3rd De Brug training: Human Rights Education and Lobbying

On 8 May the third session of De Brug trainings 2010 took place in the head office of Global Human Rights Defence.

The morning workshop was given by Mr Menno Ettema from United Network of Young Peacebuilders (UNOY). He trained the participants in Human Rights Education, by employing interactive methods, which the participants can make use of in their own training activities. He explained about knowledge, skills and attitudes that are necessary to conduct an effective training. In the context of educational approaches he emphasized the need to structure trainings in a learner centred manner, which many interactive methods, such as discussions in small groups, collaborative games and negotiations.

Furthermore, he introduced the ‘compass’, a manual on human rights education with young people, to the participants and engaged everyone in a discussion about the newly emerged topics of the latest edition.

The afternoon session was conducted by Ms Amy O’Donnell from Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO) and centred around Lobbying for Human Rights. Through an interactive learning method; including discussion, persuasion, negotiation and compromise, the participants discussed what advocacy is. However, using advocacy as an effective method for helping a person to be heard for encouraging action, requires the selection and preparation of key information. In that context the participants learned how to write a briefing paper, which represents a valuable tool for a lobbying meeting and shall include the desired, achievable results. Moreover, the participants were trained on the essentials of holding a lobbying meeting, basics which they can use in their own work with their organisations.