The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) hosted a two-day workshop of six Master Trainers of the Asia Pacific Forum (APF) followed by a three-day ‘Advanced Human Rights Education Programme’ in New Delhi from the 9th June, 2014. Shri J.S. Kochher, Joint Secretary represented the NHRC as the APF Master Trainer.
The aim of workshop was to provide a forum to the Master Trainers to share ideas and experiences to strengthen the region-wide training programme on human rights issues such as torture prevention, rights of migrant workers, investigation of human rights violations, media and communication skills etc.
The Master Trainers are those representatives of NHRIs who had been especially trained to plan, strategize and conduct human rights education training programmes for their respective NHRIs as well as for the programmes of Asia Pacific Region as Resource Persons.
The aim of the Advanced Human Rights Education programme was to strengthen familiarization of the Trainers of Trainers with the theoretical frameworks of adult education and human rights education; their effective implementation and strategizing the development of human rights education programme as per the requirements of each NHRI in the region.
Inaugurating the programme, Justice Shri K.G. Balakrishnan, Chairperson, NHRC said that human rights education was of utmost importance in a society, as also recognized in the Preamble of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to ensure that human rights were respected and promoted for the dignity of all. It gave every individual a scope to self-introspect and adopt attitudes and approaches encouraging respect for the rights of all.
The programme had participation of experienced trainers and educators from the NHRIs of India, Afghanistan, Palestine, Jordan, Mongolia, Nepal, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka and New Zealand.