24th Human Rights and People's Diplomacy Training Program

The 24th Human Rights and People's Diplomacy Training Program, Nepal was organized by DiplomacyTraining Program in partnership with INSEC, Nepal. It was a 17 day training program from November 3 to November 19, 2014 with participants from 14 different countries of Asia Pacific. The main objective of the training program was to increase the capacity of civil society advocates to engage effectively with governments and others – locally, nationally and internationally. To equip participants with the knowledge, skills and confidence to engage in dialogue and build their support networks. 

The target groups of the training program was human rights defenders working with NGOs in the Asia-Pacific region committed to developing and sharing their knowledge and skills in human rights advocacy. I had participated the training program as a participant from Bangladesh.

From the training program we, the participants, have learned many things. We have learnt about the UN Human Rights Mechanism- The International Bill of Human Rights, UN Special Procedures, Charter and Treaty Body activity, UPR Process. We have practical sessions on how UN Treaty Body or UPR session is done and what is the role of country representatives, UN Officials and Civil Society activist during these special sessions at United Nations.

During the training we have also learned about the National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) and Paris Principles. We have visited the head office of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Nepal and learned how they are working to protect human rights violation in Nepal. We have learnt about the structure of NHRC Nepal and the activities of different groups. I and some of the training participants have also visited the district office of INSEC at Pokhara and learned about their activities that how the defenders are working on investigating and collecting information about rights violations and their approaches to deal with their activities. We have learned that most the defenders are also involved in different local news agencies and they actually maintain very good relation with the local legal officers and political leaders or they (defenders) have known persons who have connections with them. The other group went to the NHRC Nepal district office in Pokhara.

From the training we have gained idea more about how to develop advocacy and campaign strategies for the NGOs or for the local community to deal with human rights violation issues. We had also practice session on this.

We have learned that how we can relate the Normative Content of General Comments from United Nations with problems of our community and what kind of actions should be taken to minimize the problems with using Human Rights Based Approach by the responsible authority. We have learned about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and how to craft common SDGs for all countries as well as thinking over the measures to undertake to reach the goals. We have also learned about Right to Development Declaration by UN and we had practice session on this. We have worked in groups and performed as local NGO where other groups remain as governments and the NGO have to present about a village problem and ask the local government to take necessary steps to fix the problems.

 We have also gained knowledge about how we can use social media for our campaign and advocacy activity. Beside this we have also learned using media and dealing with the reporters of media during interview or live programs.

During the training program we had participants cooking session where participants from different countries cooked their own and traditional foods. All the foods were so delicious and that they we found ourselves how good cook we are but wasting our talent in vain. On the cultural night every participant wore their traditional dress and we found the cultural diversity of our region.

We have session on lobbying where participants share their success and failure during their lobbying in their country. From that session we have gather practical knowledge about lobbying and for the practical exercise I went to the Royal Norwegian Embassy Nepal. There we met Mr. Håkon Arald Gulbrandsen, Minister Counselor/Deputy Head of Mission and we had chat on the Human Rights and lobby activities. I also shared about my works as an FK Fellow at Nepal with him.

We have learned about the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and Responsibility of Governments. We have also learnt how to minimize the risk of a human rights defender.

From the training program we have get knowledge about 14 different countries, from Asia Pacific, human rights situations and how the governments are responding to these problems. In the meeting with Mr. Jose Ramos Horta we have learnt how he had lobbied, negotiated and dealt with the diplomats of other countries to free Timor Leste from the Indonesian Army Occupation which gave a the idea of real UN diplomatic postures.

 We are really very lucky to have John Pace, Virginia Danda, Patrick Earle, Philip Chung, Joshua Cooper and other very talented and experienced trainers who gave a lot to the participants to work in future. INSEC Nepal had done an incredible job in organizing along with DTP Team. It would be suggestion to all the human rights advocates around the Asia-Pacific region to apply for this training program in future and enhance their capacity to work ahead.