Human Rights Education A Manual for National Human Rights Institutions
5.1.6. Community development: Strengthening communities to address
the human rights issues which affect their lives88
Human rights community development involves building self-reliant and respectful communities where
individuals and groups are able to identify, examine, address and monitor human rights issues and
to advocate for the realization of the community’s human rights priorities. It involves principles of
empowerment, participation, inclusion, self-determination and partnership. The human rights educator
has a “multi-function” role that involves project management, leadership development, mentoring,
facilitation, teaching, networking, advocacy and communication.
While each of the above methods has its own methodology and practice principles, it is recognized that
some of these methods encompass all or part of the others. Human rights community development,
for example, could involve all of the other methods; education and advocacy could involve training,
information dissemination and relationship management; and training could involve information
dissemination.
Chapter 7 discusses the roles that the educator would play using each of these methods.
The methods used in the Multi-Method approach are not exclusive to human rights education. Some
are used for other mandated functions of NHRIs. Communications and media work, for example, can
include “information sharing” and “advocacy”, while policy analysis and legal intervention can use
“advocacy”, “facilitation” and “information sharing”. Similarly, “relationship management” is used across
all functions of the organization.
Figure 5.1: Multi-Method approach to human rights education
Information
sharing
Training
Facilitation
Relationship
management
Advocacy for
human rights
Community
development
Passing
on of
human rights
information
Imparting
human rights
skills and
knowledge
Empowering
others to
understand
their role as
co-creators
in societal
transformation
Working
with others
toward shared
human rights
outcomes
Promoting
the role and
value of
human rights
and
encouraging
people to act
Strengthening
individuals
and
communities
to address
the human
rights issues
which affect
their lives
The Multi-Method approach to human rights education encourages the practitioner to identify the best
method to reach the desired outcome, and one that is appropriate for the participants, the context and
the purpose of the human rights education activity.
Part III explains how the Multi-Method approach can be used in practice.
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“Community” in this context could refer to a sectoral or geographic community – such as a workplace, a school, a group of people
with disabilities, a street, a village or a region – and involve rights holders, duty bearers and influencers.