Part III Human rights education in practice POLICE RECRUIT HUMAN RIGHTS TRAINING Since 2015, The Office of the Ombudsman/NHRI Samoa has worked closely with the Ministry of Police to carry out human rights education for new recruits. Topics covered include what human rights are, international human rights standards and relevant national laws and the application of these to police work, as well as police accountability. Another important component of the education involves a session on gender role stereotyping and gender equality and the importance for police to be aware of these to assist with their daily work especially when they deal with women and girls including those with a disability, children (as well as the SOGIESC population). This part of the education is carried out in collaboration with UN Women and it has been very beneficial both in raising awareness about gender issues bit also to further strengthen partnerships. To further raise awareness of gender issues especially those of women, there is a great discussion of conventions relating to the rights of women and how human rights principles should be upheld in situations where women come in conflict with the law. NHRI Samoa, also sheds light on the issue of gender equality and balance in the police force and discuss some of the barriers and how to overcome these barriers. 9.3.2. Implementation Chapter 7 of the Manual discusses the roles and functions of the human rights educator; diverse learning preferences; creating education environments; pacing activities; written, oral and visual communication; and monitoring processes. Gender considerations are a component of all of these elements. The educator’s role is to ensure that the implementation processes actively promote gender equality and counter any obvious or subliminal factors that may perpetuate gender discrimination. When applying a gender lens to the facilitation of a human rights activity consider the following: Are facilitation practices gender inclusive? Are varying viewpoints about gender equality managed effectively? Are the environments gender safe, respectful, non discriminating and inclusive? Have gender implications across intersecting and diverse identities been recognised? Are all genders encouraged to participate through the use of relevant and targetted methods and approaches? Recognising that gender equality does not mean treating people the same, have special measures been considered to promote gender equality? Are monitoring tools and processes gender inclusive and data gathered gender disaggregated? Chapter 9: Human rights education and gender | 87