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WCAR Cauces pages
EDUCATION CAUCUS
Education Caucus
WCAR NGO Forum
Meeting schedule during the 3rd PrepCom for WCAR at Geneva
The 3rd meeting: 8 August, 12:00-13:00, Room XXII (22), Palais des Nations
The 4th meeting: 9 August, 12:00-13:00, Room XXIV (24), Palais des Nations
The 5th meeting: 10 August, 12:00-13:00, Room XXII (22), Palais des Nations
The meetings are open to all NGOs and/or dedicated individuals
(Human Rights and/or Peace Education) to join this Caucus.
The Education Caucus, closely working with the NGO Forum Thematic Commission on Education, Information, Communication and Media, is purported to achieve the following tasks.
- To make contributory inputs for the NGO Forum Declaration and Plan of Action.
- To provide at Durban a platform for the interested NGOs and dedicated individuals to share and exchange the experiences, ideas, strategies, etc.
- To create a worldwide network in the field of education - Durban and beyond.
As of 7 August, the Education Caucus noted that the Drafts of NGO Declaration and Plan of Action do not sufficiently cover the aspect of education, particularly human rights education, as an important preventive measure to racism, racial discrimination, and related intolerance. The present draft of the NGO Plan of Action contains "C. Education," however, its contents should better be expressed as real "Plan of Action" with indication of the practical tools, rather than "moral goals" or "ideals" as in the present draft to a large part which must be integrated in the Declaration.
When it comes to the human rights education, there are now a number of tools to include, refer, and mention in the Final NGO Plan of Action.
The following is an example:
[For the Declaration]
NGO Forum:
- Recognises the importance of the human rights education at national, regional and international level to combat the root causes of racism, racial discrimination and all related intolerances,
- Encourages all NGOs, governments and intergovernmental organisations to collaborate each other to realise effective measures of human rights education with special focus on the UN Decade for Human Rights Education (1997-2006) until 2006 and for setting up a further framework after 2006,
- Underlines that all religious and spiritual leaders also bear the responsibility to promote active tolerance in order to eliminate racism, racial discrimination and all related intolerances from the world.
[For the Plan of Action]
NGO Forum calls upon the governments:
- To implement the recommendations of the OHCHR mid-term report on the UN Decade for Human Rights Education (UN Doc., A/55/360) which is a part of the resolution of the 57th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights,
- To establish, on a regular basis, regional inter-governmental fora on human rights education in efficient cooperation with the UN, NGOs and all concerned partners for human rights education. Such fora shall provide all actors with an opportunity to exchange useful information for effective strategies and practical measures for human rights education. The human rights education and the education for universal human values in this context should cover not only school curricula but also any relevant social activities, including special training seminars for professionals, in creative ways to serve as preventive measures to human rights violations,
- To support the UN to establish sustainability of the UN human rights education programmes specially in terms of human and financial resources,
- To implement independent, effective and accountable national commissions, ministries, or/and departments for the promotion of the universal human values,
- To restore a balance between "rationalism", science and technology on the one hand and age-old wisdom, local knowledge and philosophy on the other.
Certainly, there must be many other approaches for "Action."
We call upon ALL NGOs and dedicated individuals to join the caucus to create further productive work for all.
An Appeal to NGOs
During the NGO Forum and WCAR (governmental session) in Durban, a large number of NGOs are planning various events such as panel discussion, round table, workshop, etc, in the context of education.
In order to create maximum and positive impact as well as fruitful outcome, the Education Caucus is trying to gather all relevant information to make a list of such events and publicise before and during the NGO Forum and WCAR. If your organisation agrees, the list will be publicised as the Education Caucus series of events, with the clear indication of the organising NGOs’ names of each event.
Those who are interested in this idea, please inform the following contact person.
For further information – please contact Mr. Werner Peter Luedemann
Geneva, Switzerland: Tel. +41-22-738 2888 Fax +41-22-738 2889
Germany: Mobile Phone +49-171-3111598
E-mail: IntAOLEurope.Luedemann@t-online.de
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