INTRODUCTION & PROGRAMME - APCEIU

324th Asia-Pacific Teachers Training Workshopc) The Proactive ApproachThere are three aspects of a preventive approach and a development agency like UNDP cancontribute to all three aspects:Promotion of awareness about human rights and remedies through human rights education;• Strengthening of mechanisms for the protection of human rights such as the judiciary,national human rights commissions, ombudsperson, and the media.• Realization and fulfillment of human rights through development programs inconventional sectors of development such as health or education in poverty alleviationand in governance.• Human rights are undoubtedly about power and empowerment. The Czech author, MilanKundera, reminds us "the struggle of man over power is the struggle of memory overforgetting". Human rights are about power and emphasize, "right not might". Humanrights are about memory and remind us of our dignity, our identity, and our veryhumanity.• The human rights approach is best encapsulated in that poignant saying "I complainedbecause I had no shoes, until I met a child who had no limbs". Human rights are aboutcomplaining about discriminatory lack of shoes and acting thereon. Human rights areabout understanding why (because of deadly armaments or drugs like thalidomide)children have no limbs, and acting thereon.d) Myths and Misconceptions about Human RightsSeveral myths and misconceptions abound about human rights:• Human rights are western and alien to many cultures.• Economic, social and cultural rights are not really rights.• Human rights over emphasize the individual over the community.• Human rights over emphasize rights over responsibilities.• Human rights encourage adversarial and litigious approaches over compromise andconsensus.• Human rights favor the status quo over social change. Concern is also raised aboutselectivity and double standards in the manner in which human rights are invoked bypowerful States over weak, or poor States.In the course of working on this module, you will be challenged to clarify, for yourself, theabove myths and misconceptions about human rights.