Thursday, March 6, 2008

People’s Watch marks 10th anniversary of human rights education programme

The Institute Human Rights Education (IHRE), a programme of People's Watch, Madurai-based national human rights organization, has completed 10 years.

IHRE is engaged in spreading human rights education. It took up the task in 1997, during the UN Decade for Human Rights Education (1995-2004).

It introduced human rights education in the Adi-Dravidar Welfare and Government Tribal Residential (ADW – GTR) schools under the Department of SC/ST Welfare of the Government of Tamil Nadu in 2002. That was the first time human rights education had been introduced in regular government schools anywhere in South Asia.

What began as a pilot project in nine schools in Tamil Nadu in 1997 has crossed the borders of that State and expanded to more than 3,000 schools in 13 States, covering more than 3,000 teachers and 250,000 school children.

About 800 children and 300 teachers will take part in the IHRE decennial celebrations to be held in Madurai tomorrow (March 7). In the morning, there will be an interactive session with students and teachers of HRE for more than two hours from 10.00 am. They will share the impact of the program, the changes that they have undergone personally and the changes that they have made or tried to make in their families or neighbourhood or in the communities..

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