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Looking back over the decade: The unforseeable bends in the road
Sarah Chandler, a graduate of the first year of the MA in Human Rights, talks about her career in human rights so far - from the Quaker Aboriginal Affairs Committee of the Canadian Friends' Service Committee, to the Equitas International Centre for Human Rights Education.
When I applied for admission to the new MA programme in Understanding and Securing Human Rights at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies in 1995, it was with the intention to contribute to the capacity building of an NGO for which I was a volunteer. The Quaker Aboriginal Affairs Committee of the Canadian Friends’ Service Committee (CFSC) had been working in solidarity with the Indigenous Peoples of Canada for many years. However, it had become apparent that as advocates we needed a better understanding of the fundamental issues of human rights, specifically the rights of Indigenous Peoples, and our nation’s commitments at international human rights law, if we were going to enter into the dialogue in a meaningful way.
At the beginning I had no way of knowing what the road ahead would bring, or the extent to which human rights would come to dominate my life and work. The MA programme did indeed support the capacity building efforts of my organisation, both directly and indirectly. In addition to the course content, which was enriched by seminars we presented to each other based on our own work, I was able to meet and later work with people working on human rights issues at Quaker Peace and Social Witness in London and at the Quaker UN Organization in Geneva, thus developing international links for the work of my organization. Over the ensuing decade, supported by the transfer of knowledge from the MA programme and the connections with other concerned individuals and organizations working on human rights, the Quaker Aboriginal Affairs Committee (QAAC) of CFSC has since expanded its work to the point where it engages regularly within UN and Organization of American States human rights fora. The committee has presented side events at the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and, in 2005, worked with the Quaker United Nations Office (Geneva), and other human rights NGOs, to present a forum on “Advancing the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples: A critical challenge for the international community” at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in April 2005. QAAC is also now part of a coalition of national and international NGO’s and Indigenous Peoples’ organizations in Canada that work to facilitate opportunities for, and to engage government representatives and policy makers in, constructive dialogue around the rights of Indigenous Peoples. As part of its education mandate, QAAC has also developed and disseminated, both nationally and internationally, an education kit on Indigenous Peoples’ rights.
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Upon completion of the MA in 1996, an indirect referral from a CFSC colleague resulted in a meeting with programme staff of the Canadian Human Rights Foundation (now Equitas International Centre for Human Rights Education) in Montreal, Quebec. CHRF was recruiting new facilitators for its annual International Human Rights Training Program, which takes place in Montreal, every June. The grounding in human rights theory and practice that I had gained from the MA, combined with previous facilitation training and practice, led to a position on the facilitation team. In 1999, Thayyiba Ibrahim (another 1996 MA in Human Rights graduate from Canada) also joined the team for that year. |
International Human Rights Training Program (IHRTP) 2004: Building webs of connection between participants |
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| June of 2006 marked my tenth year as a facilitator with EQUITAS. Through the Training Program, it has been my privilege to work, directly and indirectly, with more than a thousand dedicated human rights educators and activists from around the world: participants, facilitators, invited experts, as well as staff and board members of Equitas. Since 2000, we have also worked with selected participants from past years who have been invited to return to the Program as co-facilitators, in order to further build human rights education capacity in their regions. |
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| In addition to the International Human Rights Training Programme, Equitas offers programs in National Human Rights Institution Building, Migrant Workers Rights, and regional programmes especially developed for Africa, Asia, South Asia, Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Indonesia, Middle East and North Africa, and Canada. |
IHRTP 2005: Members of Group 3 pose with their popular education activity, 'Human Rights Lilly Pad', developed for the 'Human Rights Education Marketplace' |
The focus of Equitas’ work is on non-formal human rights education based on needs identified by partner organizations and targeting specific groups. Equitas programmes use a curriculum design model based on principles of adult experiential learning, which draw on the experience and knowledge of the participants as well as the experience and knowledge of the facilitators and featured experts. In an atmosphere that promotes critical reflection and inquiry, the programmes aim to foster transformative learning that enables participants to critically examine their assumptions about human rights and to develop or enhance knowledge, skills, values, attitudes and behaviours that empower them to understand, assert and defend their rights, along with the rights of others. Equitas programmes emphasize practical application of skill and knowledge gained, and planning for action, particularly the transfer of learning to others, in the context of participants’ work. |
IHRTP 2005: Group Number 3 at the end of the programme celebration dinner
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Working with Equitas has given me additional opportunities: to live in Tashkent, Uzbekistan for three months to train trainers from the Centre for the Study of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at the Tashkent State Law Institute and support them to deliver a training programme for trainers affiliated with women’s NGO’s; to co-facilitate a training for trainers from East and Central Europe and Central Asia in Alma-ata, Kazakhstan; to do follow up needs assessment work with Equitas partners in Nepal and India; and to train military peacekeepers through the Lester B Pearson Peacekeeping Centre in Nova Scotia, Canada.
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My service with the Canadian Friends’ Service Committee ended in 2005. However, professionally, I continue to work as a facilitator, not only of human rights training programmes, but also in public processes and trainings and, most recently (another unexpected bend in the road) in restorative justice processes. Working with human rights educators and activists from around the world not only keeps me current on human rights developments globally, it provides a network of support and it supports me to take a rights-based approach to all of my work. |
IHRTP 2006: (from left to right) Sally Salem, OYCV Group, Eqypt, co-facilitator; Ximena Gudiño, Colectivo Pro Derechos Humanos, Equador, participant; Sarah Chandler, facilitator. Photo courtesy of Ximena Gudiño.
Despite the political erosion of human rights we are facing in the world today, I feel encouraged by the exponential increase in human rights education around the world. Adding this small story to all of the other stories of MA in Human Rights alumni over the past decade, it is clear to me that if we ensure that, in all of our efforts, we are affirming, promoting, protecting the dignity of the human person, and if we apply in action the knowledge, ideas and skills we gain through course work and internships, the work we do will continue growing exponentially, thus playing an significant role in the development of a global culture of human rights.
Sarah Chandler
March 2007
(MA Human Rights graduate, 1996)
Sarah Chandler is Consultant and Trainer for the Equitas International Centre for Human Rights and Secretary of the British Columbia Human Rights Coaliton, serving on the Executive, Education and Law Reform Committees. Sarah also serves on the International Human Rights Program Committee of KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives.
www.equitas.org
www.kairoscanada.org |
