Human Rights Education Project

Activities & Updates:

In October 2004, the Iraq Foundation launched its Human Rights Education (HRE) project in Iraq with a grant from the US Department of State. As part of the project, in June 2005 the Foundation, in collaboration with the Amman Center for Human Rights (ACHR), trained 20 Iraqis as human rights trainers in Jordan. Each trainer was required to hold two workshops in his/her governorate after completing the training of trainers’ session. To date, IF has sponsored 50 human rights education workshops across Iraq, targeting civil society organizations and the staff of several ministries and reached out to more than 1,300 Iraqis. The Foundation’s human rights team monitored and evaluated the trainings that were held in Baghdad, Basra, Diwaniya, Hilla, Sulimaniya, Kirkuk, Kut, Najaf, and Sammawa. The HRE team also acted as trainers at various workshops.

Additionally, the Foundation established a Human Rights Resource Center (HRRC) at the Ministry of Human Rights in Baghdad. The HRRC began operations in the summer of 2005 and was officially opened by the Minister of Human Rights (MoHR) on December 1, 2005. The Center contains hundreds of human rights resources, including books, journals, CDs, computers, and internet resources. The Center is mainly aimed at researchers and students interested in human rights issues and publications and its facilities are available to the public free of charge. The Foundation and Ministry have used the center to train civil servants, including employees of the Ministry of Education, Higher Education, Defense, Interior, Women’s Affairs, Justice, Health, Culture, and Sciences and Technology on human rights principals, the Declaration, and other internationally recognized instruments.

In January 2006, the Foundation published and distributed 5,000 calendars that included the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to Iraqi ministries, media organizations, non-governmental organization, and universities across Iraq to educate Iraqis on the importance of the Declaration and its articles. The Foundation has also created a human rights website http://www.iraqhumanrights.org/, which accumulates useful material on human rights issues.

Currently, the Foundation is working on publishing a Human Rights Trainer’s Handbook and Trainee’s Manual. The handbook is for Iraqi human rights trainers and is based on lessons learned and the experiences of the twenty human rights trainers whom the Foundation had trained earlier in 2005. The handbook also contains technical instructions for trainers and training techniques, human rights concepts and principles in addition to Iraq ’s ratification of human rights documents. In the next phase, IF will carry out more workshops around the country, but will also target a wider audience through radio programs on basic human rights principles and their importance and relevance in the Iraqi context.

Last Update: Thursday, October 4, 2007