Equitas - International Centre for Human Rights Education

Published purpose

P000459001: This project aims to build safer, more equitable communities with greater respect for human rights and democracy by empowering key actors, including children and youth, to become agents of change in their communities. These key actors include human rights educators, local government officials, and representatives of community-based organizations, civil society organizations, women’s associations, and national human rights institutions. The project provides these key actors with human rights education based on international and regional norms and standards to help them to: (i) build their knowledge and skills and work together to strengthen the protection of human rights; (ii) engage in community actions to reduce violence, advance gender equality and ensure respect for human rights; (iii) influence policy-makers to ensure services for children and youth fulfill state human rights obligations; and (iv) share best practices and participate in national and international networks. Some project activities include: (i) providing training and support to an average of 90 human rights and human rights education practitioners from about 50 countries each year through Equitas’ International Human Rights Training Program, a three-week course given in Canada; (ii) holding two regional human rights training sessions in East Africa and two in West Africa; (iii) conducting three online training programs; (iv) supporting national-level actions in four selected countries (Senegal, Tanzania, Haiti and Colombia) focused on protecting the rights and promoting the participation of children and youth. The project expects to reach 8,400 people (including 5,610 children and youth) directly, and 922,000 people (including at least 372,000 children and youth) indirectly. This project is implemented in collaboration with Equitas’ local partner organizations in many countries. P000459002: This project aims to significantly improve the rule of law in La Francophonie through the implementation of international and national standards, enforcing existing legal safeguards and improving access to justice to all individuals, particularly marginalized groups, including women and youth. The project focuses its efforts in Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda. Direct prevention of torture is achieved through early access to trained legal counsel; it is the combination of defenders taking cases and proper training that ensures impact. Through training, multi-stakeholder dialogues, rights awareness campaigns, and the exchange of good practices, the project reinforces the capacity of human rights defenders to provide legal representation, increases awareness and engagement in the promotion and protection of human rights, and creates a structure to prevent torture, or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment within the justice system.