With the support of the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights (NCHR), the 8th Annual Regional Lecturer Workshop was held in Bangkok from August 26-29, 2024. Organized by the Asian University Network-Human Rights Education (AUN-HRE) in collaboration with the Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies (IHRP) at Mahidol University, the workshop centered on transformative pedagogical approaches for teaching human rights.
Three dimensions of human rights education
The workshop encapsulated the three dimensions of human rights education: education about human rights, education through human rights, and education for human rights. Twenty lecturers from universities in Cambodia, East Timor, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Vietnam in Southeast Asia participated in this workshop.
The workshop emphasized that human rights education extends beyond merely imparting knowledge of international law and human rights instruments, it also introduced participants to innovative pedagogical strategies. The lecturers that attended the workshop were provided an innovative pedagogical approach that could empower their students to critically examine their contexts, beliefs, values, knowledge, and attitudes. Additionally, they learned that, in designing and implementing human rights educational activities, the social and political context plays an important role.
Since 2017, the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights has supported the annual lecturer workshops on teaching human rights and peace. The overarching objective is to strengthen the capacities of university lecturers in these fields while providing a platform for mutual learning and knowledge sharing.