Human
Rights and Dialogue Education
by
Peter Noteboom
My
most rewarding teaching experience over the past few years happened last December
in Portugal. I was invited by Ann Blyberg, Executive Director of the Human Rights
Internship Program at the Institute
of International Education, Washington, DC, to help design and teach a human
rights education program in Portugal with 24 human rights activists.
Ann's
high standards, expertise in the content (how to advocate for economic, social
and cultural rights), and her practice of dialogue education together with excellent
hosts, Dignity International, and extraordinarily committed decision-makers from
Uruguay, Ireland, Lithuania, India, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea, Brazil,
Palestine, and Nepal (to name a few of the home countries) cooked up an extraordinary
learning experience of dialogue, practice, friendship, dancing, celebration and
hope. Plus I like teaching about political topics.
The power of dialogue
in educating adults is the subtitle of Learning
to Listen Learning to Teach. What kind of power is that? A favourite energizer
I used in Portugal is that when anyone feels an ah-ha moment coming on, that person
yells POWER, and everyone claps once immediately afterward. I learned this from
John Orkar, a Nigerian who practices power through leadership, power through dialogue,
power through spirituality, power through empowerment, power through a broad,
toothy smile. What kind of POWER is dialogue? Power for what?
Visit www.dignityinternational.org
for more on the Global Linking and Learning Program on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights.
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