The Strengthening Global Human Rights Education project, which is run by the non‑governmental organization Equitas, involves a Canadian contribution of $8.9 million over five years and has three objectives:
- To train, through the International Human Rights Training Program (IHRTP), 450 human rights educators working within governments, national human rights institutions and non‑governmental organizations in many developing countries. Given in English and French, this training will enable educators to enhance the efforts of the organizations they work for, and to improve the human rights status of target communities and recipients.
- To train 70 additional educators through sessions tailored to the regional environment, which will be held in Francophone and Anglophone Africa.
- To enable 3,600 children and 1,800 youths to take part in community initiatives designed to educate them about their rights, in 16 target localities in Haiti, Senegal, and Tanzania and Colombia, and to implement measures and public policy changes to increase respect for the rights of children and youth.
Canada and Equitas have worked together for several years to increase global respect for human rights. Now in its 35th year, the IHRTP makes it possible to train an average of 90 educators annually. The program is unique, at home and abroad, for its emphasis on human rights education and its participant-centred methodology.
