ lessons learned. We might come from different countries and have different backgrounds, but the challenges we face are very much alike,” Mr. Asiimwe says.

Also, the visits to other Danish human rights institutions, such as the Ombudsman Institution, have provoked useful thoughts.

“While we have an Ombudsman in Uganda, even I working in this field am not fully aware of its tasks. If I don’t know, not a lot do. So I will look to the Ugandan Ombudsman when I get home to see if we can utilise some of the experiences from here,” Samson Asiimwe says.

For Karen Njalale, the biggest impact of the course will be seen in the work already under way in Kenya.

“I will increase the stakeholder presence in our programmes. We will make for instance that judges are more aware of their obligations instead of putting all the responsibility on the rights holders,” she concludes.

The course is funded by the Danida Fellowship Centre, which guarantees a high level of quality and since 1990 has supported the implementation and facilitation of a wide range of training and courses.