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Great resource for teachers. "The classrooms are places of learning and social development. They are venues for...
Teaching PEACE and HUMAN RIGHTS and CONFLICT RESOLUTION
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Teaching PEACE, HUMAN RIGHTS and CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Training Manual
TEACHING
Peace, Human Rights and Conflict Resolution
PROGRAM ON PSYCHOSOCIAL TRAUMA AND HUMAN RIGHTS Center for Integrative and Development Studies University of the Philippines In Partnership with: The British Embassy Human Rights Project Fund Notre Dame University Cotabato City
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c 2003 UP CIDS PST and the British Embassy—Manila All rights reserved. This publication may be reproduced, as a whole or in part, provided that acknowledgement of the source is made. Notification of such would be appreciated. ISBN: 971-742- 090-4 Published by: Program on Psychosocial Trauma and Human Rights UP Center for Integrative and Development Studies and the British Embassy—Manila Writers: Ernesto Cloma, Michelle Ong, Perlyn Bunyi, Faye A.G. Balanon and Jay Yacat Cover Design: Katti Sta. Ana Inside Illustrator: Ariel Manuel Lay Out Artist: Omna Jalmaani Editor: Thor Balanon Recommended entry: Teaching peace, human rights and conflict resolution: Training manual/ Program on Psychosocial Trauma and Human Rights- UP Center for Integrative and Development Studies - - Quezon City: UP CIDS PST and the British Embassy—Manila, c2003. 150 p.; 5 cm. 1. Peace —Philippines—training modules. 2. Human rights—Philippines—Training modules. I. Cloma, Ernesto. II. Ong, Michelle. III. Bunyi, Perlyn. IV. Balanon, Faye A.G. V. Yacat, Jay
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Teaching PEACE, HUMAN RIGHTS and CONFLICT RESOLUTION
TEACHING MANUAL
TEACHING PEACE, HUMAN RIGHTS AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION Contents Foreword..............................................i A ck n ow l e d g e m e n t s. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i i Messag es...............................................iv What This Manual is All About................vii How to Use This Manual.........................x TRAINING MODULES Module 1 Looking Back to the Past to Find Peace.............................1 Activity Series 1 M i n d a n a o. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Activity Series 2 M i n d a n a o a n d I t s H i s t o r y. . . . . . . . . 6 Lecture Guide...........................7 Module 2 Personal Peace..................................11 Pre-Activity In the Mood for Peace.............12 Activity Peace Balls.............................1 3 Lecture T h e Fo u r C o m p o n e n t s o f Pe a c e . . . . . 1 5 Activity Stick Art...............................18
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Module 3 Nature and Peace................................21 Pre-Activity Movement and Sound Exercise... . . . . 22 Activity We b o f L i f e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 3 Alternative Activity N o a h ’s A r k i s S i n k i n g. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 5 Lecture Changing Views of the Environment.......................27 Activity W a t e r C e r e m o n y. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 9 Module 4 Structural Violence.............................31 Activity Series 1........................32 Activity Series 2.......................34 Activity Series 3........................40 Activity Evolution Game.......................42 Activity Guess Who the Leader Is...........44 Activity Te n s y o n n i A l i n g Glong Balisa............................45 Alternative Activity Four Mat ching Soldiers..............4 8 Lecture Guide Militarization...........................50 Readings...................................51 Activity Summing Up.............................52
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Module 5 Human Rights...................................53 Session 1 K arapatang Pantao B i l a n g Pa g p a p a k a tao..................5 4 Pre-Activity The Baby in the Picture............54 Activity M a t ch i n g. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 5 Activity Ang Kwento ni Pwet................56 Session 2 Pakikipagkapwa at K a r a p a t a n g Pa n t a o...................5 8 Lecturette Pakikipagkapwa and Human Rights...................59 Session 3 Ang K arapatang Pantao............62 Readings The Universal Declaration on Human Rights.....................62 Histor y of Universal Human Rights (1948)................63 Histor y of Universal Human Rights- Up to WW2.......68 The Creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights....72 Wo r l d w i d e I n f l u e n c e o f t h e Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Inter national Bill of Rights......78 International Covenant on C iv i l a n d Po l i t i c a l R i g h t s.......... 8 0 C o n v e n t i o n A g a i n s t To r t u r e and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
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Convention on the Elimination o f A l l Fo r m s o f D i s c r i m i n at i o n A g a i n s t Wo m e n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 5 Convention on the Elimination of All For ms of Racial Discrimination...........87 The International Court of Justice................................89 International Criminal Court......90 An Enumeration of the Va r i o u s R i g h t s o f I n d i v i d u a l s , Groups and People as Contained in Major International Declaration and Convention on Human Rights......................91 Module 6 Promoting the Culture of Peace.............99 Activity Tr i b a l Wa r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 0 3 Alternative Activity K apit-Bisig..............................104 Activity Social Institutions and Violence. . . 1 0 6 Lecture Guide Institutions that Promote Violence.....................107 Activity Individual Ref lection................109 Readings Philippines-Mindanao (1971First Combat Death) Update: December 2002 Project Ploughshares.................110 Lecture Conflict Management.................128
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FOREWORD
The classrooms are places of learning and social development. They are venues for developing the values, morals, and ideals that the next generation will practice and uphold. But it is a fact that our children also learn wrong behavior and beliefs in the school. Children sometimes learn to be prejudiced at school – it can be based on looks, on abilities, on social class, or on religion or cultural background. Children who became victims of prejudice and discrimination developed problems in adjusting and adapting, had low-self esteem, and a burning hate against those who have hurt them. Some kept quiet and bore the pain and humiliation silently. Some got into fights where they were outnumbered and got even more hurt. Since nobody stopped and reprimanded those who teased and taunted, they believed that it was all right and they would pass this thinking on to their friends. And in the future, to their own children. In Mindanao, a tri-people land, differences in culture and ideology abound. There is beauty in the differences if each would accept and respect each other. But reality paints a different picture. A child may hear a slur about Christians/Muslims/Tausugs from his or her family. He or she may even be warned against relating to those different from them – warning their children that the others cannot be trusted. The teachers themselves, who also grew up hearing the same, sometimes reinforce these beliefs and fears in school. But we believe that the school is still the primary venue to learn good values, morals, and positive life skills. These should be venues that would promote respect, acceptance, and an appreciation of the differences of beliefs, culture and opinions. These are venues where cooperation and constructive conflict resolution should be practiced and upheld. It is in this light that we came up with training modules that would guide our teachers in Mindanao on how to discuss the concepts of peace, human rights and conflict resolution in their classes. This publication primarily targets the teachers as its readers. This is also a testament to the collaboration and partnership of different groups united in the vision of a Culture of Peace in Mindanao and in the Philippines.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The project, TEACHING PEACE, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION, is a product of the partnership among individuals and groups dedicated to the cause of building a culture of peace in the Philippines. Without the work and contributions of these kindhearted souls, this volume would have remained a vision:
The British Embassy, for supporting the project especially Daniel Painter, for his resolve in seeing that the project pushes through with the support of the British Embassy; Katy Parker, for continuing where Daniel left off, and Nicole Cadwallader, for seeing to it that the project fulfills its objectives; Dr. Elizabeth Protacio-De Castro, Convenor of the Program on Psychosocial Trauma and Human Rights, for providing the direction and guidance for this project and for making it a top priority of the program and Agnes Camacho, Program Officer of PST for her valuable contributions in the development of the project; The Notre Dame University of Cotabato, for forging ahead with the partnership without any hesitation and with much fervor and enthusiasm, led by its ever-supportive NDU President, Fr. Ramon Ma. Bernabe, OMI and other NDU officials such as VP Elsa Tamse; Prof. Flerida Simon of the NDU Alumni and Continuing Education Center (ACE), one of the driving forces of the project in its implementation, and the ACE staff, Maymay Peñaflor and Donesa; Dr. Ester Sevilla and Prof. Estrella Contallopez of the NDU Peace Centre for their valuable inputs in improving the teaching modules and the training designs, and for committing their support to the continuation and expansion of the project; Doreen Bugaoisan and Jojo Hernandez;
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Jay Yacat, Michelle Ong, Ernie Cloma and Perlyn “Lakan” Bunyi, for agreeing to shoulder the Herculean task of writing the modules; and Faye Balanon, for her unwavering support and selfless contributions; The PST Administrative Staff, for providing the logistical support for the project; Omna Jalmaani, for supervising the production of this publication; Nora Salazar and Mary Rose Echague, for patiently looking after the financial affairs of the project; Michael Quilala and Julio Abas for fulfilling the other needs of the project; The pilot schools especially their principals and teachers, for their courage in taking on the responsibility of using the modules in their classes; Notre Dame Midsayap CollegeElementary Training Department; Notre Dame Midsayap College-High School Department; Pagangan Elementary School; Pagangan High School Notre Dame of Pikit and Notre Dame University Elementary Training Department; The participants in the consultation workshop in August 2002 and the critiquing workshop in February 2003, and the trainers’ workshop in May and August 2003, for sharing their time, knowledge and experiences; and other partner schools such as Southern Christian College for their unflagging support; Thor Balanon, for doing a great job of finding coherence in this manuscript; Katti Sta. Ana, for designing the cover of the book; and Ariel Manuel, for coming up with the inside illustrations; Finally to the teachers and their students who would be the primary and target users of this book. May they find that peace is a realizable dream to shape in the minds of our young.
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MESSAGE
Peace to all! These modules for Teaching Peace are the result of a dream, a fervent desire shared by many in our country, to have peace finally reign in our lands. As activists for peace, we believe that education is a powerful tool for social change and empowerment. Thus, the schools were tapped as venues for discussing peace issues and concepts, and teachers are partners in the effort to develop a more peace-loving citizenry. In the development of these modules, we consulted children, parents and the teachers who will be using the modules. We worked hand in hand with peace educators who knew the local situation best. Various political, religious, and cultural differences of our participants and end-users were considered. Throughout all this, our own notions of personal peace were challenged and we gained valuable insights into our own personal and working relationships. We are honored to have been able to work with Notre Dame University ACE Center and the Peace Education Center, who unselfishly shared with us their talent, expertise, time and experience in order to accomplish a common goal. We hope that these modules encourage you to tread the difficult path towards peace. There you will find and gain other companions to help you through your journey just as we did.
Elizabeth Protacio-De Castro, Ph.D. Associate Professor/Convenor UPCIDS Psychosocial Trauma and Human Rights Program
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MESSAGE
The British Embassy is committed to support peace initiatives and to promote respect of human rights in Mindanao. We believe that working at a local level, integrating the teaching of peace, human rights and conflict resolution, would promote awareness of human rights and the appreciation of the need to respect and uphold rights in order to attain peace. We would like to thank the UP Center For Integrative and Development Studies’ Psychosocial Trauma and Human Rights Program for all their hard work in developing this project and making it such a success.
Nicole Cadwallader
Nicole Cadwallader Second Secretary
(Global and Economic Issues) British Embassy
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MESSAGE
It gives me pleasure to write this message as part of the volume on Teaching Peace, for which the University of the Philippines Center for Integrative and Development Studies (Program on Psychosocial Trauma and Human Rights) and Notre Dame University have partnered and collaborated on. While it is true that the project may be nearing its terminal stage with the publication of these modules, the larger truth is that it is opening the stage for the bigger “project”—that of propagating the knowledge, skills, and values of peace to its intended clients: students. This part of the project will not anymore have a terminal stage, for what is begun or nurtured among the pupils and students about peace will have to be cultivated for a lifetime. I congratulate the persons and teams who have worked on these modules, believing that the endeavor of teaching peace is a most crucial undertaking for our times. It is a modest yet significant contribution to the total effort of making our society a more peaceful place to live in, not so much anymore for the present, but for future generations. I am hopeful that these modules will continue to be enriched in the future by the learning experience that will take place soon in classrooms and other venues, and by the changing circumstances of the world in which we live. I recommend these modules to our educational institutions, and invite everyone’s continued commitment to teaching and living-out peace.
Fr. RAMON MA. BERNABE, OMI President, Notre Dame University – Cotabato City
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WHAT THIS MANUAL IS ALL ABOUT This training manual is a necessary companion to Teaching Peace, Human Rights and Conflict Resolution: A Teaching Manual. The manual was designed for use in several training workshops given to teachers who were identified as potential users of the Teaching Peace Modules. The manual underwent a rigorous process of consultations, pre-testing and feedback with intended users and audience: educators. The manual aims to provide trainers with the basic knowledge, skills and methodologies they would need in order to train other teachers on the use of the teaching modules. Therefore, this manual targets teacher-trainers who have already undergone basic training on the use of the teaching modules. It is necessary for the user of the manual to have had the basic training, as certain assumptions are made as to the knowledge, skills and orientation of the user. This manual is made possible by the coordinated efforts of the British Embassy, Notre Dame University of Cotabato and the UP CIDS PST.
Organization of this manual The training modules were developed to meet the objectives of training teachers on the use of a set of teaching modules. The training modules were mostly structured learning exercises that complete the whole experiental cycle. They are presented in this edition in the order they were presented in the training-workshops, but you, as the trainer, may choose to modify the sequence of presentation since it is assumed that the components of the Peace Framework, where the modules are based, are interrelated and therefore, interchangeable.
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Module 1
Looking Back to the Past to Find Peace
Module 2
Personal Peace
Module 3
Nature and Peace
Module 4
Structural Violence
Module 5
Human Rights
Module 6
Promoting the Culture of Peace
Parts of the Module Pre-activity The purpose of the pre-activity is to prime the participants and prepare them to do work related to the objectives of the main activity. It may be used to help participants focus on certain concepts, topics per experiences, or it may be used to “exercise” amd practice skills to be used in the main activity.
Activity The main activity focuses on allowing participants to draw learning from their experiences. It encourages exploration, reflection and analysis of the participants’ experiences. It often provides a springboard for an input (usually, a lecture) or further discussion.
Learning points These are common observations and reflections about the outcome of the main activity. They help to summarize the most important points and organize the ideas that are presented.
Alternative activities The user is alerted to alternative activities when the original may be deemed inadvisable due to certain limitations: time, limitation
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of materials or space. However, they are designed to more or less meet the same objectives as the original activities.
Lecturettes These short lectures usually follow an activity and is used to input information. However, it is important to note that some space should be given to participants’ input and feedback to make it more participative.
Fa c i l i t a t i n g t i p s These helpful tips on how to better facilitate learning are scattered throughout the modules and will be useful at any point. They are based on the feedback by participants of actual training sessions and on observations and reflections of the trainers.
Note to the facilitator These are important points the facilitator must bear in mind in conducting the activities. They may be reminders, brief instructions or things to look for in an activity.
Energizers These are suggested activities that sets the mood for the training. These may fulfill the following: make the participants feel more at ease, more active and responsive to the activities at hand.
Readings These are materials included for review, may also be reproduced and distributed to the participants. They may also become basis for additional input and may help deepen the knowledge and delivery of the lectures.
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How to use this Manual Several icons and markers have been used in this manual to guide the readers and lead them to information that would be useful. The chapter numbers are indicated in the text boxes at the edge of the book pages and the chapter name are indicated in the upper portion of the pages. The icons are placed in the text of the manual.
Activity This icon instructs the readers to the activities of the modules.
Readings
This icon represents the readings that the reader may use as reference for the activity.
Lectures This icon shows the way to additional input and discussion on topics/issues raised in the activities.
Learning Points
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This icon offers information on the important points of the activity
Note to the Facilitator
This icon alerts the reader to practical suggestions and important reminders that would lead to more positive results.
Teaching PEACE, HUMAN RIGHTS and CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Module 1 LOOKING BACK TO THE PAST TO FIND PEACE
Objectives: 1. To discuss the importance of studying history in forging peace. 2. To trace the roots of present-day conflicts in Mindanao to the region’s history. 3. To discuss Filipino nationalism visà-vis the Bangsa Moro movement. 4. Define the role of culture in people’s actions. 5. To surface one’s changes on perspectives about the situation in Mindanao after the discussions.
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Module 1
Looking Back to the Past to Find Peace
ACTIVITY SERIES 1 Mindanao
Objective: To draw out the participant’s general knowledge and awareness of Mindanao.
Activity THE FIRST AND LAST LETTERS
Procedure: 1. Instruct the participants to form four groups in parallel lines. Each one must stand an arms length from one another. 2. The facilitator will ask questions that the groups need to answer. 3. The participants must answer as a group by forming the first or last letter (depending on the instructions of the facilitator) of the answer with their bodies. Carefully instruct the participants that the letters need to be “correct” according to the perspective of the facilitators. 4. Sample questions: Form the first letter of the answers to the following questions: a. What is the province where people speak a language based on the Spanish language? ( The groups need to form the letter “Z” for Zamboanga.)
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b. What city is known as the “gateway of Mindanao?” (“C” for Cagayan de Oro) c. What is the southernmost province of Mindanao? (“J” for Jolo of “S” for Sulu) d. What is the name of the tribe who is known to be sea gypsies? (“B” for Badjao) Form the last letter of the answers to the following questions: e. What is the name of the fruit that smells like hell but tastes like heaven? (“N” for Durian) f.
What is the Muslim boat with colorful sails? (“A” for Vinta)
5. The facilitator will give a point to the group who formed the correct letter first.
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Mo du le 1
Looking Back to the Past to Find Peace
Module 1
Looking Back to the Past to Find Peace
Activity L I S TA H A N - P I R M A H A N
Materials: Manila paper and marking pens Procedure: 1. Maintain the groupings of the previous activity. Ensure that they are still in the parallel lines that they have formed earlier. 2. Place a manila paper and a marking pen 10 feet away from each group. 3. Instruct the groups that they will be told to make a “list.” Each group member will take turn to run up front and answer the question on the manila paper. Each one will write down as much as they can, then run back to their groups and pass the marking pen to the next member. 4. Instruct the groups to list down all the types of people living in Mindanao – all the tribes, sectors and religions. 5. After all have taken turns to answer, the facilitator and the groups will read the answers together. Give points to the correct answers. 6. Provide a new manila paper then instruct the groups to list down important past and present events that took place in Mindanao. 7. The facilitator and the groups will read the answers together. Give points to the correct answers.
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Activity S H A P E S A N D TA B L E A U X
Procedure: 1. Maintain the groupings of the previous activity. 2. The facilitator will describe an image, event or thing listed on the output of the previous activity. The groups will guess what it is. For example: Facilitator:
It is a fruit with spikes on its skin
Answer:
Durian
Facilitator:
This has been unfortunately present throughout Mindanao’s history
Answer:
War
3. Instruct the participants that they must answer by forming shapes of tableaux with their bodies.
Synthesis and feedback for the series •
The facilitator will ask the participants for feedback on the series of activities.
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The facilitator will ask the participants the themes about Mindanao that the activities surfaced. The following are a few examples: o
Rich diversity of the peoples and culture in Mindanao
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Mindanao is rich with natural resources
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Mindanao’s history is full of changes, challenges and conflict.
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Mo du le 1
Looking Back to the Past to Find Peace
Module 1
Looking Back to the Past to Find Peace
ACTIVITY SERIES 2 Mindanao and Its History
Objective: To bring out the participant’s knowledge and awareness about Mindanao’s history.
Activity MAPPING
Materials:
Map of Mindanao for each participant
Procedure: 1. Give each participant a map of Mindanao. 2. Instruct them to draw or write around the map the important events in Minadanao’s history. Provide 10 minutes. 3. Group the participants into 5 small groups and instruct them to share their map with the group. Provide 10 minutes. 4. Each group will report what they shared by making a tableaux of the common images/events that came up in their group. Provide 5 minutes to prepare. 5. Reporting.
Activity T H E E V E N T S T H AT LED TO THE DIVIDE Procedure: 1. From the images that the groups reported the facilitator will guide the whole group to fill up the following matrix:
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Spanish Colonial Rule
American Colonial Rule
Under different Filipino Presidents
Moving towards the future
Causes of Conflict Results of conflict Response of government Response of the people
2. The following lecture guide can be used for input and P etor sthe o ngroup’s al Pe synthesis. The facilitator should always refer output.
ace
LECTURE GUIDE
Ask the participants what they know about the history of Mindanao, its people, and culture. Be aware if what they have told is true, conflicting, or incomplete. Point out that history textbooks have little to say about the experiences of the people of Mindanao, particularly Moros. Tell the participants about the importance of knowing and understanding history. Tell also how the Japanese commemorate the day the Atomic Bomb was dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the objective of such commemoration. Tell the participants that before the arrival of the Spaniards, the sultanate of Mindanao had the most developed social organization in the country. It had its own political structure, distinct economy and economic trade with other countries; it had unique cultures and tradition. If not for the intervention of the Spaniards, perhaps the Philippines would be a Muslim country like our neighbors Indonesia and Malaysia.
TeachingPEACE PEACEand andHUMAN HUMANRIGHTS RIGHTSand andCONFLICT CONFLICTRESOLUTION RESOLUTION Teaching
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Mo du le 1
Looking Back to the Past to Find Peace
Module 1
Looking Back to the Past to Find Peace
Tracing the roots of conflict In tracing the roots of conflict, highlight events that led to the discrimination of the Moros up to the so-called Moro and Christian conflict. Spanish colonial rule
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Just like their Christian brothers, the Moros resisted Spanish colonial rule. To deceive and discriminate the Moros, the Spaniards portrayed them as uneducated, barbarians, bandits, and juramentados.
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The “juramentado” should be explained in its proper historical context: that of a freedom fighter against colonialism. The “juramentado” label continued even during the American colonial regime. And it was because of the “juramentado” that the Americans invented the .45 caliber pistol which kills a “juramentado” with just one shot.
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The Spanish colonial regime branded all those who revolted against their rule as bandits, including Christians in Luzon and Visayas.
American colonial rule
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The Moros resisted against American colonial rule. The Moros were portrayed as “savages” just like how Americans portrayed the American Indians.
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Those who resisted American colonial rule were also portrayed as bandits.
The Filipino “colonial” rule
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The Moros continued to suffer even when the Americans passed on to Filipinos the rule and administration of the Philippines. The socioeconomic welfare of the Moros were neglected. Poverty and neglect of the national government
Teaching PEACE, HUMAN RIGHTS and CONFLICT RESOLUTION
became the bases for the Moro people to continue their struggle for autonomy and independence. It was in the 70’s when this struggle for autonomy became a struggle for secession.
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The Marcos regime militarized Mindanao and poured thousands of soldiers in Moro areas to quell the secessionist rebellion. The military also organized Christian paramilitary groups to battle the Moro rebels. Thus, the so-called Moro-Christian conflict came into existence as the military, which were composed mainly of Christians, and the Christian paramilitary groups terrorized Moro communities. The war in Mindanao in the 70’s fueled the MoroChristian conflict, which continued on to the next generations.
Moving forward to the future
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It would also help if the participants are informed that many Christians opposed the war in Mindanao during the 70’s. Many Christians also opposed the war unleashed during the Estrada administration and the current dispensation. In fact, many Christians in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao pooled their resources to help the displaced residents in the war-affected areas.
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In knowing and understanding the history of the peoples of Mindanao, it could be gleaned that there were events that caused the discrimination of Moros and the institutionalization of the so-called Moro-Christian conflict.
Synthesis and feedback for the series and lecture •
What are your thoughts and feelings about Mindanao’s history after the discussion?
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End with a prayer for peace.
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Mo du le 1
Looking Back to the Past to Find Peace
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Module 2 PERSONAL PEACE
Objectives: At the end of the session, the participants should have: 1. expressed their own definition of peace, and 2. an understanding of the four components of personal peace.
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Personal Peace
Pre-Activity IN THE MOOD FOR PEACE
Module 2
Objective: To help prepare participants for the main activity by relaxing them and having them think of peace.
Materials: Soft, quiet music (preferably instrumental, or with chanting/humming, nature sounds are also recommended), tape or cd player
Duration:
10 minutes
Procedure: 1. Dim the lights and play the music. 2. Ask participants to walk around softly, find a space in the room in which they feel most comfortable, and to stand, sit, or lay down in their most comfortable position. 3. When they have settled down, instruct them to close their eyes and stay put for a few seconds. Have them breathe in and out five times, and to focus on their breathing through the nose, lungs, and then back out again each time. 4. Then have them think back and reflect about the following:
!
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When are the times that you are most at peace?
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When were you not at peace? During these times, what restored your peace?
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What does peace mean to you?
Note to facilitator: Pause for 2-3 minutes between questions to give them time to think and reflect.
5. Ask them to hold on to these images and thoughts. They are to draw on them for ideas, inspiration and strength all throughout the training. Have them breathe in and out five times. 6. Slowly turn down the volume of the music and turn the lights back on.
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Personal Peace
Activity PEACE BALLS
Mo du le 2
Objective: To draw from the participant's experiences their own understanding of peace and to introduce the four components of personal peace.
Materials: Circles (5 inches in diameter or about the size of a saucer) cut from white/yellow cartolina (prepare about 5 pieces per participant), marking pens, large illustration of a wok/kawali, and 8 pieces of 3 foot by half inch strips of black cartolina
Duration:
30 minutes
Procedure: 1. Distribute circle cut-outs and marking pens to participants. Post the illustration of the kawali and strips of black cartolina on the board or wall. 2. Ask them to write down as many ideas as they can think of which will complete the following sentence: I have peace when _____________________ (only one sentence/phrase per circle). Remind them to draw on their thoughts and experiences from the previous activity. When they are done they may go to the board and stick them onto the kawali. 3. When everyone is done, let them take a look at all the peace balls. Are there any similarities? Can they be grouped together? 4. For those balls which can be clustered together, have volunteers take them out of the kawali and stick them onto the "barbecue sticks" (strips of black cartolina).
Processing: 1. How did you feel about the exercise?
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Personal Peace
2. For the peace balls on sticks, what are the similarities? Why have you clustered them together? What is the common theme?
Module 2
3. Are there any left over peace balls in the kawali? Why do you think these notions of peace are unique or unusual? 4. Is there any group/cluster of peace balls which you think is more important than all the rest? Why or why not?
Learning Points
1. Everyone has a notion of peace. Each person has his/her own experience and understanding of it. Some ideas are common to many, while others are more particular to certain individuals. 2. There are four components of personal peace. Peace with the self, with others, with nature and with God. 3. All the different components of peace are important and interrelated. You cannot have peace if there is a problem or difficulty with one component. 4. Peace is shared. It is communal. One's peace is dependent on the peace of others. One cannot be at peace if those around him are not. Therefore, working for one's own peace demands working for that of others.
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Personal Peace
LECTURE
Mo du le 2
The four components of personal peace Personal peace has four components which are interrelated. This means that they are not entirely separate from one another. Achieving harmony in one component is related to the other components. This also means that we cannot attain complete personal peace until concerns relating to all four areas are addressed. The four components of peace are: 1. Harmony with the Self. This is related to an individual’s physical, emotional, psychological and mental health. People feel at peace when they are physically healthy and well — when their basic needs are met, when they are able to sleep soundly and when they have had physical exercise. This, of course, is related to financial stability, as one’s ability to meet his basic needs are dependent upon one’s economic status. Emotional, psychological and mental health pertains to a sense of well-being and happiness. It is when a person harbors no worries, fears and hatred in one’s heart, feels safe and secure, is confident of oneself, feels accepted and valued by others, is able to accomplish one’s plans, and has a clear conscience. This translates to a feeling of calmness and relaxation, and allows a person to be comfortable with and by himself. 2. Harmony with Others. To the Filipino, there is no Other. Everyone is potentially kapwa— one with whom one has a shared identity. This is why this particular component is very salient to Filipinos. The family, co-workers, neighbors, friends and fellow countrymen all figure in a Filipino’s sense of
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Personal Peace
personal peace. One’s own peace is very much tied to the peace of one’s kapwa.
Module 2
When one is with one’s family, when the family is together, safe, healthy, cooperative, understanding and loving, there is peace. When one feels that one is able to provide and serve one’s family, and that the family is, in turn, supportive of one’s endeavors, there is peace. Peace can also be attained by sharing one’s talents to others, making another person happy, and helping others. At work, this is expressed in one’s commitment to fulfill one’s responsibilities, and not only to complete one’s given obligations but to do them well. Among friends, co-workers and neighbors, there is peace to be found when they are contented and happy, and when there is respect and understanding among them. It is when one has not inflicted pain of any kind to any one, when even the unlovable is loved, when there is reconciliation and forgiveness, and when one has done something good for others. The contentment and happiness of society is recognized to be connected to social and political realities. It can only be achieved when there is economic progress, when there is no war, no discrimination and oppression, and when people work together as one country, and as citizens of one world. In Mindanao, particularly important is the harmony between Christians and Muslims, and stopping militarization. 3. Harmony with Nature. This particular component is often overlooked. People do not consciously think of their relationship with nature as having an effect on their personal peace. However, it is evident that a peaceful and healthy environment is crucial to our sense of harmony and peace. Violence on the environment, in the form of pollution, excessive logging, fishing and mining, etc., also transmits violence unto human beings through illness, natural disasters, disruption or destruction of livelihood, and poorer living environments.
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Teaching Teaching PEACE, PEACE, HUMAN HUMAN RIGHTS RIGHTS and and CONFLICT CONFLICT RESOLUTION RESOLUTION
Personal Peace
Mo du le 2
One cannot have a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction when one is apathetic to the destruction of the environment, or when villagers fall ill because of the pollution of rivers from one’s mining operations. If people continue to live out of harmony with nature, the world will turn into an environment too harsh for human beings to live in. The Filipino need only rekindle his ancestor’s respect for all creation and to once again learn to treat them as brothers and sisters in order to restore his harmonious relationship with nature. 4. Harmony with God. Being a strongly religious culture, a strong relationship with the Creator is essential to the Filipino’s sense of peace. Many perceive that there can be peace despite difficult and worrisome circumstances when one is in the presence of God. Being able to talk to God through prayer, to confide one’s troubles and to give thanks for one’s blessings can grant strength and peace to a person. Thus, the church or mosque, as a holy place of worship where one can commune with God and with other brothers and sisters in the faith, is a place where one can take refuge from a conflit-filled world and find peace. For many people, harmony with God is the foundation of peace, as God is love, and it is love and compassion which will bring us to a better relationship with ourselves, others and the environment. It also gives people the strength and hope to continue striving for personal peace throughout life, although this can never be achieved completely and perfectly. The four components of personal peace illustrate that one’s sense of peace is not detached from that of others and the rest of the world. Peace begins with oneself, but must be extended to and include others, and should be founded basically on love and respect for all creatures and human beings. Achieving personal peace is a difficult task, but it can be made easier when one works together with others.
Teaching Teaching PEACE PEACE and and HUMAN HUMAN RIGHTS RIGHTS and and CONFLICT CONFLICT RESOLUTION RESOLUTION
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Personal Peace
Activity
Module 2
STICK ART
Objective: To have participants expound on the four components of personal peace and to have an appreciation for working together on peace.
Materials: Barbecue sticks, matchsticks and walis tingting, black cartolina or used illustration board (black side clean), white glue. Optional: colored pentel pens or paint, glitter
Duration:
1 hour
Procedure: 1. Divide the participants into four groups, and assign one component of personal peace to each group. 2. Give them the following instructions: a. Think about your topic. Discuss what it means to you as a group. How can you say that you have this kind of peace? b. Conceptualize a picture which will answer the question above. 3. Distribute the materials. Ask the participants to create the picture using the materials given. 4. Provide 40 minutes for making the picture. 5. When all groups are done, ask them to hang their picture on the walls around the venue and assign a spokesperson for the group. The spokesperson task is to explain the group's picture and answer any questions from the viewers. 6. Gallery viewing. The entire group of participants will go around the "museum" to look at the exhibited artworks. When the entire group stops at a particular piece of art, the assigned spokesperson for the group which produced it will step
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forward to introduce the group/artists, to discuss their art, and to invite questions from the viewers. Afterwards, they will proceed to the next piece of art and the assigned spokesperson for that group takes over and so on.
!
Mo du le 2
7. At the end of the gallery viewing, ask the artists to take down their artwork and to post it on one wall so that it becomes a picture/mural. They may discuss how to arrange it with consideration to aesthetics and concept.
Note to facilitator: If there is time, they may be given the opportunity to add to their work so that it becomes a unified whole.
Processing: 1. How did you feel about the activity? 2. What was it like working in a group on a work of art? Did you work smoothly? Were there any problems? 3. How did you feel about the work of the other artists? 4. How is working for peace similar to working on art?
Learning Points 1. The four components of personal peace are each important to attain, but they must be attained together to complete our picture/experience of personal peace. 2. Peace is communal. It is something that must be worked at together. One's peace is not separate from that of others. When there is social injustice and unrest, when other people are at war, one cannot be at peace. 3. Working together for peace is like working together on a piece of art:
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Module 2
Personal Peace
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•
There are different ideas and means, but what is important is a common vision and goal.
•
Each person is important, and must have a hand in the entire process.
•
Other people may not always understand what you are doing but it is important to be able to communicate effectively: to listen and to express.
Teaching PEACE, HUMAN RIGHTS and CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Module 3 NAT U R E A N D P E A C E
Objectives: To have: 1. an understanding of the connection between the natural environment and peace, 2. an appreciation for the four laws of ecology, and 3. a commitment to helping protect the environment.
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Pre-Activity MOVEMENT AND SOUND EXERCISE Objective:
Module 3
To help prepare participants for the main activity by loosening them up.
Materials: Pieces of paper with various elements of ecosystems written on them (one on each piece; see appendix A for examples); box or any container
Duration:
10 minutes
Procedure: 1. Ask each participant to pick out a piece of paper from a box. (As an alternative, you may stick them under the chairs or in various places around the training venue.) 2. Ask the participants to silently read what is written and think about him/herself as being this element. 3. Have the participants act out their character through movement and sound. Invite them to be creative in their movement and sound: “If you could hear a tree what would it sound like? If you could envision it, what would a dancing worm look like?” Encourage them to play with movement: it can be rapid or slow, high or low, smooth or choppy. Sound can have varying volume, pitch, and rhythm. 4. Encourage the participants to guess what the other is acting out. Then, invite them to interact with each other.
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Activity WEB OF LIFE Objective: To help participants understand the connection between natural environment and peace, and to help them appreciate the four laws of ecology.
Mo du le 3
Materials: Ball of string/yarn Duration:
20-40 minutes, depending on number of participants
Procedure: 1. Give the ball of string to one participant and ask him/her to introduce what element he/she is and describe what he/she can do. 2. The participant then throws the ball of string to any other participant while holding on to the end of the string. There should now be a string connecting the two participants. The holder of the ball will then proceed to describe what he/she is, BUT must also describe how he/she is connected to the previous element. The connection or relatedness may be about a similarity, something shared, a common factor affecting both of them, cause and effect, etc. 3. The participant will then throw the ball of string to another participant, while holding on to part of the string, making sure that the line connecting him/her to the other remains taut. The third participant will also describe what he/she is AND also explain how he/she is connected to the previous participants. 4. Proceed until all participants have been able to speak. As the game goes on, the participants should try to describe as many connections to the previous speakers (elements) as possible. 5. After each one has spoken, ask them to focus on the web they have made. How do they feel about it? Was their task
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easy? How would they describe themselves and the web they are in? What are their thoughts and insights about the activity? 6. Ask one person to pull on his/her string gently and observe what happens. Ask this same person to jerk on the string violently and see what happens. Then ask everyone to pull on their strings together. What happens? How are they affected?
Module 3
7. Randomly select one participant to let go of his/her string. What happens to the web? How do they feel about it? Can anything be done to restore the web? 8. Get a pair of scissors and cut the string. What happens to the web? Can anything be done to restore the web?
Learning Points 1. Initially, it may be hard to think of how one is connected to the other, but as the game progresses, it becomes easier to see how everything can be related to one another. We are all kapwa nilalang (fellow creatures of God). 2. Each affects the other. When one strains/pulls, the others immediately connected are most affected, but ripples are made in the entire web as all other members adjust with the strain. When the strain is too great, others are unable to adjust and will be violently affected. When everyone pulls, the strain threatens to break the web. When one member lets go, the web collapses. 3. In a state of equilibrium, where the strain on the web is equal on all sides, there is peace — all are able to live harmoniously with each other. But, when there is an imbalance, when resources are strained, when one is removed from the web, or when an external stress occurs, the equilibrium is threatened and others may be violently affected. Recall the previous discussions on development agression. Extreme demands on nature disrupts the equilibrium.
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Alternative Activity NOAH’S ARK IS SINKING
!
Note to Facilitator:
Mo du le 3
This activity has the same objectives as the previous activity. It is more appropriate when there is little time. However, note that the depth of insights and learnings may be affected. Thus, more evocative questions should be asked during processing.
Objective: To help participants understand the connection between the natural environment and peace, and to help them appreciate the four laws of ecology.
Materials: Masking tape Duration:
10-25 minutes, depending on number of participants
Procedure: 1. Tape the participants’ paper with their element written on it (taken from the pre-activity) on their chests. 2. Explain that the game is a modified version of “The Boat is Sinking.” The facilitator will call out, “Noah’s ark is sinking, group yourself into ___ (any number,)” and the participants should then group themselves according to the specified number, with the condition that they should have a relationship or connection with at least one other member in the group. The facilitator will then check each group. Whoever is left out, or is incorrect, will have to be removed from the game.
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3. Have a trial run. If everything goes smoothly, proceed with the game. Have about four rounds. 4. On the fifth round, the facilitator announces that because it’s the last round, everyone should join. The facilitator then calls out, “Noah’s ark is sinking!! Group yourselves into (total number of participants, plus facilitator).”
Processing:
Module 3
1. Who is Noah? What task was he asked to do? 2. If Noah’s boat did start to sink, what would be the benefit of following the instruction we have in the game (grouping so that one is related in some way to at least one other in the group)? 3. How was the activity? Did you find it easy to do? Difficult? Why? Was it fun/frustrating? Why? 4. What happened as some of the participants were removed from the game? 5. What did you learn/observe in the activity?
Learning Points 1. All elements are indeed related to one another. It is a little difficult thinking about it at first, but as the game progresses, it becomes easier. It is harder to do when we are asked to group in small numbers. This is a reflection of the real condition of an ecosystem — it is composed of many elements all working and living together. 2. The loss of one has a great impact on the others. As there are less and less participants, it becomes harder to form a group. This is especially so when it is an element which is related to a lot of others (like air, or water) that is removed, or when it is an element that is often paired or grouped with another (say, monkey, often paired with the monkey-eating eagle). The tendency is for those closely related to these elements to also be removed from the game.
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LECTURE Changing views of the environment Duration:
30 minutes
Mo du le 3
Three views of the earth There are three views of the earth: 1. Paleolithic view: states that the earth is nature’s world. Human beings are dependent on nature’s bounties for their survival. This was a time of hunters and gatherers who had no means to produce more reliable sources of food. Even when technology for domestication of plants and animals was developed, human beings continued to fear and respect nature by appeasing the spirits. 2. Neolithic view: is characterized by the theme of “taming the wilderness.” Human beings began to use nature’s resources, harnessing its power for their own end, without regard for its repercussions on the ecosystem. Development and progress bulldozed their way through forests, mountains and seas. 3. 20th Century view: proposes that early ecosystems must be maintained in ecological balance. Human beings should be more conscious of how their actions can upset the ecological balance and should therefore be more responsible in their pursuit of development. Sustainable development is now the more correct goal. It simply means making sure that this generation meets its needs without compromising those of the coming generations. Traditionally, Filipinos have a more Paleolithic view of nature, believing that nature’s creatures have spirits and humans must therefore ask their permission, care for them, and if need be, appease them as they go through life dependent on nature’s gifts. Fishermen and farmers give offerings to
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the land and the sea. In urban Metro Manila, residents will refuse to chop down an old tree believed to be inhabited by spirits. Filipinos believe themselves to be part of a larger collective, a larger community, which includes all of nature’s creatures. We are not above them, but are one of them, and thus afford them the respect we give our brothers or sisters. The four laws of ecology
Module 3
This kind of perspective about nature makes us more open to more earth-friendly practices which are borne of a belief in the four laws of ecology as outlined by Barry Commoner (1971). The four laws are: 1. Everything is connected to everything else. As we have earlier seen, no element is superior or more necessary than the rest. Because everything is connected to everything else, changes in one element (increased population of a certain species, pollution of the air, extinction of a particular kind of insect, etc.) will affect the others. 2. Everything must go somewhere. Garbage and other waste materials do not disappear when we throw them into the waste bin, nor when the garbage collector collects them, nor when we burn them or wash them down the drain. They go somewhere and then create ripples and affect the ecosystem there. If not handled properly, garbage will turn into poison, chlorofluorocarbons will go into the atmosphere and destroy the ozone layer, and mine tailings will kill rivers, and these events affect other living organisms in turn. 3. Nature knows best. Nature can and does adjust to the demands to its resources. It can replenish forests, can increase the population of any species near extinction, and can clean up the air and recover from water pollution. However, it cannot make changes as fast as human beings have been demanding it to. 4. There is no such thing as a free lunch. This is the complement of the second law. Nothing we take from nature comes from nothing. There is always a cost for everything we gain from nature’s bounties. The cost must be paid —— the supply of trees is not infinite, and clean water cannot be replaced with polluted water.
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Nature and Peace
Activity WATER CEREMONY Objective: To give participants an opportunity to express their commitment to helping the environment.
Mo du le 3
Materials: Small glasses (number of glasses should be equal to the number of participants including facilitator) filled with water, a large container enough for all the water in the small glasses
Duration:
10 - 20 minutes, depending on number of participants
Procedure: 1. Give each participant a glass of water, and have them stand in a circle, with the large container as the center. 2. Have each participant think silently of his/her learnings for the day, especially about how each is connected to the other, and how we must all work together for peace and harmony among all living creatures. Let them think about what they can do to help the environment. Give a minute of silence for this. 3. Explain that the water they each hold is a symbol of themselves, their resources, their strengths, their impurities/weaknesses. They will each think of at least one of their strengths/capacities and say how they will use it to better the environment. After one person shares with the group, s/he pours his/her water into the large container in the center, and place the small glass beside it. Another person goes next. 4. When everyone is done, explain that the small bit of water that they each had, in small, separate glasses, can do very little. But together, as one, there is power. They can harness this power, and use it to nurture, to give life, or they can use it for destruction. Also, water that has been put together,
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Nature and Peace
Module 3
can never be taken apart — who knows which water is whose anymore? Our commitment to do good for the environment is something we make with others, which we cannot take back. The good that we commit to do, the resources that we put in, we put in a pool from which we can draw. We are each bound to each other by our pledges, and we are each to benefit from the good we have promised to do.
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Note to facilitator: If possible, this ceremony should be held outdoors, where there may be plants or trees to benefit from the water. It can be a concrete demonstration of how their commitment and combined effort can benefit the environment.
Teaching PEACE, HUMAN RIGHTS and CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Module 4 STRUCTURAL VIOLENCE
Objectives: 1. To define structural violence. 2. To identify the roots and forms of structural violence. 3. To enumerate factors that contribute to structural violence. 4. To identify and explain the impacts of structural violence. 5. To identify ways to counter the effects of structural violence in promoting peace.
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Structural Violence
ACTIVITY SERIES 1
Objectives 1. To identify and enumerate individual capacities and characteristics. 2. To appreciate the uniqueness of individuals and diversity.
Module 4
Duration: 8 minutes
Activity MAGALING AKO!
Procedure: 1. Instruct the participants to form three teams, each forming a circle. (If group is small, form only one circle.) 2. The facilitator calls for a volunteer 'IT' in each team to initiate the game. 3. Simultaneously, all ITs stand at the center of their team and starts naming five things s/he is especially good at (which can be of personal or social relevance). The IT should be able to mime the action to “physicalize” the qualities. 4. Then s/he calls on any participant in the team to be the next IT. 5. Repeat until all have shared what they are especially good at. 6. Plenary discussion follows.
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Activity AKO AY AKO, IKAW AY IKAW
Procedure: 1. In a circle, the facilitator teaches the interactive action-song.
Mo du le 4
Ako ay ako Ikaw ay ikaw Hindi tayo magkapareho Magkaiba tayo. Maganda ang baba mo Maganda rin ang baba ko Ang baba ay hindi sukatan ng katauhan. 2. Everybody sings for 2-3 rounds. 3. The facilitator will lead the participants in analyzing the lyrics of the song. Be sure to relate it to the previous exercise.
Synthesis Points: •
All individuals are unique creations.
•
Uniqueness is a core property of our individuality and the diversity of people in society.
•
D.I.V.E.R.S.I.T.Y. = Different Individuals Valuing Each other Regardless of Skin, Intellect, Talents and Years
•
But instead of appreciating uniqueness and diversity, people tend to compare and excessively focus on and magnify the differences. Rather than accounting the similarities to bridge the gap, spotting differences overly have set people and groups of people widely apart.
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Structural Violence
ACTIVITY SERIES 2
Objectives 1. To identify how being centered-on-differences creates sociopolitical-economic-cultural dichotomization/divide/ polarization. 2. To enumerate various polar divisions in society.
Module 4
Duration:
8 minutes
Activity PUSHING THE WALL
Procedure: 1. Ask the participants to form two equal teams and arrange themselves in a column formation. 2. Instruct them to face their opponent and put their palms together. 3. When facilitator shouts 'Go!' opponent members will push each other. 4. The one that is pushed back (loses balance) loses the game and one who remains in position wins.
AltenativeGame Tu g - o f - W a r
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Human Rights
Activity ANTONYMS
Procedure 1. Ask the participants to form pairs and assign themselves as A and B. 2. A shouts an adjective for which B gives the opposite. 3. Then B shouts an adjective for which A gives the opposite. 4. No repetition of the same adjective is allowed. 5. Repeat until the facilitator calls for a stop.
Mo du le 4
Synthesis Points: •
We are conditioned to think in terms of binary opposites for every word, there is a corresponding opposite (e.g., good - bad, white - black, rich - poor, male - female, young - old, ruler - follower, strong - weak, powerful - powerless, superior - inferior, etc.). We tend to ignore the variance between these two polar ends, i.e., between black and white is a wide range of colors, that between happy and sad is an array of different emotions. Society imposes this EITHER/ OR mode of thinking on all of us.
•
Such dichotomization/polarization breeds power differential (inequalities in power) and results in the divide into the powerful and the powerless.
•
Discrimination and inequality manifest in different forms (race/ethnicity, age, socio-political-economic class, gender, international status, religion/faith).
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Structural Violence
Activity KARAHASAN O KAAPIHANG T U W I R A N AT D I - T U W I R A N Objectives 1. To enumerate different forms of violence in society. 2. To define structural violence. 3. To identify manifestations of structural violence. 4. To relate structural violence to the structures of power.
Module 4
Duration:
10 minutes
Procedure: 1. Participants will be grouped into three teams, each given a set of meta cards and markers. 2. Tell each team that they are tasked to write down forms of violence in society, one form per meta card. 3. The meta cards are posted on the board. The facilitator will categorize the cards into direct and indirect forms of violence. 4. The facilitator leads the input-discussion of forms of violence in society towards the definition and understanding of structural violence and its forms.
Synthesis Points:
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•
The term VIOLENCE is usually associated with harm, hurt, exploitation, abuse, threat, intimidation, oppression, killing and death.
•
Violence can manifest in different forms: physical (hitting, kicking, stabbing, etc.) , psychological (threats, put-downs, humiliation, discouragement, etc.), verbal (cuss words, shouting, labeling, etc), economic (denial of support, deprivation) etc.
•
There are two categories of violence: direct and indirect.
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Direct Violence refers to violence with easily recognizable and measurable cause and effect, and whose perpetrators are quite identifiable. Agents of direct violence can be personal (as in cases of murder, rape, assault, brutality, terrorism, ethnic cleansing) or institutional (as in cases of war, state-sponsored terror, industrial destruction of plant and animal life).
•
On the other hand, Indirect Violence is hard to recognize and measure, largely invisible and structured within society such that identifying the perpetrator would be quite difficult. There is no specific person to blame. Agents of indirect violence are structural (as in cases of sexism, racism, discrimination/prejudice, poverty, hunger, and lack of education and health services).
•
Structural violence - is built within the structures of society. That is why people may think and accept that it is normal or even necessary. They may even be unaware it exists.
•
Structural violence manifests itself in inequalities within society.
•
Structural violence feeds on the inequalities and hierarchy of power.
•
Power need not be physical but it can be ideological, economic, etc. While early history reveals a strong valuing of physical or military might, today's concept of power has tremendously evolved. In terms of money, the dollar has been very powerful over other currencies such as Philippine pesos (hence, the peso devaluation). Patenting is another example of non-physical power.
Teaching PEACE and HUMAN RIGHTS and CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Mo du le 4
•
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Activity MAHIKANG PALAD (HAND HYPNOSIS)
Objectives: To explain how structural violence works through political subordination and power hierarchy
Duration:
20 minutes
Module 4
Procedure: 1. Tell the participants to form pairs and decide between them who will be the hypnotist and the client. 2. The hypnotist places his/her right palm in front of the face of the client (at least six inches away). 3. The hypnostist will move the palm (up or down, right or left, forward or backward), the client must follow as if his/her face is fixed to the palm. 4. The facilitator will lead the discussion as participants share their experience.
Synthesis Points:
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•
Individuals can be victims of structural violence like women, children, elderly, Moros, and Christians and whole countries as well particularly poor countries. We ourselves maybe victims of structural violence.
•
We can say that children are structurally oppressed in most societies in the world since adult-role sets the order for the young. Although this may be changing now with the growing consciousness on children's rights and child participation.
•
In mostly macho societies, women are structurally oppressed together with other sexual minorities (gays, lesbians,
Teaching PEACE, HUMAN RIGHTS and CONFLICT RESOLUTION
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bisexuals, transgendered) as compared with men. The continuing and growing struggle among women and sexual minorities to defend their rights is a clear effort to tilt the balance.
•
Culture has become an instrument of structural violence. Certain cultural codes/norms have placed individuals or groups of people in lower status below other groups of people. (Note: In the succeeding modules, we will find out how culture can be used as instrument of value transformation.)
•
Some people capitalize on their strengths and take advantage of the weaknesses and vulnerability of others.
•
Structural violence can also produce internalized disempowerment among the oppressed as political subordination can create blind trust/obedience.
Mo du le 4
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ACTIVITY SERIES 3 Objectives 1. To explain how economic centralization (and its resulting marginalization/disenfranchisement/neglect/deprivation) constitutes a structural violence. 2. To relate structural violence with local development budget and pork barrel.
Module 4
Duration:
25 minutes
Activity S I N O ' N G S I K AT ? Procedure: 1. Colored papers (at least three colors) are randomly distributed one to each participant. 2. Instruct the paticipants to fold their paper in half. 3. On the left part they will write their names. The right side must be kept blank. 4. Instruct the participants to detach the left part (with the name) and put it in a small box held by the facilitator. 5. While holding on to the rest of the paper, the participants will move around the area in random. 6. The facilitator shouts: 'Sinong Sikat?' 7. All the participants will shout back: 'Sino nga ba?' 8. Facilitator draws out a paper from the box and reads the name. 9. The person called becomes the celebrity and all participants bearing the same color should surround him/her while keeping the other participants in the margins. 10. Repeat step 5 - 9 several times. 11.The facilitator will lead the participants in discussing and analyzing their experience in a plenary.
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Activity NASAAN ANG KAUNLARAN SA MAPA? Procedure:
Mo du le 4
1. Using the map of the Philippines as reference, the facilitator divides the space into 3 parts: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. 2. Facilitator asks participants to move into the island where they think development is most concentrated among the three. 3. When positioned, participants are asked to name as many markers of development (e.g., Luzon - Skyway, MRT, etc.). 4. Then facilitator asks participants to concentrate on a particular island and to position themselves in a province where development in most concentrated. Again, participants are asked to give examples of development. 5. Then facilitator asks participants to concentrate on a particular province and to position themselves in a municipality/city where they think development is most concentrated. Again, participants justify their answer by giving examples of development. 6. Facilitator can present data on congressional pork barrel or development fund in the regions for review. Participants can interpret data and correlate it with their finding from the mapping exercise. 7. Discussion and analysis of experience follows.
Synthesis Points: • •
•
•
Development is usually associated with booming economic activity, higher incomes, mushrooming of infrastructures, increased tourism revenues and massive industrialization. Because development is highly centralized, central areas are more privileged than others. The term “central” may not necessarily refer to geographical centers but more aptly to the locus of power. Thus, a wide discrepancy in levels of development between urban centers and remote rural villages. Discounting the rampant graft and corruption in congressional pork barrels, a comparison of development budgets of various cities and municipalities in the country would reveal structural bias in favor of metro cities. The poorest among the poor areas in the Philippines are largely in Mindanao.
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Activity EVOLUTION GAME (a.k.a. 'hanggang diyan ka na lang forever and ever!')
Objectives 1. To explain how structural violence breeds a false consciousness of disempowerment. 2. To relate structural violence with social mobility.
Module 4
Duration:
10 minutes
Procedure: 1. The facilitator introduces the game by asking participants what they know about Dr. Charles Darwin and his theory. 2. Instruct the participants that there will be 4 stages in the game, namely: cockroach stage, bird stage, monkey stage, and finally the human stage. 3. Instruct the participants to agree on an action and sound effect for every stage. 4. At the shout of 'Go!' by the facilitator, the participants will move around the area using the action and sound for the first stage and look for a partner. 5. The partners play jac-en-poy using one of three hand-codes: scissors, paper, stone. Scissors wins over paper, paper over stone, and stone over scissors. 6. Participants who win the jac-en-poy go to the next stage, move around using the bird action and sound and look for fellow birds for another round of jac-en-poy. 7. The participants always go back to the cockroach stage whenever they lose at jack-en-poy at any particular stage.
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8. Once a participant makes it to the human stage, he/she will sit down. 9. Discussion and analysis of the exercise follows.
Synthesis Points: Structural violence puts people into tightly-controlled systemcreated boxes and makes it difficult for people to change boxes. That is, in order to maintain order, and hence, protect the structure. Thus, it creates stereotypes of people while stigmatizing the lower of the ranks.
•
Structural violence makes social mobility difficult since a change in position disarrays the structure.
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•
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Activity GUESS WHO THE LEADER IS Objectives 1. To identify ways by which structural violence preserves the status quo or existing dominant order. 2. To explain how dominant forces use structural violence to their advantage.
Duration:
10 minutes
Module 4
Procedure: 1. Tell the participants to stand in a circle. Ask for a volunteer to play IT. 2. Ask the IT to go outside the room. 3. The remaining participants choose a leader among themselves. 4. Instruct the leader to lead the group in a simple action, e.g. tapping the right foot. Members must imitate the action inconspicuously. 5. The IT is asked to go inside the circle and is tasked to identify the leader of the action. 6. The leader must constantly change his/her action while the rest of the team follows. 7. The volunteer can make only three guesses. 8. Repeat the game a few times. 9. Discussion of exercise follows.
Synthesis Points:
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•
Structural violence thrives when culture preserves it.
•
It employs propaganda to condition the minds of people that the way (or the only way) to order and peace is to follow the rule of the dominant force.
•
It survives by punishing opposition, suppressing struggles and rewarding the collaborators.
Teaching PEACE, HUMAN RIGHTS and CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Structural Violence
Activity TENSYON NI ALING GLONG BALISA
Objectives 1. To define Globalization. 2. To identify how globalization impacts on society and contributes to structural violence.
Duration:
25 minutes
Mo du le 4
Procedure: 1. The facilitator makes a short introduction about globalization by asking participants about their favorites: food, movie, actor, shoes, etc. The facilitator may probe deeper by asking where the product comes from. Then facilitator points out how the world has become one global village as manifested in the products we consume. 2. The participants will form a circle and are asked to give ten words ending in -SYON (Filipino) or -TION (English) that are related to globalization. (e.g. , privatization, deregulation, konsumisyon, collision, contractualization, etc.) 3. The facilitator writes down the words on meta cards while participants verbalize them. 4. instruct the participants to form small groups. 5. Each team is given a set of meta cards bearing the words ending in -SYON or -TION. 6. The teams are tasked to share, discuss and later, report about how these words are interrelated with each other and to globalization. 7. After the group reporting, the facilitator leads a brief discussion on the terms in order to understand globalization and its impacts (both local and global), and its relationship with structural violence.
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Synthesis Points:
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•
The unrest happening in Mindanao is not isolated with what is happening in other parts of the country, moreso with the rest of the world. This tension in Southern Philippines that produces so much konsumisyon to many of those directly and indirectly affected and that has pushed certain groups to a revolution is so connected with the issues of peso devaluation, the liberalization and deregulation of trade, the privatization of public services - all by-products of the socallled globalization.
•
Globalization is not something new. In fact, earlier contact of our ancestors with foreign explorers and traders is but a prototype of today's globalization. Imperialism, colonialism and globalization all belong to the same genre. But what differentiates today's globalization with that of the past is its rapid, uncontrollable nature as mediated by technology.
•
Economic globalization which consists of the flows of goods and services, capital and people across national borders has been rapidly changing the structures both in the global and local picture.
•
Globalization has dramatically linked countries in the world into one global village where giant corporations are even more powerful and controlling than some nation-states, thanks to liberalization, privatization, deregulation and the constant meddling of IMF-World Bank and GATT-WTO into affairs of states.
•
The so-called “MacDonaldization” and “Starbucksization” of the world have advocated neo-liberal capitalist values that further aggravates the situation for poor countries while enriching the already rich and developed countries. Thus, widening further the gap between poor and developed countries.
•
Neo-Liberalism is the philosophy of free market, believing that markets are far better than governments in the usage and allocation of limited resources.
•
Main Economic Policies of Neo-Liberal Globalization (Source: Fighting Back With Social Movement Unionism: A Handbook
Teaching PEACE, HUMAN RIGHTS and CONFLICT RESOLUTION
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for APL Activists, Alliance of Progressive Labor & Labor Education and Research Network, Manila/Quezon City, 2001): 1. Trade and capital liberalization = removal or elimination of controls such as tariffs (taxes on imported goods), quotas (amount or quantity of a certain product that can be imported), and other non-tariff barriers (quality of the products, sanitary regulations) on trade or capital investment 2. Deregulation = un-regulation; range of economic measures that a government is forced to implement to reduce its role as provider of services and promoter of social welfare, including: removal of subsidies
o
removal of price controls
o
reduction of direct taxes
o
removal of state regulation on business
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o
3. Privatization = selling of government-owned-andmanaged corporations to the private sectors; privatizing government work 4. Liberalization of Labor Market = government changing labor laws to allow more flexibility for capitalists to hire and fire labor, while at the same time restricting workers' trade union rights o
'War on Terrorism' has become a global commodity being sold by US and its allies.
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Alternative Activity FOUR MARCHING SOLDIERS Objectives 1. To define militarization. 2. To identify how militarization impacts on society and contributes to structural violence.
Duration:
25 minutes
Procedure:
Module 4
1. Ask for four volunteers who will act as "soldiers." The rest of the participants will act as "villagers." Each villager will choose a role to play, e.g., Barangay Captain, Health Worker, tanod, parent, farmer, child, tambay, etc. 2. The facilitator will tell the participants about the "situation:" The soldiers will "enter" the village. 3. The soldiers will talk and plan about the reasons why they will be entering the village and how they will go through with it. The villagers will talk and plan if they will allow the soldiers to enter or not. If not, how will they prevent the soldiers from entering? If they will agree to let them in, what are their conditions if they have any? Provide 5 minutes. 4. The facilitator will let the scenario play out and should encourage the group to improvise and keep the story going. The facilitator should take note of the decisions, responses, motivations, behavior and dynamics of the participants. 5. The story will end when the group feels it should end.
Feedback and synthesis The facilitator will ask the participants for feedback on what happened: i.
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What were the motivations of the soldiers and villagers?
Teaching PEACE, HUMAN RIGHTS and CONFLICT RESOLUTION
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Looking Back to the Past
What were their goals? Why did they act that way?
to Find Peace
ii. What were the participant's feelings, observations and thoughts about the activity? iii. Did the activity reflect actual events in your area?
Synthesis Points: MILITARIZATION is a process where a particular government gives inordinate emphasis on the armed forces or weaponry over political relations, economic development, or needoriented programs.
•
A look into the budget of the Philippine government would reveal higher priority to debt servicing and militarization over and above basic services such as education and health.
•
There are certain areas in the Philippines that are highly militarized - obviously characterized by strong military presence through camps, check points and military surveillance. Such areas are placed in a volatile situation since any moment fighting can ensue between government troops and rebel groups. Military encounters generally result in deaths among those exchanging fires and those caught in the crossfire. The collateral damage of war is primarily the lives of innocent civilians and their properties.
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•
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LECTURE GUIDE Militarization
Module 4
Use the discussion on the previous activity to start the lecture/ discussion. Ask the participants if there are many soldiers in their communities or areas. Ask them the purpose or purposes of the soldiers in their area. Did they notice if the number of soldiers are increasing or decreasing? In summing up what the participants have narrated; point out that the presence of many soldiers in their area is called MILITARIZATION. However, it is also best to point out that MILITARIZATION is not only confined in areas in Mindanao but also in many places in Luzon and Visayas, where there is armed conflict. (For example, Mindoro, Samar, Isabela, Bataan, Central Luzon, and Rizal.)
The concept of militarization The Arroyo administration continues to maintain the huge number of military and police personnel. In fact, it is increasing the number of soldiers. With the Balikatan Exercises, even US military troops are present in Mindanao. As of February 2003, there are around 700 US military personnel with the US government allocation US$7.3 million for the exercises. Like the Estrada administration, the Arroyo administration is unleashing the military to quell military the secessionist movement in Mindanao, thus, the continued MILITARIZATION of Mindanao. MILITARIZATION, as defined by the Notre Dame University Handbook on Peace Education, is a process where a particular government gives inordinate emphasis on the armed forces or weaponry over political relations, economic developments, or need-oriented programs.
Military budget vis-à-vis budget for social services Militarization does not only disrupt the lives of people in the area. The maintenance of huge military personnel, the purchase of high tech military wares affects government's delivery of social services to the Filipino people. This can be gleaned in government's priority in the national budget. For 2003, the military budget is pegged at P42,412,102, almost three times more than the proposed national health budget of P14.01 million. This is equivalent to about P0.40 per Filipino per day. Social Services is allocated with 2,051,093 equivalent to 0.25 per Filipino. (As of 2003 our population is at 81.1 million)
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READINGS Summary Table II-1Summary of Obligations and Proposed New Appropriations by Department, FY 2001-2003 (In thousand pesos)
OBLIGATIONS DEPARTMENTS
2003 Appropriations (Proposed)
2002 (Adjusted)
2003 (Proposed)
4,412,905 2,841,025 61,641 6,008,986 3,796,242 623,043 97,470,588 15,351,770 493,992
4,359,344 3,179,045 80,713 1,739,534 4,390,694 434,991 103,296,919 17,006,532 518,189
4,358,857 2,682,304 80,713 1,734,420 3,315,246 421,421 104,409,275 16,773,816 1,545,830
4,197,837 2,652,786 78,642 1,593,508 3,117,921 398,989 96,234,860 15,626,129 509,348
7,017,046
6,850,280
6,515,867
6,002,356
6,289,358 4,774,088 10,747,737 43,204,664 5,010,676 4,298,975 58,782,349 55,104,927 2,567,684
6,504,510 4,507,592 11,959,580 45,642,820 5,057,071 4,996,967 60,375,090 48,336,015 2,914,909
6,620,196 4,464,076 11,424,446 44,456,055 5,108,899 4,525,492 42,542,006 51,584,245 2,661,843
5,453,547 4,428,503 10,940,704 44,087,831 4,787,431 4,351,604 42,412,102 46,903,125 2,566,247
1,812,029
2,201,371
2,097,066
2,051,093
712,197 2,083,459
917,638 1,877,204
1,074,694 2,000,000
1,052,892 1,936,271
12,048,204
12,204,137
9,855,722
9,432,032
1,484,680
1,682,871
1,945,260
1,862,421
858,449 5,897,930 3,895 7,433,798 535,869 4,095,042 4,414,891 436,681 208,315 5,617,391 376,500,526
847,337 5,485,087 3,000 7,651,214 520,279 3,980,329 2,879,516 481,517 210,676 5,402,456 378,495,427
809,175 4,254,258 2,000 7,611,626 503,734 3,951,696 1,854,951 476,623 210,066 5,585,397 357,457,275
767,409 3,244,542 2,000 7,145,520 471,736 3,651,271 1,767,666 453,239 196,868 5,246,252 335,624,682
Teaching Teaching PEACE PEACE and and HUMAN HUMAN RIGHTS RIGHTS and and CONFLICT CONFLICT RESOLUTION RESOLUTION
Mo du le 4
Congress of the Philippines Office of the President Office of the Vice President Agrarian Reform Agriculture Budget and Management Education State Universities and Colleges Energy Environment and Natural Resources Finance Foreign Affairs Health Interior and Local Government Justice Labor and Employment National Defense Public Works and Highways Science and Technology Social Welfare and Development Tourism Trade and Industry Transportation and Communication National Economic and Development Authority Office of the Press Secretary Other Executive Offices Joint Executive-Legislative Council The Judiciary Civil Service Commission Commission on Audit Commission on Elections Office of the Ombudsman Commission on Human Rights Autonomous Regions GRAND TOTAL
2001 (Actual)
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Structural Violence
Activity SUMMING UP Objectives: To summarize the key points Procedure: Facilitator gives a recap of key points in the module.
Module 4
Synthesis Points:
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•
Addressing both direct and indirect violence is necessary in peace-building.
•
We should be aware of structural violence because it breeds unhappiness, discontent, conflicts, unrest, violence, and consequently, peacelessness.
•
The experience of Moros where they were dispossessed of their ancestral lands and denied their political and economic freedom and the opportunity to human development are examples of structural violence. All these have contributed to the tension in Mindanao.
•
Christians in Mindanao also suffer from structural violence particularly because the Philippine government has ignored the development of Mindanao for the longest time and have concentrated its development projects in Luzon.
•
The political unrest and struggles in Mindanao are symptomatic of the grave effects of structural violence in Philippine society.
•
Addressing structural violence such as poverty can pave the way to peace-building in Mindanao and other parts of the country.
•
The battle against structural violence is multi-layered: on the personal, family, community, national, etc. levels.
Teaching PEACE, HUMAN RIGHTS and CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Module 5 HUMAN RIGHTS
Objectives: 1. To appreciate our basic human rights. 2. To explore the relationship between pakikipagkapwa and human rights. 3. To explore the rights of marginalized groups.
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Human Rights
Session 1 K A R A PATA N G PA N TAO B I LA N G PA G PAPA K ATAO
Pre-Activity THE BABY IN THE PICTURE Objectives 1. To introduce the concept of human rights. 2. To emphasize that human rights are inherent in human beings and are a quality benchmark for living.
Module 5
Duration:
15 minutes
Procedure 1. Show the group a picture of a baby. Post it on the wall or blackboard. 2. Ask the group to write down on metacards what the baby needs in order to have a full life. 3. Ask them to post the metacards on the wall or board around the picture.
Processing 1. Ask the following process questions: a. Why do you think the baby needs all those written on the metacards? What good will these do to the baby? b. Does the baby deserve all these? What makes the baby deserve all these? c. How about you? Do you deserve to have what the group thinks the baby should enjoy? Why or why not? d. Are there other things adults must have to enjoy a full life?
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e. Can you think of a person who does not deserve these? Why should this person not deserve these? f.
What would happen if babies and adults are deprived of all these? Is such a situation acceptable?
Source: Amnesty International (1998). Human Rights Education Learning Package: Trainor’s Manual.
Activity M ATC H I N G Objectives 1. To introduce the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
Mo du le 5
2. To illustrate the relationship between rights and responsibilities in the exercise and enjoyment of rights.
Procedure 1. Discuss the history of human rights and the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). (Use the articles included at the back as reference). 2. Give the participants copies of the plain language version of the UDHR. 3. Parallel to the UDHR plain language version, ask the participants to make a list of responsibilities individuals have to do and remember in the exercise and enjoyment of their rights.
Processing 1. How are rights and responsbilities related? 2. Is the performance of one’s responsibilities necessary in the exercise of one’s rights? Why? Why not? 3. What determines one’s responsbilities? responsibilities for?
What are
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Human Rights
Activity ANG KUWENTO NI PUWET Objective 1. To discuss the different types of rights an individual enjoys. 2. To demonstrate the “interrelatedness” of rights.
Procedure 1. Distribute copies of the various rights of individuals, groups, and peoples as contained in major international conventions and declarations of human rights. 2. Have the participants survey the list. 3. Ask the participants to reflect on which right is the most important. Answer the question by telling the participants that they will participate in a story-telling session.
Module 5
4. Start off the activity with this spiel: “Noong unang panahon, lahat ng bahagi ng katawan ay nakakapagsalita. Nagpapagalingan sila, sa tingin nila ay ang sarili nila ang pinakamahalaga sa lahat” 5. Ask participants to name parts of the body and their importance to the body’s functioning. The following could be examples: Ilong: Paa: Mata: Tenga:
dahil nakakaamoy nakakarating kahit sa malayo nakakakita nakakarinig
6. Ask a volunteer to take on the role of “Puwet.” Have “Puwet” state his or her contribution to the body. Puwet is ridiculed and laughed at by the other parts of the body. Invite the participants to suggest negative aspects of Puwet.
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7. Continue the story by saying: At nagtampo si Puwet sa kaniyang mga naririnig. Dahil sa panliliit ng mga kasama, napagpasiyahan niyang mag-strike. 8. Elicit from the participants possible scenarios in the event “Puwet” goes on a strike. Have the other participants convince Puwet to return to work.
Processing 1. Ask the participants what lessons they can glean from the activity. 2. Ask the participants to relate these lessons to the relationship among the different kinds of rights.
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Human Rights
Session 2 PAKIKIPAGKAPWA AT K A R A PATA N G P A N TAO
Activity ANG SAMPUNG UTOS NG PA K I K I PA G K A P WA - TA O Objectives 1. To generate rules on interpersonal interaction.
Module 5
2. To illustrate the notion of human rights as a standard of pakikipagkapwa-tao.
Procedure 1. Divide the participants into 5 groups. Provide each group with writing materials. 2. Have the groups generate “rules” governing behavior towards another human and write the rules on a sheet of manila paper. 3. Post their output.
Processing 1. Look for similarities and differences across groups. 2. Stress the idea of ‘pakikipagkapwa-tao” as an accepted standard for Filipino social interaction. Standards that should be followed. 3. Introduce the idea of human rights as founded on the idea of treating another as kapwa-tao. 4. Present lecture on Kapwa and Karapatan.
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LECTURETTE Pakikipagkapwa and Human Rights
Filipino psychology emphasizes the importance of kapwa, defined as shared identity with another. Kapwa is a concept that celebrates connectivity and extension as we can use it to denote our relationship with another entity, for example, another person (kapwa-tao). It also lets us recognize shared chracteristics and other similarities as well: kapwa-nilalang ng Diyos reminds us to respect other creatures such as animals or take care of the environment. Thus, the promotion of a sense of kapwa strengthens our ideals for a peaceful life.
Accom m odative Surface Value Associated Behavior Pattern Confrontative Surface Value Pivotal Interpersonal Value CO RE VALUE Linking Sociopersonal Value Associated Societal Values
hiya “propriety/dignity” biro “joke” bahala na “determ ination”
Karangalan “dignity”
utang na loob “gratitude” lam bing “sweetness”
sam a/lakas ng loob “resentm ent/guts” Pakikiram dam “shared inner perception” KAPW A “shared identity” Kagandahang Loob “shared hum anity” Katarungan “justice”
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Dr. Virgilio Enriquez, a noted Filipino psychologist, illustrated the centrality of kapwa in out value system. He provided an analytic framework of the indigenous Philippine value structure correlated behavior patterns at the surface, core and societal levels. In summary, Philippine values are classified into four major categories consist-ing of 1) surface values; 2) a pivot; 3 ) a core and 4) a foundation of human values. The categories are placed in a system represented through a three-tiered structure with the surface on the top tier; the pivot and the core on the middle tier; and the foundation values on the bottom tier, with the pivotal interpersonal value pakiramdam underlying the surface, and the core anchored by way of the linking socio-cultural value of kagandahang-loob on the foundation below.
pakikisam a “com panionship” tam po “affective disappointm ent” pakikibaka “resistance”
Kalayaan “freedom ”
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The core of the value system, otherwise referred to as kapwa psychology, is explained as an extended sense of identity. The concept of a shared inner self is given as a non-reductionistic alternative to the surface idea of “smooth interpersonal relations.” Reducing pakikipagkapwa to pakikisama, which also amounts to minimizing the sense of human solidarity to mere social acceptance and approval, is critically debunked as inconsistent with kapwa psychol-ogy and world-view.
Module 5
The surface (on the top tier) is discussed by way of classifying the Filipino disposition as consisting of accommodative and confrontative surface values. The analysis of accommodative surface values includes a discussion of the inadequacy of the social interpretation of hiya (dignity); a critique of the Filipino self-image engendered by the supposed blessings of utang na loob (sense of solidarity); and the mistake of elevating the status of pakikisama (camaraderie) to a terminal value while kapwa (shared identity) is reduced to “social acceptance.” The analysis of the confrontative surface values which underlie the psychology behind the revolution of 1986 includes a phenomenological re-interpretation of bahala na (determination in the face of uncertainty); lakas ng loob (inner resource for change); and pakrkibaka (resistance through cooperative action). The pivot (on the upper part of the second tier) directly underlies the surface of the three-tiered structure. The pivotal interpersonal value, pakiramdam (shared inner perception), is explained and analyzed in terms of its behavioral centrality in the biro--lambingtampo (tease-caress-resent) domain and in terms ofthe internalityexternal-ity dimension in kapwa psychology. Kagandahang-loob (shared inner nobility) orients people towards actions that emphasizes the values of kalayaan (freedom), karangalan (dignity), and katarungan (social justice). These three values constitute the socio-political elements and foundation of the Philippine value system. Meanwhile, the constituents of the Filipino concept of social justice as a current rallying point in the Philippine value system are discussed in terms of/and in relation to I) the distinction between law and the administration of taw (Wala sa batas, nasa pamamalakad ng batas); 2) “human rights” (karapatan); 3) equity and fairness (beyond pakikisama); 4) “truth and reason”
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(katotohanan and katwiran); 5) justice as unity or consensus (pakikiisa); and 6) peace (kapayapaan). The promotion of human rights is clearly rooted in the sense of pakikipagkapwa-tao. The recognition and acceptance of the Other, however different he or she may be, as kapwa entails that we seek to respect that person’s basic human rights. Such actions consequently promote peace and unity.
Adapted from Enriquez, Virgilio G. (1992). From Colonial to Liberation Psychology. De La Salle University Press, 77-79.
Learning Points
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1. Kapwa is the shared identity of self and other as fellow human beings. Pakikipagkapwa-tao refers to our attempts to relate to one another as persons (person to person relationship). 2. Pakikipagkapwa-tao demands that we respect the other’s basic human rights. Thus, human rights as a concept is not alien to the average Filipino, and is supported by our positive cultural values.
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Session 3 ANG KARAPATANG PANTAO
Activity GALLERY Procedure: 1. Refer participants to the Rights of Individuals and Groups 2. Have the participants form three groups. Assign them the categories: WOMEN, CHILDREN and INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
Module 5
3. For the WOMEN group, ask the participants to each get an object which best represents any form of violence that women experience or are threatened with for being a woman. Have them arrange the objects into a sculpture. 4. For the INDIGENOUS PEOPLES group, provide them with a manila paper where they will draw a figure representing a member of an indigenous group and then have them write on strips of paper words used to describe these people. 5. For the CHILDREN group, have them re-enact a scene or a series of scenes that reflect the current plight of Filipino children. 6. Have each group present their output. Elicit reactions of the other groups. 7. After the presentations, discuss ways in which the rights of each group can be promoted and protected.
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READINGS The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
PLAIN LANGUAGE VERSION
Article 1 When children are born, they are free and each should be treated in the same way. They have reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a friendly manner. Article 2 Everyone can claim the following rights, despite
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- a different sex/gender - a different skin colour - speaking a different language - thinking different things - believing in another religion - owning more or less - being born in another social group - coming from another country. It also makes no difference whether the country you live in is independent or not. Article 3 You have the right to live, and to live in freedom and safety. Article 4 Nobody has the right to treat you as his or her slave and you should not make anyone your slave.
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Article 5 Nobody has the right to torture you. Article 6 You should be legally protected in the same way everywhere, and like everyone else. Article 7 The law is the same for everyone; it should be applied in the same way to all. Article 8 You should be able to ask for legal help when the rights your country grants you are not respected. Article 9
Module 5
Nobody has the right to put you in prison, to keep you there, or to send you away from your country unjustly, or without a good reasons. Article 10 If you must go on trial this should be done in public. The people who try you should not let themselves be influenced by others. Article 11 You should be considered innocent until it can be proved that you are guilty. If you are accused of a crime, you should always have the right to defend yourself. Nobody has the right to condemn you and punish you for something you have not done. Article 12 You have the right to ask to be protected if someone tries to harm your good name, enter your house, open your letters, or bother you or your family without a good reasons.
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Article 13 You have the right to come and go as you wish within your country. You have the right to leave your country to go to another one; and you should be able to return to your country if you want. Article 14 If someone hurts you, you have the right to go to another country and ask it to protect you. You lose this right if you have killed someone and if you, yourself, do not respect what is written here. Article 15 You have the right to belong to a country and nobody can prevent you, without a good reason, from belonging to another country if it is what you wish. Article 16
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As soon as a person is legally entitled, he or she has the right to marry and have a family. In doing this, neither the colour of your skin, the country you come from nor your religion should be impediments. Men and women have the same rights when they are married and also when they are separated. Nobody should force a person to marry. The government of your country should protect your family and its members. Article 17 You have the right to own things and nobody has the right to take these from you without a good reason. Article 18 You have the right to profess your religion freely, to change it, and to practise it either on your own or with other people. Article 19 You have the right to think what you want, to say what you like, and nobody should forbid you from doing so.
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You should be able to share your ideas also-with people from any other country. Article 20 You have the right to organize peaceful meetings or to take part in meetings in a peaceful way. It is wrong to force someone to belong to a group. Article 21 You have the right to take part in your country’s political affairs either by belonging to the government yourself or by choosing politicians who have the same ideas as you. Governments should be voted for regularly and voting should be secret. You should get a vote and all votes should be equal. You also have the same right to join the public service as anyone else. Article 22
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The society in which you live should help you to develop and to make the most of all the advantages (culture, work, social welfare) which are offered to you and to all the men and women in your country. Article 23 You have the right to work, to be free to choose your work, to get a salary which allows you to live and support your family. If a man and a woman do the same work, they should get the same pay. All people who work have the right to join together to defend their interests. Article 24 Each work day should not be too long, since everyone has the right to rest and should be able to take regular paid holidays. Article 25 You have the right to have whatever you need so that you and your family: do not fall ill; go hungry; have clothes and a house; and are helped is you are out of work, if you are ill, if you are old, if
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your wife or husband is dead, or if you do not earn a living for any other reason you cannot help. The mother who is going to have a baby, and her baby should get special help. All children have the same rights, whether or not the mother is married. Article 26 You have the right to go to school and everyone should go to school. Primary schooling should be free. You should be able to learn a profession or continue your studies as far as you wish. At school, you should be able to develop all your talents and you should be taught to get on with others, whatever their race, religion or the country they come from. Your parents have the right to choose how and what you will be taught at school. Article 27
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You have the right to share in your community’s arts and sciences, and any good they do. Your works as an artist, a writer, or a scientist should be protected, and you should be able to benefit from them. Article 28 So that your rights will be respected, there must be an “order” which can protect them. This “order” should be local and worldwide. Article 29 You have duties towards the community within which your personality can only fully develop. The law should guarantee human rights. It should allow everyone to respect others and to be respected. Article 30 In all parts of the world, no society, no human being, should take it upon her or himself to act in such a way as to destroy the rights which you have just been reading about.
Source: ABC, Teaching Human Rights: Practical Activities For Primary And Secondary Schools. Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights http://193.194.138.190/html/ menu6/2/abc.htm#I
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READINGS History of Universal Human Rights - Up to WW2 by Moira Rayner
Human rights are rights possessed by people simply as, and because they are, human beings. The term has only come into common currency during the 20th century. The idea of ‘human rights’ is not universal - it is essentially the product of 17th and 18th century European thought. Even the idea of ‘rights’ does not necessarily exist in every society or advanced civilisation. Rights are not the same thing as standards of behaviour punishable or required by rules, which can be fundamentally unfair to individuals, or used to oppress minority interests.
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The earliest rules about standards of behaviour among people dealt with prescribing or prohibiting conduct that experience proved was likely to lead to conflict. There were great lawmakers - the Roman, Justinian, for one, who published his great Codex of various laws in the early 6th century -who tried to establish a cohesive schemes of rights and duties. The great religions of the world - Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, and others - have all sought to establish comprehensive, coherent moral codes of conduct based on divine law. All contain profound ideas on the dignity of the human being , and are concerned with the duties and obligations of man to his fellow human beings, to nature and indeed to God and the whole of creation. But until the 17th century such attempts to establish a framework for such rules, laws and codes, whether in social, legal, secular or theological debate, emphasised duties and privileges that arose from peoples’ status or relationships, rather than abstract rights that, philosophically, preceded or underlay those relations or laws. Then, attention moved from social responsibilities to the individual’s needs and participation. It was seen as fundamental to the wellbeing of society, under the influence of philosophers such as Grotius, Hobbes and Locke, Then, these rights were called ‘natural’ rights, or ‘the rights of man’. These natural or moral rights became part of the political agenda. They spread as the economic frontiers came down.
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One of the first, and most important, battles was about politics. Could ‘natural rights’ be handed over to rulers? People in their ‘natural’ condition have unlimited freedom. If they choose to be ruled, they surrender either all, or some at least of this ‘natural right’ to their king or government, in exchange for civil society and peace. If they could surrender ‘all’, then people could be subjected to absolute government authority, and be under an absolute duty to obey. If only some could be surrendered, then the question is what part of those freedoms do we give up? This issue became a tremendous cause in 17th century England. The protection of the people’s rights (especially the right to political participation, and freedom of religious belief and observance) against an oppressive government was the catchcry of the English Revolution of 1640 (which led to rebel leader Oliver Cromwell heading the government, and the King being executed). It was also the catchcry for the rebellion against the civil administration the ‘Glorious Revolution’ - of 1688 which saw another King on the throne, but also led to the English Bill of Rights, in 1689.
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The Bill of Rights dealt with the fundamental concerns of the time. It made the King subject to the rule of law, like any citizen, instead of claiming to be the law’s (divine) source. It required the King to respect the power of Parliament - elected by the people, with the power to control the state’s money and property. It protected some basic rights to justice - excessive bail or fines, cruel and unusual punishments and unfair trials: it guaranteed juries, impartial courts and independent judges. It repeated some of royal promises made by King John, under duress, in the Magna Carta (though Magna Carta was intended to benefit the privileges of the aristocracy of the time, not the whole population). It also established the people’s preferred Protestant religion, at a time when having a Catholic King was thought to endanger the sovereignty of England. The Pope, in those days, was still a relatively powerful ruler of a foreign country. Towards the end of the 18th century, according to the philosopher John Locke, it was argued that it was part of God’s natural law that no-one should harm anybody else in their life, health, liberty or possessions. These rights could never be given up. The existence of this natural law also established the right to do whatever was necessary to protect such rights.
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This view limited the role of government. No-one could be subjected to another’s rule unless they consented. A government’s responsibility became the duty to protect natural rights. This limited what it could legitimately do and gave its citizens the right to defy and overthrow a government that overstepped its ‘legitimate’ authority. This thinking underlay the American colonies’ Declaration of Independence in 1776. This not only asserted that governments were established by the consent of the people to protect rights, but unforgettably expressed these rights in the terms that: ‘all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’ Governments that did not carry out their protective role could be overthrown.
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Sadly, the Declaration did not, in fact, extend human rights to all human beings. The first US Constitution expressly preserved the institution of slavery and did not recognise the equal rights of women. Many ‘rights’ were added to the US Constitution over the next 150 years: the Equal Rights Amendment, designed to give women equality was defeated in a referendum just this decade. In 1788, as a result of the French Revolution, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens asserted the primacy of natural rights in similarly inspirational terms to the US Declaration of Independence. Yet in the Terror that soon followed the Revolution, with all its hopes, thousands unjustly lost their lives or suffered greatly in the name of ‘Liberty.’ The doctrines of human rights that we now have are direct descendants of this thinking. The disparity in rights protection in practice reflected the society of the time. A human right is ‘natural’ in that every one owns them, not because they are subject to any particular system of law or religious or political administration. They can be asserted against individuals,
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but they express the political objective: that governments must respect, protect and promote them. The greatest 20th century statements of ‘natural’ or human rights can be dated to 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This preceded a range of international Conventions, Covenants, Declarations and other treaties that have followed the tradition. Most came from the United Nations. But other groups have also adopted human rights standards. The European community, for example, has adopted a Convention on Human Rights. Many nations have incorporated rights into their national constitutions acknowledging that the rights exist, not that they are created by their laws.
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The most common ‘universal’ rights are the right to life; to freedom; to own property (limiting where government may intrude); citizenship rights (voting, nationality and participation in public life); rights to standards of good behaviour by governments (or protection of the rule of law), and social, economic and cultural rights. The latter have become important during the 20th century, and raise important and still controversial issues about social justice and the distribution of wealth. Universal human rights are, historically, the flower of what was originally a European plant. They have now received the support of world nations. Respect for human rights is becoming a universal principle of good government.
Source: http://www.universalrights.net/main/histof.htm
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READINGS The Creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by Peter Bailey , OBE AM
In less than half a century, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (the UDHR) has come to be regarded as possibly the single most important document created in the twentieth century and as the accepted world standard for human rights. The UDHR draws life-preserving messages from the past, and is seen as an essential foundation for building a world in which all human beings can, in the centuries to come, look forward to living in dignity and peace. A CRITICAL HISTORICAL MOMENT
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As the second World War began to close, the world climate was ready for a great leap forward in the recognition and observance of human rights. When representatives of the four major powers met in 1944 at Dumbarton Oaks, a stately mansion in Georgetown, Washington DC, two world wars had been fought in less than 30 years, and cruelty almost beyond belief had been inflicted on members of the Jewish race in Europe and on prisoners of war in detention in Asia and Europe. An atomic bomb was about to be set off that would show what enormous destructive power humankind could unleash in targeting nations as well as individuals, often simply because they were members of a particular race or religion. The leaders felt there must be a better way for the nations and peoples of the world to live together and sort out their problems and laid plans for establishing what was to become the United Nations. In late 1945, leaders of the world’s nations met in San Francisco to form the United Nations. Inspired by the great South African preapartheid leader Field-Marshall Smuts, they included in the preamble to the Charter of the UN, an important reference to human rights. (A preamble is an important introductory section of a legal document, and explains the background to it rather than being part of its operative provisions.) The relevant part of the preamble said:
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”We the peoples of the United Nations [are] determined - .. to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small”. This reference to human rights, was followed up by six references throughout the UN Charter’s operative provisions to human rights and fundamental freedoms. In addition, largely as a result of pressure brought to bear on the political leaders by some 42 United States non-government organisations, Article 68 was included. It required the Economic and Social Council to set up commissions in the human rights and economic and social fields. The outcome was the establishment of a Commission on Human Rights. Thus the Commission is one of the very few bodies to draw its authority directly from the Charter of the United Nations. PRODUCING THE FRAMEWORK FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BILL OF RIGHTS
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In April 1946, Mrs Eleanor Roosevelt, widow of President Franklin Roosevelt of the United States was appointed to chair an interim group of 9 members. By June the interim body had suggested that the new Commission should make its first task the development as soon as possible of an international bill of human rights. Later in the year, the new Commission of Human Rights of 18 members, again chaired by Mrs Eleanor Roosevelt, was appointed, and included China’s P.C.Chang, Frenchmen Rene Cassin and Dr Charles Malik of Lebanon. The Commission met for the first time in January 1947 and considered several critical issues. Its decisions have greatly influenced the human rights development since then, including action at national level. It concluded that it should work to develop first a declaration rather than a treaty. (An international declaration is a statement of importance, and has high moral and often political significance, and is more than a recommendation, but it is less than a treaty, which is binding in international law.) Perhaps most important of all, it decided that the declaration should contain both civil and political and also economic and social rights. The Commission’s view was that the declaration should be a relatively short, inspirational and energising document usable by common people. It should be the foundation and central document for the remainder of an international bill of human rights. It thus
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avoided the more difficult problems that had to be addressed when the binding treaty came up for consideration - just what role the state should have in enforcing the rights in its territory, and whether the mode of enforcing civil and political rights should be different from that for economic and social rights. It was fortunate that the Commission made the decision to separate the formally legally binding covenant from the initial declaration. Although the declaration was endorsed in December 1948, the two covenants (the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) that emerged to define the obligations of each state were not ready for ratification (formal approval by the governments of the world) until 1966, some 18 years later. AN INSPIRATIONAL DOCUMENT
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The Commission then turned to formulating the declaration. It decided to name it the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The very name emphasises the UDHR was to set a standard of rights for all people everywhere - whether male or female, black or white, communist or capitalist, victor or vanquished, rich or poor, for members of a majority or a minority in the community. In the words of the first preamble to the UDHR, it was to reflect: ”recognition of the inherent dignity and .. equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family “... and through that recognition provide “the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.” Article 1 reflects the inspirational nature of the project. It was included only after much controversy about whether it was just stating the obvious, or whether it should be included in the preamble rather than the main text. It proclaims in ringing terms that: ”All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” The reason for including it in the main text is to state firmly the basis of all human rights, the rationality of human persons and
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their obligation to deal fairly with everyone else, regardless of race, sex, wealth and so on. Article 7 follows up this theme by saying that all are to be equal before the law and have a right to protection against any form of discrimination. Articles 3 and 27 are probably the core of the substantive provisions in the Declaration. They give every human being the rights to life, to liberty, to security of person (Art 3) and to an adequate standard of living (Art 27). The first three are core civil and political rights, the last an economic and social right. The right to an adequate standard of living is interesting in that it specifies as part of it the right to health and well-being not only of a person but of his or her family, and also the right to necessary food, clothing, housing and medical care, and the right to social security (also covered in Art 22).
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Overarching all the particular rights are Articles 28 and 29. (There are 30 Articles in the Declaration, of which 17 could be regarded as relating to civil and political rights and 8 to economic and social rights). Articles 28 and 29 have not received much discussion, and have not been given legally binding force in the two Covenants. But they are explosive in their significance. Article 28 emphasises the responsibility of the whole international community for seeking and putting into place arrangements of both a civil and political and an economic and social kind that allow for the full realisation of human rights. It would be easy to ask questions about current arrangements or plans that hardly seem to do this, such as those relating to trade and investment arrangements and perhaps some of those planning to eradicate international crimes such as genocide and war crimes. Article 30 is also of high importance, because it underlines the responsibility all people have to their community. Notice that the Article does not talk about the state. There is danger in claiming, as so many dictators and even democratic leaders have claimed, that people owe duties of an inalienable kind to the state. They do not. But they do have obligations to their fellow human beings, as Article 1 also emphasises. Perhaps, looking back at the UDHR after half a century, the only significant lack is in the area of the environment. It can however be implied from rights such as the right to life and to an adequate standard of living.
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Tribute should be played to three different groups. Firstly, to Eleanor Roosevelt and her advisers, mainly from the US Department of State. Somehow, she was able to maintain a generally harmonious atmosphere during virtually the whole of the long meeting phase. Second, to the many prominent people who provided drafts to the Committee for its consideration. These included noted international lawyer, Professor Hersch Lauterpacht of Cambridge University, and British author H G Wells. There was also a draft based on work done in preparation for an American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man. Finally, there was the enormous work done by the secretariat, led by Professor J P Humphrey, that brought all this material together for the Commission to consider. When the Commission finally took its vote on 18 June 1948, twelve of its fifteen members voted in favour. The Soviet Union, Byelorussia, the Ukraine and Yugoslavia (the Soviet bloc technically had only two members) abstained.
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The draft then went to the Economic and Social Council, which did not change the text but arranged for it to go to the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly, where it struck difficulties. It was fortunate that the Committee’s chairman at the time was Charles Malik. After no less than 81 long meetings, at which at least 168 amending resolutions were considered, the Committee, on 6 December 1948, at last reached agreement - just in time to be taken by the General Assembly before it concluded its meeting for the year. On the evening of 10 December 1948, the General Assembly endorsed the text of the UDHR without amendment, only two days before it rose until the next year. There were no dissenting votes, but the six communist countries then members of the UN, and also Saudi Arabia and South Africa, abstained. The Assembly, in an rare gesture of appreciation, gave Mrs Roosevelt a standing ovation. THE GROWING STATURE OF THE UDHR So, just ahead of the advent of the Cold War and the consequent slowing down of many constructive developments, the Universal Declaration managed to emerge successfully from the complex and politically hazardous processes of the United Nations to become its human rights flagship. The Declaration had not managed at that time to achieve full recognition from the communist and
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certain middle eastern countries, but at least they had not voted against it. Notwithstanding the initial difficulties and resistance, the Declaration has probably achieved a stature in the world that even the most optimistic of its founders in 1948 would not have expected. First, it has become accepted (often rather reluctantly, it is true) as an influential statement of standards, even by countries that are doubtful about the wholehuman rights enterprise. When countries such as Burma, Argentina, China and the former Yugoslavia feel bound to defend themselves when they are accused of being in breach of the UDHR, then it can be said to have achieved an important political and moral status.
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Equally important, the UDHR has become almost an extension of the UN Charter. Although, the Charter has only a few articles that refer to human rights and fundamental freedoms, it is now usual to refer to the UDHR as setting out the content of those rights and freedoms. So it has become a part of the fabric of the UN itself, and is often referred to in resolutions of the UN General Assembly, and in its debates, for example in relation to the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples of 1960. At the human rights conference in Teheran in 1978, to mark the 30th anniversary of the UDHR, the representatives of 84 nations unanimously declared that the UDHR states a common understanding of the inalienable rights of all people and constitutes an obligation for the members of the international community. Third, most if not all the provisions of the UDHR have almost certainly become a part of international customary law. The view is steadily growing among international lawyers that practice (always an important source of international law) includes not only acts such as observing rules about navigation at sea but also acts such as voting for resolutions at United Nations and other international gatherings. The very large and increasing number of ratifications of the two human rights Covenants, and the fact that the rights stated in the UDHR are commonly recognised as well founded in moral and good practice terms, means that there are now virtually unchallengeable grounds for asserting that the UDHR rights have become part of international customary law. That means that, unlike treaties, which only bind a country once it has accepted the treaty obligations, all countries in the world are bound, whatever their
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particular view may be. A country cannot repudiate international customary law, as it can a treaty obligation. For these three reasons, those who boldly moved to form and then approve the provisions of the UDHR have left an abiding legacy for humankind that will rank with the great religious contributions of past centuries. The UDHR is an increasingly powerful instrument for the achievement of human dignity and peace for all.
Source: http://www.universalrights.net/main/creation.htm
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Worldwide Influence of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Bill of Rights by Kim Gleeson
From 1948, when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted and proclaimed, until 1976, when the International Convenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), entered into force the Universal Declaration stood alone as the international standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations . Today the Universal Declaration, along with the Convenants make up the International Bill of Rights. Nearly all international human rights instruments adopted by the United Nations bodies since 1948 elaborate principles set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The ICCPR states in it’s preamble. “in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the ideal of free human beings enjoying freedom from fear and want can only be achieved if conditions are
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created whereby everyone may enjoy his or her economic, social and cultural rights, as well as his or her civil and political rights.” The coming into force of the Covenants, by which State parties accepted legal as well as the moral obligation to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, has not diminished the widespread influence of the Universal Declaration. The Universal Declaration has established many of the principles for a number of important international conventions and treatiesthe 1984 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading treatment or Punishment; the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, proclaimed by the General Assembly in 1981, clearly defines the nature and scope of the principles of nondiscrimination and equality before the law and the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief contained in the Universal Declaration and the International Covenants.
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The Universal Declaration has informed the constitutions of nation states and it’s principles have been included or adopted by the Council of Europe, the Organization of African Unity, and the American Convention on Human Rights, at Costa Rica, in 1969. Judges of the International Court of Justice have invoked principles contained in the International Bill of Human Rights as a basis for their decisions. In 1968, at the International Conference on Human Rights in Teheran, the Universal Declaration was once again declared “a common understanding of the peoples of the world concerning the inalienable and inviolable rights of all members of the human family and constitutes an obligation for the members of the international community.” “The Universal Declaration has come to be regarded as an historic document articulating a common definition of human dignity and values. The Declaration is a yardstick by which to measure the degree of respect for, and compliance with, international human rights standards everywhere on earth”. (Excerpts from the Centre for Human Rights, 1996 United Nations)
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At the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna, over 150 countries once again re-affirmed their commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights expressed in the Vienna Declaration and Program of Action.
READINGS International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Moira Rayner
This Covenant is one of the most important protections of all human rights, and it made headlines in 1998 when China adopted it.
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Countries who sign this Covenant absolutely guarantee to protect all the rights it covers. They belong to any individual within their territory, whatever their status - including their sex, race, nationality, beliefs, social or economic standing - without any ‘distinction’ or discrimination. Signatories promise to provide an ‘effective remedy’ for their violation. Any one who believes they have beenwronged and has exhausted these domestic remedies, can take their complaint to the UN’s Human Rights Committee. The Covenant protects fundamental rights, such as liberty and freedom from arbitrary arrest or detention. It guarantees humane treatment if people are detained according to law. It says that children who have been lawfully arrested or detained must not be jailed with adults: the reason is, that it is far too dangerous for the children. The Covenant says that every human being has an ‘inherent right to life’ - but the Covenant allows capital punishment in some circumstances. It prohibits torture - deliberate treatment causing very serious and cruel suffering - and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment (which is different only in degree). It prohibits slavery or forced labour; guarantees freedom to move around and choose where to live; promises fair trials; and protects our right to ‘privacy,
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family, home or correspondence’ and ‘unlawful attacks on a person’s reputation or honour.’ This could include vilification, such as falsely claiming that a political opponent is a sexual deviant, to discredit the person. We are entitled to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. We have the right to hold and express opinions. The Covenant prohibits incitement to war, or racial or religious hatred. It guarantees our right to peaceful assembly (with restrictions only for safety, health and others’ freedoms’), and to freedom of association (including joining trade unions). Individuals have the right to marry whoever they so choose and the family’s and children’s rights must be especially protected. We must be allowed to take part in public affairs and to vote. Ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities have the right to preserve their culture.
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This Covenant is a charter for individual autonomy and selfdetermination. The rights it protects belong to every man, woman and child on earth, and may be asserted against any authority on earth. The ICCPR has two Optional Protocols. the first allows individuals (not just states) to lodge complaints with the UN about human rights violations. The second, which was adopted as late as 1989, is designed to eliminate the death penalty.
READINGS International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Moira Rayner
This Covenant is one of the cornerstones of human rights. It protects our economic and social rights. These are the rights that ‘cost’: governments have to spend money to provide standards of living, or meet cultural expectations. It is far easier to respect or
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acknowledge a right such as the right to vote, than it is to promise that ‘no child will live in poverty.’ These rights ‘cost’ because often social and economic rights depend on someone else giving up their share of resources, or access to power. Few do that willingly. The rights the Covenant deals with are those people need because they live in communities, associating with other people. They need to be read with the ICCPR and other rights. Anyway, someone who is starving or sick is hardly ‘free’. The Covenant protects, among others, the right to an adequate standard of living, to the best possible physical and mental health, and the right to education (including compulsory, free primary education for children). It guarantees rights to social security, which means a minimum standard of living.
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The rights protected include the right to work, to ‘just and favourable’ conditions of work, and the right to join trade unions. Artists, scientists and writers are entitled to the benefit and control of the works they create. It guarantees the right to participate in cultural life and to enjoy the benefits of social progress. Governments who sign this Covenant also promise to protect marriage, the family, and the well-being of pregnant women and those women who have recently given birth. These are some of the most important rights of all, yet there are no real performance measure for governments, and there is no mechanism for individuals to make complaints about the breach of these rights. The Covenant says that governments must act ‘to the maximum of available resources’, to achieve ‘progressively’ the full realisation of the Rights it protects. This gives governments - who have a discretion in how they spend their money - every reason to state that they just cannot afford them.
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READINGS C o n v e n t i o n A g a i n s t To r t u r e and Other Cruel, Inhuman o r D e g r a d i n g Tr e a t m e n t or Punishment Moira Rayner
This Convention requires governments to prohibit, and prevent, ‘torture.’ Torture is the infliction of severe pain or suffering that is intended to get a confession, punish, intimidate or coerce anyone or that is inflicted for any discriminatory reasons, if it is carried out by or with the acquiescence of a public official. It can include being forced to watch someone else being hurt, to put pressure on the observer.
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Oddly, the Convention does not cover pain or suffering ‘arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.’ The only sensible interpretation of this proviso is that such sanctions would not be ‘lawful’ if their purpose was wrongful - punishment, intimidation, getting a confession or any one of the prohibited reasons. Other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’ is not defined. It means marginally less ‘severe’ conduct of the same nature. It may include what some adults call ‘corporal punishment’ of children, at least if the child is hit with an object. In September 1998 the European Court of Justice said that it was ‘cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment’, under the European Human Rights Convention, for a stepfather to use a stick or a cane to beat a young boy. The Convention does not excuse torture under any circumstances whatever, whether there is a war or emergency on, or even if the torturer is merely ‘obeying orders’ from a superior officer. Countries who sign the Convention are obliged to arrest, detain and prosecute offenders; train their law enforcement and military personnel about the prohibition against torture, and review interrogation rules and practices. The treaty sets up a Committee Against Torture and people may raise complaints about cruel treatment to that committee at any time.
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READINGS Convention on the Rights of the Child Moira Rayner
This Convention has been signed by more countries than any other human rights treaty. Unfortunately, there is no provision for individuals to make a complaint if the rights it addresses are violated. Children are the least able to claim the rights this Convention protects.
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The Convention requires the government protect the human rights of children - anyone under the age of 18 - and to recognise that children have precisely the same human rights as adults. Children also have special, protective rights, ‘before as well as after birth’. This seems to require, at least, that governments make sure that pregnant mothers have good ante-natal care. Children are also entitled to special protections and safeguards, because others have to protect their rights for them. Children’s ‘best interests’ must be the first consideration in all decision-making for children: in other words, adults have to put their interests before their own preferences. The Convention recognises that parents should raise their own children and are their best protectors, because children’s ‘best interests’ would, naturally, be their first consideration. The Convention asserts that a child has the right to be brought up in a family environment of love and understanding, and that the State must support parents in that role. A key provision is the child’s right to parental guidance and direction, consistent with their developing maturity. Children may not be taken from their parents against their will, unless their best interests demand it, and then only after a fair hearing. They must not be discriminated against because of their parents’ status or beliefs. A key right of the child is the right to participate in decision-making and in community life - they must, in other words, be taken seriously, and not treated as non-people, or lesser people, because of their
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age, vulnerability and dependency. Another is the right to play, as a special developmental need. Their rights include the full range of civil and political rights as are covered by the ICCPR, including freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of expression and the right to be heard in decision-making affecting them; privacy, and freedom from torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, or arbitrary deprivation of liberty. They are entitled to the same economic, social and cultural rights as adults. They are entitled to special protection if they are deprived of the family environment in which, the Preamble makes clear, they are entitled to be brought up in an atmosphere of love and understanding, so that they may assume full adult responsibilities in due course.
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Essentially, this Convention reminds governments of the full humanity of all children, their equality, in moral terms as human beings, with adults; but their vulnerabilities too, and the special duties all owe to protect their rights. It simply states that adults must take children seriously, and they have to put their desires and interests second to their duty to ensure that all children achieve their full potential.
READINGS Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women Moira Rayer
The Convention obliges governments to prohibit discrimination against women on the one hand, and ensure their equality on the other, equality being one of the Convention’s goals. There is not, at present, any procedure for complaints under this Convention, though it is under active consideration.
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The Convention prohibits any ‘distinction, exclusion or restriction’ based on sex, or marital status, which is either intended to, or has the effect of, impairing women’s fundamental rights and freedoms, in any field. This covers unintentional (or indirect) discrimination, as well as deliberate acts that disadvantage women, and it affects the protection of rights in private (or family) life as well as public life. This Convention has a wider reach, therefore, than the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
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The Convention obliges nations to pass laws to ensure the equality of women, and allows them to create ‘temporary special measures aimed at accelerating de facto equality between men and women’ - affirmative action, or positive discrimination, in other words, until equality is actually achieved. There is a positive duty to modify cultural and social practices that create stereotypes or reflect prejudices about female inferiority because of their sex. The Convention requires women’s equality in economic and social life, and requires governments to take steps to address the special difficulties of rural women. They must take steps to eliminate trafficking in women and the exploitation of women’s prostitution (it does not require the eradication of prostitution itself). States must also eliminate political discrimination (such as the right to vote and hold public office); discrimination in access to and the type or choice of education; ensure women’s equality in choices of work, wages and conditions, and to social security, and prohibit dismissal because women have married, become pregnant or had children (maternity leave with pay and child care should be provided). Governments have to take special measures to provide care for women during pregnancy - they may provide special health services for women as well as ensuring their equal access to health care. Women must also have equality with men before the law, which includes the right to own property and enter into their own contracts. The Convention also requires equality in relation to marriage and the family, such as equal rights to choose their husband as the husband has to choose a wife; the right to choose when to bear, and how many, children, their rights and duties towards children, and property. This important Convention does not excuse discrimination against women for any reason, including cultural, traditional or religious grounds. Women’s rights are human rights.
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READINGS Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimation Moira Rayer
This prohibits any ‘distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin, which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise on an equal footing of human rights and fundamental freedoms in political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life’.
The Convention covers all kinds of discriminatory or prejudicial acts, but only in public life. In other words, racism in your own kitchen is not covered by it. This is quite different from CEDAW, which explicitly covers discrimination against women in the home as well. This is because women’s disadvantaged status is precisely because of the importance of the home, and their duties in it, which seem ‘private’ but carry over into their public participation. It is not entirely clear whether this Convention also covers ‘indirect’ race discrimination - where there is no intention to act in a prejudicial or unfair way, but where it becomes obvious that the ‘equal’ law, or policy, or service, or circumstance in fact results in disadvantage because of a person’s race. An example of indirect race discrimination comes from a key US decision. A company had a policy that it would only hire workers who had graduated from High School. The majority of the people in the neighbourhood were
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The Convention covers ‘preferences’ as well as discrimination, so it addresses prejudices and assumptions explicitly. It requires governments to prohibit and eliminate racial discrimination and guarantee equality before the law with respect to every human right, including those covered by other human rights treaties, such as the ICCPR. It lists a wide range of civil, political, economic social and cultural rights, and also explicitly covers the right of access to public places and services (such as access to public transport and buildings), but the prohibition on racial discrimination covers any right covered by any treaty, whether mentioned in the Convention or not.
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African Americans. The majority of those people did not graduate from High School, for a range of reasons related to their disadvantage social and economic status, and their historical position as descendants of former slaves. The ‘indirect’ effect was that they could never meet the condition of getting a job with the company, because of a characteristic of their race. Therefore, the policy was indirectly discriminatory. ‘Race’ includes skin colour, nationality, ethnicity and so forth, but not citizenship nor, in general terms, immigration laws. The Convention provides three exceptions to the duty to prohibit race discrimination: i. A country can decide who are to be its citizens, and noncitizens; ii. A government can make laws with respect to nationality, citizenship and naturalisation (provided that they do notdiscriminate against any particular nationality); and
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iii. Affirmative action (positive discrimination) is allowed so long as it is discontinued after it has achieved its objective, which must be an intention to achieve the advancement of racial minorities, and which does not lead to separate rights (such as the former South African policies of apartheid). The Convention also requires governments to make laws to prohibit and prevent racial vilification or incitement to racial hatred. Article 14 of the Convention gives anyone who feels that their rights have been violated under this Convention the right to complain, against the government not individuals, to the UN’s’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
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READINGS The International Court of Justice Moira Rayner
This court can hear cases referred to it, and all matters provided for in the United Nations Charter, or treaties or conventions in force.
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Many human rights treaties provide that the Court can hear a matter if it is referred to the court by one of the parties to the dispute- the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, for example. The Statues of the court is an integral part of the UN’s Charter, which provides that all members of the UN are parties to the Statute. It does not have the power to enforce its determinations - no ‘human rights’ enforcement agency does though there is a provision that a government may, at any time, declare that they recognise the jurisdiction of the Court as compulsory, without any special agreement, in relation to any other state accepting the same obligation. The International Court of Justice has no jurisdiction over the individual. It does not receive petitions or complaints from individuals, and it does not hear claims against people who are said to have breached international law. But it is one mechanism for addressing breaches by governments of their international contractual obligations to comply with treaties. It has been less used than the European Court of Justice which has, on several occasions, embarrassed nations who have failed to comply with the Council of Europe’s European Convention on Human Rights.
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READINGS International Criminal Court Tim McCormack & Helen Durham
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It is said that “All Roads Lead to Rome” but in the case of the International Criminal Court it took much longer to get to Rome than it ought to have done. In the early hours of 18 July 1998, the international community experienced an historic moment when the Diplomatic Conference concluded, after five exhausting weeks, with the adoption of the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court. The adoption of the Statute represented the culmination of more than 100 years of previously unsuccessful effort to establish such an institution. Now, finally, at the close of the Twentieth Century, the overwhelming majority of independent sovereign nation States had demonstrated a commitment to terminating the reign of impunity for the commission of gross atrocities in the world. Over 170 States participated at the Rome Conference as well as a number of Non-Governmental Organisations and International Organisations. The statute itself is a compromise reflecting the diverse interests, opinions and standards through-out the world for dealing with the prosecution of those who plan or commit actions that cause profound and horrific human suffering. The new Court, once established, will sit in The Hague and will exercise prospective jurisdiction over alleged acts of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression (although jurisdiction over aggression will be dependent upon the successful negotiation of an appropriate definition of the crime of aggression for inclusion in the Court’s Statute). The so-called principle of “complementarity” means that the International Criminal Court will not override national court processes and will only be able to exercise jurisdiction in situations where States are “unwilling or genuinely unable” to deal with particular cases. It is important to note, however, that complementarity will not prevent the Court from dealing with a matter referred to it by the United Nations Security Council which already exercises constitutional authority, regardless of State consent, under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter. It was also announced that the Court would have jurisdiction over war crimes committed in internal as well as international armed conflict. As the vast majority of modern armed conflicts are to be found
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within countries rather than between countries, for the Court to be effective and relevant it is essential that it reflects current realities. The Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court needs 60 ratifications before it enters into force and the Court is established. That is likely to take some time and the Court will probably not become operational until early in the new millenium. The Rome Statute is not a perfect instrument - like all multilateral treaty texts it includes a number of weaknesses which reflect necessary political compromises to reach broad international agreement. The fact that the Statute provides for a stronger, more effective Court than many anticipated and still received 120 positive votes, with only 7 votes against, is testament to the prevailing mood of the international community to convict and punish those responsible for the worst atrocities. The new Court has the potential to be the most significant multilateral institution since the creation of the United Nations itself in 1945.
Source: http://www.universalrights.net/main/world.htm
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READINGS An Enumeration of the Various Rights of Individuals, Groups and People as Contained in Major International Declaration and Conventions on Human Rights
UNIVERSAL RIGHTS OF THE INDIVIDUAL Civil Rights
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Right to life
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Right to Liberty
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Right to freedom from torture
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Human Rights
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Right to equality before the law
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Right to freedom from discrimination
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Right to juridical personality (be recognized as a person before the law
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Right to nationality
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Right to (bear and be registered under a) name
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Right to due process or the rights to have limitation (derogation) of one s rights implemented according to procedures prescribed by law
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Right to access to court
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Right to trial before a competent, impartial and independent judicial authority
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Right to public trial
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Right to be informed of charges
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Right to be presumed innocent
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Right to freedom from giving self-incriminating evidence
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Right to access to relevant information
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Right to (free) legal assistance
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Right to choose defense (have legal counsel of one’s choosing)
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Right to have adequate time and facilities to prepare defense
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Right to defend and be heard in person
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Right to communication with defense counsel
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Right to the free assistance of an interpreter
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Right to equality of arms (to have a reasonable opportunity to present one’s case before the court under conditions which do not place one in disadvantage vis-a-vis one’s opponent)
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Right to examination of witness
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Right to take proceedings (privilege of the writ of habeas corpus)
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Right to effective remedy (to have effective means of redress before authorities in case of violations guaranteed rights and freedoms)
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Right to freedom from durable jeopardy
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Right to non-retro activity of penalty (freedom from penalty heavier than the one applicable at the time the offense was committed
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Right to appeal or have one’s conviction and sentence reviewed by a higher tribunal
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Right to humane treatment (freedom from cruel, degrading or in human treatment or punishment)
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Right to appropriate treatment as a prisoner Right to protection from abuse of authority Right to receive, seek, and impart information Right to freedom of conscience and to freely hold opinions (including religious and political beliefs)
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Right to security in one’s privacy of home
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Right to security in one’s privacy of communication
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Right to have one’s honor and reputation protected Right to liberty of movement (freedom of travel)
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Right to freedom of residence
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Right to obtain compensation in case of miscarriage of justice
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Right not to be subjected to medical or scientific experiments without free consent
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Right to marry (including right not to enter into marriage with out giving free and full consent)
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Right not to be deprived of property arbitrarily
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Right to freedom of imprisonment due o debt
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Right not to be arbitrarily exiled
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Right to enter a country
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Right to leave a country
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Right to freedom from incitement to discrimination, hatred or violence (to be protected through the prohibition by the state of the head advocacy of national, racial or religious discrimination, hatred or violence)
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Right to conscientious objection (objection to perform compulsory military service for reasons of conscience or profound religious, ethical and similar convictions)
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Right to alternative service of a civil nature offered as alternative to compulsory military service)
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Political Rights •
Right to freedom of expression (including press freedom)
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Right to freedom of assembly
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Right to freedom of association
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Right to vote
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Right to political participation (to campaign for and/or participate in party politics, etc.)
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Right to free and periodic elections
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Right to equal access to public service (including right to be elected to office)
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Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
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Right to work
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Right to choice of employment
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Right to own property
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Right to adequate standards of living
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Right to access to education
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Right to found a family
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Right to respect and protection of the family as the fundamental group unit of society
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Right to social security
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Right to insurance
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Right to social and medical assistance
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Right to adequate nutrition
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Right to social welfare benefits freedom indispensable for research
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Right to enjoyment of scientific advancements
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Right to protection of health (such as prevention and control by the state of epidemic diseases)
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Right to protection of morals
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RIGHTS OF PROTECTED GROUPS Rights of Workers Right to equal remuneration (equal pay for equal work)
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Right to collective bargaining
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Right to appropriate bargaining machinery
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Right to form and join trade unions
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Right (of trade unions to federate)
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Right to strike
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Right to paid leave
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Right to pair remuneration
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Right to limited working hours
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Right to weekly rest periods
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Right to advance notice of dismissal
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Right to equal opportunity for promotion safe and healthy working conditions
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Right to just working conditions
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Right to joint consultation between worker and employers
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Right to progressive reduction of working hours (limitation of working hours specifically in proportion to increase of productivity)
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Right to sheltered employment
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Right to vocational guidance
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Right to vocational training
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Rights of Women •
Right to equal renumeration
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Right to equality of the sexes
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Right to equality of the spouses
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Right to protection from exploitation
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Right to maternity leave of pregnant women
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Right to freedom from capital punishment of pregnant women
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Rights of Children and Juveniles
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Right to a name
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Right (of children born out of wedlock) to enjoy equal rights as those born in wedlock
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Right to access to education (including free and compulsory elementary education)
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Right to free vocational training/apprenticeship
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Right (of arrested juveniles) to rehabilitation
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Right to freedom from capital punishment
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Right to protection from neglect, cruelty and exploitation
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Right to protection through a minimum age for employment
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Right to opportunity for play and recreation
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Right to social services
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Rights of Aliens
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Right to territorial asylum
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Right to freedom from deportation (not to be deported to a country where their right to life or personal freedom is endangered because of their race, nationality religion, social status or political opinion)
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Right to freedom from collective expulsion
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Right to family reunion (right to reunite one’s dispersed family)
Rights of Prisoners
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Right to be registered as a prisoner
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Right to be separated in categories (men should be detained separately from women, untried prisoners fron convicted prisoners, persons imprisoned for debt from criminals, and young person from adults
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Right to individual accommodation
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Right to adequate ventilation, lightning, heating sanitary facilities and other necessitates for health and hygiene
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Right to clothing and bedding
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Right to adequate food and water
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Right to suitable exercise and sport
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Right to medical services
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Right to freedom from corporal punishment, and all cruel or degrading punishment
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Right to freedom from punishment, including disiplinary measures, except in accordance with law and regulations
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Right to present request or complaints to authorities
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Right to contact with family and reputable friends (by correspondence and receiving visits)
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Right to be regularly informed of news in the outside world
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Right to use of prison library
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Right to practice religion
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Right to retain personal property
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Right to protection from public security
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Right (of women prisoner) to be attended to by women officers only
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Right (of insane and mentally abnormal prisoners) to be removed to mental institutions
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Rights of Aging Persons
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Right to freedom from capital punishment
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Right to social security
Rights of Differently-Abled Persons
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Right to preferential employment from differently-abled persons
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Right to occupational rehabilitation
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Right to social resettlement
Rights of Indigenous Peoples
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Right to existence
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Right to the respect of its national and cultural identity
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Human Rights
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Right to retain peaceful possession of its territory and to return to it if expelled
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Right to self-determination
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Right to freedom from genocide
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Right to freedom from colonial or foreign domination
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Right to freedom from apartheid
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Right to a democratic government
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Right to dispose of natural wealth and resources
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Right to participate in international scientific and technical progress
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Right to equal and just terms in international trade
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Right to culture, such as the right to linguistic and cultural freedom, and the right to its artistic, historical and cultural wealth
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Right to the conservation, protection and improvement of their environment
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Right to make use of the common heritage of humankind (the high seas, the sea bed, the outer space)
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Right to collective enjoyment of rights and freedoms
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Right to linguistic and cultural freedoms
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Right to freedom from discrimination
Source: Amnesty International (1998). Human Rights Education Learning Package: Trainor’s Manual.
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Module 6 PROMOTING THE C U LT U R E O F P E A C E
Objectives: 1. To identify conflict situations and the processes to handle them. 2. To identify peaceful approaches to resolving conflicts. 3. To apply three approaches and try to come up with alternatives to the conflict situation in Mindanao.
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Activity TRIBAL WAR
Objectives: 1, To clarify the nature of conflict. 2. To evolve a working definition of conflict.
Procedure: 1. Instruct the participants to form four groups. These groups should form one side of a square.
Group 1
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Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
2. Each team will choose a name based on an ethnic group in Mindanao. 3. The facilitator will tell the groups that they are at war with each other. The object of the game is to exchange places with the team that the facilitator will call out. For example: "Group 1 - exchange places with Group 4!" 4. The first team to "occupy" the other's territory first will be given a point.
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5. In order to make the game more interesting instruct the teams to: •
All groups should exchange places with the group before you!
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All groups should occupy the place on your right!
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The group in the north should move to the east!
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The group in the north should move to the east! The east to the west!
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The facilitator will note the behavior of the participants as they run and hurry to "occupy" the other's territories.
6. The facilitator should note the participant's behavior. 7. In the pursuit of one's objectives, we sometimes forget to consider others in our efforts to achieve goals. Can we also use peaceful means in attaining out goals? How? Possible answers: People call out where they want to go. 8. For processing, point out to the participants that there are both similarities and differences on how we perceive or understand conflict that is basically social in nature. Our understanding of conflict is based on past experiences with our family, neighborhood, schools, etc.
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9. Deepen the activity by explaining that we should be able to go beyond just resolution or management of a certain conflict situation: there is a need to transform conflict into an opportunity for growth. 10. Elicit some concepts from the participants that would lead to the discussion of the two common terms associated with handling conflict, namely resolution and management. Differentiate the two: Conflict resolution -- It is limited in scope. It means settling issues but not resolving relationships. It leaves the impression that a conflict ended. Conflict management-- It recognizes that conflict is ongoing and has to be dealt with. This is based on the assumption that we can control conflict. This goes beyond resolution.
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Moreover, to be able to transform conflict into an opportunity for growth, stress the following points: a. Conflict transformation rests essentially on two premises: i.
Recognizes that conflict changes everything- it changes selves, feelings, relationships, ideas, etc.
ii. Seeks to know and identify patterns produced by conflict b. It includes both resolution and management. It is focused however not only on resolving issues but also on seeking changes in the four levels where conflict happens: personal, relational (you with another and others), structural (family, schools, organizations, etc.), and cultural (beliefs, traditions, technology, etc.). When we get involved implicitly, we are seeking social transformation.
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16. End the session by encouraging the participants to share some words or phrases about conflict. These will now be the bases of the group's working definition of what conflict is.
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Alternative Activity KAPIT BISIG Objectives: 1, To clarify the nature of conflict. 2. To evolve a working definition of conflict.
Procedure 1. Start the session with the following exercise a. Ask the participants to group themselves by countingoff. There should be at least five persons in a group. b. With members staying together, spread the different groups in the room. c. Tell the members to hold each other with arms crossed. d. Instruct everybody that each member in the group must think of a spot inside or outside the room where he or she should like to bring the group without telling his or her group companions where the spot is.
f.
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e. Remind everybody that this is a non-verbal exercise, thus, each one will try as hard as he/she can bring his/her companions to the spot without talking to each other. Give them about 15 minutes to go through the exercise.
2. After the time, ask everybody to go back to the lesson room and settle down and ask the following questions: a. Upon the signal for you to start, what did you do? b. Were you able to bring the group to the spot you wanted? If yes, what possibly contributed to a successful move? If no, why? 3. In the pursuit of one's objectives, we sometimes forget to consider others in our efforts to achieve goals. Can we also use peaceful means in attaining out goals? How? Possible answers: People call out where they want to go. 4. For processing and deepening, refer to Tribal War Activity (Source: Panagtagpo sa Kalinaw: A Basic Orientation Manual Towards a Culture of Peace for Mindanao Communities)
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Activity EXPERIENCES OF CONFLICT AND CONVERGENCE Objectives: 1. Recall experiences of convergences and peaceful settlement of conflicts. 2. To instill the idea that multi-groups can work together peacefully.
Procedure: 1. Have the participants form heterogeneous groups of a convenient size.
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2. Ask them to recall instances of conflict between various cultural groups in the community or neighboring areas. To guide them in their discussions, give the following guide questions:
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How were they resolved?
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Who were instrumental in its reolution?
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What did they do?
Ask them also to recall instances of positive relationships (where various groups helped each other, where each group shared for the common good without consideration of creed or tribe, etc.). Ask the following questions to guide them in their discussions:
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How was the positive relationship achieved?
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Who were the key people involved?
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What did they do?
3. In the plenary, the groups may present the experiences creatively.
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Collage-making: symbols or pictures of people in conflict/helping each other Role-playing: choose one experience that is representative of conflict and convergence in the community Others (may be through songs, dances, poem, "balagtasan") 4. In the processing, ask them the following questions: For conflict situations:
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What were your insights?
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How did the conflict start? What made it bigger?
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What was the response of people in power?
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How could the conflict have been avoided?
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How do we avoid similar cases of conflict?
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For positive relationship:
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What facilitated the positive relationship to prosper?
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How can the example be propagated?
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How do we help each other more?
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Emphasize the following points:
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Identification of key players and concrete steps to be undertaken to correct misconceptions are important.
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External factors cause conflict but internal resources are used to solve it.
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The exercise shows that it is possible to look forward and work together.
5. End the activity by sharing a concrete story of conflict and convergence. You may use the suggested story found on the attachment on page 84 or you may share a local story. (Source: Panagtagpo sa Kalinaw: A Basic Orientation Manual Towards a Culture of Peace for Mindanao Communities)
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Activity SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS AND VIOLENCE
Procedure: 1. Ask the participants to form three groups. Instruct each group to discuss the following topics:
Hindrances to peace
Those that promote peace
Group 1 - Family Group 2 - School Group 3 - Media (movies, newspaper, TV, radio, etc.)
2. Provide 10 minutes for discussion and preparing the matrix for reporting.
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3. Plenary reporting. 4. The following lecture guide should help with synthesis and input.
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LECTURE GUIDE Institutions that promote violence It is very sad to note that, our society is shaping people's minds on wars and violence through institutions that are supposed to be beneficial to society.
a. Educational system People are unconsciously made to believe that war is an acceptable alternative to conflict resolution because it is taught in history classes that certain conditions merit the staging of war or revolutions. However, the educational system is also a venue in which war mentality can be countered by teaching peace: through changes in attitudes, thinking, behaving and teaching positive values such as respecting and upholding the rights of all.
b. Family
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It is possible that the way the family raise children also contributes to the culture of violence. If children are disciplined with beatings they learn that when someone does something wrong they deserve to be hurt. That in order to make a situation "right" violence must be used.
c. Media Media has pervasive and insidious reach. It is a powerful force that can influence and mobilize people and yet influence them to become passive and desensitized individuals.
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Media portrays images of war. These are in televisions, theaters, newspapers, radio.
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Movies glorify bad guys
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Treading the path of peace Peace can be achieved. However, it should be peace based on justice and equality. The current war in Mindanao provides no peace to all residents, be it Christian or Muslim. However, Christians and Muslims not only in Mindanao can work for the achievement of peace. Christians and Muslims in Metro Manila have continually protested the armed conflict in Mindanao. They have also worked together and pooled their resources to provide relief goods to the refugees in Mindanao and send doctors and social workers.
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A concrete experience of local initiative to promote peace was with the establishment of Zones of Peace. (Cite examples) They were established by Muslim and Christians in these areas free from military or any armed group.
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Activity INDIVIDUAL REFLECTION
Materials: Pens and a paper cutout of a dove (which should be big enough to write three or four sentences).
Procedure: 1. Give each participant a cut-out of a dove. 2. Each participant will complete the following sentences on the dove: "In order to promote peace…. a. I will stop ________ b. I will begin to _______ c. I will continue _______"
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3. Form a circle. Each participant will read what he/she wrote. When all have shared, the group will hold hands and sing "Let there be peace" (Or any other appropriate song to end the session).
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READINGS Philippines-Mindanao (1971 - first combat deaths) Update: December 2002 Project Ploughshares
Summary: 2002 Fighting remained intense between the government and the main rebel groups, the ASG and the MILF, resulting in the deaths of over 800 people. The Philippine government accepted military antiterrorist training and support from the United States military. 2001 Fighting between government and rebel groups intensified in 2001 even during peace negotiations. In November, a rebel faction abandoned a 1996 peace agreement and launched an attack against government troops. More than 1,000 people lost their lives due to the fighting.
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2000 Tensions in the southern island of Mindanao heightened significantly as the Philippine government mobilized more troops to counter rebel attacks. In March and April, foreign and local hostages were abducted by Abu Sayyaf rebels, held for ransom, and most were eventually released. At least 600 people (civilians, rebels and government soldiers) died this year as a result of the clashes, a sharp increase over 1999. 1999 Despite commitments to peace talks, periodic clashes between government forces and Muslim rebels persisted in Mindanao in 1999. More than 100 people were killed during the year, an increase over total conflict fatalities in 1998. 1998 Sporadic clashes between government forces and rebel groups in 1998 continued alongside government peace talks with the largest remaining Muslim separatist group. 1997 In spite of a government peace agreement with the largest Muslim insurgent group, and a ceasefire and talks with separatist rebels, clashes continued through 1997.
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1996 A peace agreement between the largest Muslim rebel group and the government did not prevent clashes between other Mindanao rebels and security forces. 1995 Government troops struck against Muslim rebels following attacks on Mindanao towns attributed to break-away rebel factions.
Parties to the Conflict: 1) Government, led by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyoelected January 2001 o
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP);
o
Philippine National Police (PNP). "The Department of National Defense controls the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), and the Department of Interior and Local Government supervises the civilian Philippine National Police (PNP). The two forces share responsibility for fighting a declining Communist insurgency and radical Muslim separatists." [The Philippines Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1995, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, US State Department, 1996]
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o US military In late 2001and early 2002, US troops were committed in support of the Philippines government as part of the US "war on terror." 2) Rebels: o
Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) a Moslem group led by Nur Misuari which reached a peace agreement with the government in 1996;
o
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), led by Salamat Hashim, is a splinter group of the MNLF with reported support from overseas militant Islamic organizations. The MILF was established in 1984. Estimated force of 15,000 members (June, 2000);
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o
Moro Islamic Liberation Organization, a faction of the MNLF which broke away in 1992. Estimated size -- 1,800 standing army and 1,500 reserves; and
o
Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), a fundamentalist Moslem group led by Abubakar Abduradjak. Estimated membership is 1,000 fighters (May, 2000). "The Abu Sayyaf has garnered more international headlines than other Moro political groups in recent years, largely because of the ASG's high-profile kidnappings and previous links to al-Qaeda. In addition to the Abu Sayyaf group, there are two larger political movements - the Moro Natonal Liberation Front (MNLF) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) - that aim to represent the roughly 4-5 million Moro community, most of whom live on the island of Mindanao and some nearby smaller islands." [The Washington Times, January 17, 2002] "The military estimates that rebel numbers have slumped to less than 250 fighters from a peak of about 1,200 two years ago, largely due to battlefield losses." [BBC News, June 14, 2002]
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"…the focus on the Abu Sayyaf has fogged the fact that there is a more serious insurgent force in Mindanao, the 15,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a breakaway group from the MNLF." [InterPress Service, 22 September 2000] 3) Private armies and Christian vigilante groups (death squads): "Civilian militia units or Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Units (CAFGUs) [established by Executive Order of President Aquino in July 1987 to replace the notorious Marcos-era Civilian Home Defence Force (CHDF)] also committed extrajudicial killings. Organized by the police and the AFP to secure areas cleared of insurgents, these nonprofessional units are often inadequately trained, poorly supervised, and prone to violence." [The Philippines Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1995, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, US State Department, 1996] "There are at least 34 extremist Christian groups currently in existence in the southern Philippines, most of whom were originally formed, armed and trained by the Philippine military as anti-MNLF
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and anti-Communist vigilantes in the 1970s." ["Prospects for Peace in Mindanao," Peter Chalk, CANCAPS Bulletin, November 1996]
Status of Fighting: 2002 The Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) stepped up its attacks on Christians and foreigners in response to the Philippine government's willingness to accept US military support to combat insurgency. The MILF also intensified its operations by retaking camps it lost to the Armed Forces of the Philippines several years ago. "Abu Sayyaf recently threatened attacks in retaliation for a military offensive against it, and has been blamed for another bombing in Zamboanga on 2 October that killed four people, including an American Green Beret commando." [CBSNews.com, October 19, 2002] "Ediborah Yap [a Filipina nurse] and Christian missionary Martin Burnham were killed during a gun battle between the Muslim guerrillas who had held them for more than a year and Philippines soldiers." [BBC News, June 14, 2002]
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"US troops spent six months earlier this year helping train Philippine troops to combat the Abu Sayyaf. On Thursday the two countries finalised a five-year military logistics agreement aimed at strengthening their fight against terror." [BBC News, November 21, 2002] "The reported stepped-up activities of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Mindanao, though smacking of propaganda, are rather disturbing. The military has claimed that the rebel group launched a new offensive and have begun to retake the camps it lost two years ago." [The Manila Times, March 7, 2002] 2001 Sporadic fighting was reported between government troops and rebels throughout the year. A number of kidnappings by rebel groups led to numerous government raids against rebel strongholds. In November, a MNLF rebel faction broke the peace agreement reached with the Philippines government in 1996 by launching an attack against army units. In December and January 2002, US troops were sent to the region to assist the Philippine government against the Abu Sayyaf rebels.
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"Hundreds of Muslim rebels have launched attacks on army units in the southern Philippines, reneging on a 1996 peace deal with the government. The regional army commander said 51 followers of former rebel chief Nur Misuari had been killed in the attacks on the island of Jolo. He said four soldiers had also died." [BBC, November 19, 2001] "Government troops have seized six Muslim guerilla camps in the southern Philippines as fighting between the military and a rebel group entered its fourth day. The death toll from the fighting has risen to 160 as vintage warplanes pound suspected rebel strongholds in the mountainous island of Jolo." [CNN, November 22, 2001] "At least 28 people are reported to have died after the Philippines military launched a pre-dawn attack against Muslim rebels in the southern city of Zamboanga." [BBC, November 27, 2001]
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"The United States is sending 650 soldiers to the southern Philippines, where the military is fighting the Muslim militant Abu Sayyaf group. Philippines government officials said the American troops would not be directly involved in the fight, but some would enter combat zones." [BBC, January 14, 2002] 2000 Tensions in the southern island of Mindanao heightened significantly as the Philippine government mobilized more troops (about 70,000 soldiers) to counter attacks by MILF and Abu Sayyaf (ASG) rebels. The increased violence was triggered by a government attack on a highway held by the MILF linking southcentral and northern Mindanao. In March, ASG fighters kidnapped 53 persons on Basilan island, mostly teachers and school children. Four hostages were killed but all others released following negotiations with the government. In April, twenty-one foreign and local hostages were abducted in the island resort of Sipdan, Malaysia by the ASG and brought to the Philippine island of Jolo. Most hostages were released, reportedly after millions of dollars in ransom were paid by Libya and Malaysia. In September, the Philippine armed forces launched a major offensive in Jolo, deploying 4,000 air and ground troops to rescue the remaining hostages. By year end, all but two were released or rescued. "For the first time in 25 years, the southern island of Mindanao saw the longest and most intense fighting between rebel forces and government troops. The military took over the main camps of the
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MILF - and the rebels have now shifted to guerrilla tactics." [InterPress Service, 22 September 2000] "…the armed forces have carried out indiscriminate bombings, resulting in civilian casualties, summary executions, arbitrary arrests and 'disappearances' of suspected Abu Sayyaf sympathizers." [Amnesty International, 5 October 2000] "Army spokesmen said troops began a massive offensive last Monday, pounding with artillery the Moro Islamic Liberation Front's (MILF) camp at Bushra in the town of Butig in the southern province of Lanao del Sur. Running gun battles raged for the past five days, regional army spokesman Colonel Hilario Atendido said here." [The Times of India Online, 27 November, 2000] 1999 Intermittent clashes between government forces and rebels continued in Mindanao in 1999, mainly over the control of territory. "Periodic AFP clashes with the main remaining Islamic Insurgent Group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) continued to inflict hardships on civilians. Most of the fighting took place in western Mindanao provinces and was related to the control of territory, a central issue in the Government's peace talks with the MILF." [Philippines Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1999, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, US Department of State, 2000]
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1998 Sporadic clashes between government forces and rebel groups in 1998 continued alongside government peace talks with the largest remaining Muslim separatist group. "The army earlier this year resumed its lead role in the counterinsurgency campaign focused on the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which is active in Mindanao." [Jane's Defence Weekly, 12 August 1998, p28] "Following further clashes in January, talks were held in February, and army units on the perimeter of Abu Bakr pulled back five kilometers." [AsiaWeek, April 3, 1998] 1997 In spite of a government peace agreement with the largest Muslim insurgent group, and a ceasefire and talks with separatist rebels, clashes continued through 1997.
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"Despite a 1996 peace agreement between the Government and the Moro National Liberation Front, a major Islamic insurgent group, occasional clashes between government and insurgent forces loyal to the militant Moro Islamic Liberation Front continued to inflict hardship on civilians. ... In June despite a negotiated cease-fire with the MILF, the army attacked a large MILF base area in Maguindanao province to rescue alleged kidnap victims, displacing more than 18,000 families." [The Philippines Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1997, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, US State Department, 1998] "At least 19 Abu Sayyaf Muslim rebels and two Philippine soldiers were killed in five days of fighting on Basilan Island. Representatives of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front refused to atttend peace talks until the completion of investigations into the alleged 16 March shelling of an Islamic school." [Jane's Defence Weekly, 16 April 1997, p.15] "Four Philippine soldiers and 16 anti-government rebels have died in clashes between soldiers and Muslim extremists on the southern Philippine island of Basilan, where the armed forces deployed more troops and armoured vehicles." [Jane's Defence Weekly, 23 July 1997, p.16]
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"The MILF also lost its second largest base on Mindanao island when soldiers occupied it." [Reuters, 26 June 1997] 1996 Occasional clashes between MILF rebels and government security forces continued in Mindanao. "Despite an historic September peace agreement between the Government and the Moro National Liberation Front, a major Islamic insurgent group, occasional clashes between government and insurgent forces continued to inflict hardship on civilians. Most of the fighting took place in the Mindanao provinces, particularly North Cotabato, Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat, and Basilan." [Philippines Report on Human Rights Practices for 1996, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, US Department of State, January 30, 1997] 1995 Government forces struck against Muslim rebels in April after masked men, believed to be renegade members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), attacked
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the city of Ipil in Mindanao, killing dozens of civilians. The rebels attacked a second town later in the month. "According to the Ecumenical Commission for Displaced Families and Communities, internal conflicts forced some 14,000 families to flee their homes in the first 10 months of 1995. While several communities in Mindanao were caught up in this violence, the 43,000 residents of the city of Ipil suffered the most. On April 4, some 200 masked men arrived in boats, buses, jeeps, and other vehicles. They set afire and looted buildings in the town center, robbed 4 banks, killed some 50 people and wounded a dozen others in indiscriminate firing and fled with 40 hostages. Military authorities, who were criticized for failing to anticipate the attack or come to the city's aid, believe that the assailants were renegade members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the ASG." [The Philippines Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1995, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, US State Department, 1996]
Number of Deaths: Total: At least 100,000 people are estimated to have died in the conflict in Mindanao, with some estimates exceeding 150,000 deaths. Approximately 55,000 people have been displaced by the conflict.
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Several reports in 1996 placed total conflict deaths in 24 years at over 100,000. These included: Jane's Defence Weekly, 4 September 1996, p21 - "an estimated 150,000 lives" Reuters, September 2, 1996 - "more than 125,000 people" Guardian Weekly, August 25, 1996 - "120,000 Filipinos" The Economist, August 24, 1996 - "more than 100,000 lives" New York Times, August 20, 1996 - "more than 150,000 people dead" InterPress Service, June 26, 1996 - "Estimates of the death toll from that rebellion range from 50,000 to 200,000."
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There are also lower estimates. "Some analysts estimate about 50-thousand Filipinos have died during the 25 year armed struggle for a self-governed Muslim region." [Voice of America, February 1, 1995] According to one report, "more than 70,000 people died in the war between the Manila government and Muslim separatists ... in the early 1970s." [Guardian Weekly, February 18, 1996, p7] 2002 An estimated 800 people died as a result of the conflict, many of them Muslim combatants and military personnel, although Filipino Christians and foreigners were also targeted. "An explosion has killed a US soldier and a Filipino serviceman outside a bar near a military base in the southern Philippines city of Zamboanga." [BBC News, October 2, 2002] "Police in the Philippines say a bomb has exploded near a Catholic church in the southern city of Zamboanga. A guard at the shrine at Fort Pillar was killed in the blast and at least 12 other people were injured, Philippine officials said. It was the second fatal bombing in the predominantly Christian city in four days - on Thursday, seven people died and more than 100 were hurt in two bomb explosions at a shopping centre." [BBC News, October 20, 2002]
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"Police said the Zamboanga attacks bore the hallmarks of the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, a group linked to the al-Qaeda network of Osama Bin Laden." [BBC News, October 28, 2002] "Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines have beheaded two hostages, part of a group of Jehovah's Witnesses seized on Tuesday." [BBC News, August 22, 2002] "About 10 Muslim guerillas linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network were killed when government forces bombarded their positions in the southern Philippines ..." [The Globe and Mail, February 11, 2002] 2001 According to media reports at least 1,000 people were killed as a result of the fighting, the majority of them combatants. "Military officials in the Philippines say they have killed 15 rebels of the Abu Sayyaf group in fierce fighting on the southern island of Basilian." [BBC, October 8, 2001] "Troops rescued four hostages being held by Abu Sayyaf guerrillas
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in the southern Philippines. Reports from the field said 21 rebels were killed and 17 wounded." [CNN, October 14, 2001] "Officials in the Philippines say at least 24 members of the Aby Sayyaf rebel group have been killed in fierce fighting on two southern islands. Military officials say at least 16 rebels, and one government soldier, were killed in clashes in a village Talipao on the Island of Jolo where patrols were attacked by guerrillas. They said in a separate incident on the southern Island of Basilian that at least 8 rebels were killed." [BBC, October 21, 2001] "More than 50 people were killed when hundreds of members of the Muslim secessionist group Moro National Liberation Front stormed a military camp in the southern Philippine island of Jolo." [CNN, November 19, 2001] 2000 At least 600 people (civilians, rebels and government soldiers) died this year as a result of government-rebel clashes. "The Philippine armed forces have also committed human rights violations in the context of counter-insurgency operations, including extrajudicial executions, torture, 'disappearances' and indiscriminate killings of civilians." [Amnesty International, 20 April 2000]
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"Eighty-four soldiers have been killed and nearly 500 others wounded after nearly two weeks of fighting, with 21 others missing and presumed dead. The military said 150 civilians were killed this year in terrorist bombings blamed on the 15,000 member MILF and the Abu Sayyaf, a smaller Islamic separatist group." [http:// news.sawaal.com/11-May-2000/Reviews/25.htm] "The Philippine media have reported that the government assault has resulted in hundreds of casualties and forced thousands of Jolo residents from their homes." [The Washington Post, 21 September 2000] "Scores of guerrillas were believed killed after government troops overrun a Muslim rebel camp in the southern Philippines, the military claimed here Sunday." [The Times of India, 27 November, 2000] 1999 At least 100 people died in 1999 as a result of fighting between government forces and rebels. "During November Government and the MILF clashed in North
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Cotabato and Maguindanao provinces in Mindanao. A reported 45 combatants on both sides were killed in the fighting. An estimated 6,000 persons reportedly were displaced during the skirmishes." [Philippines Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1999, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, US Department of State, 2000] "In February, 60 people died in skirmishes between the Islamic front [MILF] and the army." [Globe and Mail, June 23, 1999] 1998 Figures are difficult to obtain, but it appears that casualties declined significantly from the number killed in 1997 fighting. "At least five deaths were reported in an Abu Sayyaf - Philippine Army battle in May." [Jane's Defence Weekly, 3 June 1998] 1997 At least 150 combatants and some civilians died in the fighting of 1997. 1996 Between 50 and 100 people were killed in clashes between rebels and security forces.
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"Over 51 people have been killed in three weeks of fighting in the southern Philippines. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front are one of several groups continuing to fight." [Janes' Defence Weekly, 13 November 1996, p19] 1995 Between 50 and 100 people were killed in clashes between government troops and rebels and in rebel attacks on Mindanao cities and towns. 1994 Fighting between the government and the MILF and the ASG killed over 100 people.
Political Developments: 2002 A number of embassies closed this year following a wave of attacks on foreigners. As part of its "war on terror" the American government provided a military training and equipment package to better equip the Philippine military to fight Muslim extremists, specifically the ASG. The role of the US forces was limited to training and the Philippine government prohibited the US from establishing a permanent presence in the country. The Philippine government
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and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed a peace pact in June and committed to follow-up negotiations. "Canada and the European Union have joined Australia in closing their diplomatic missions in the Philippines indefinitely after receiving information about an 'imminent' terror attack... Earlier this month, the authorities in the Philippines said they had foiled a plot to bomb the US embassy in Manila. This, they said, was hatched by a group allegedly linked to the al-Qaeda network. " [BBC News, November 28, 2002] "The US sent more than 1,000 troops to the southern Philippines to train local security forces for their campaign against the Abu Sayyaf, which last year took dozens of people hostage, including three Americans." [BBC News, August 22, 2002] "The government recently signed a pact with the MILF leadership in Kuala Lumpur and any hostilities between the two forces could jeopardize follow-up negotiations." [The Manila Times, June 10, 2002] 2001 In August the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and government negotiators signed a cease-fire agreement in Malaysia which lasted only a few weeks before fighting resumed. In October a supplementary agreement was signed. The government has refused to negotiate with the smallest and most extreme rebel group, the Abu Sayyaf.
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"Philippine government negotiators and Muslim separatist rebels have signed a cease-fire agreement bringing closer an end to almost 30 years of fighting. The deal with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front was finalised in Malaysia. It follows an accord with a smaller rebel separatist group, the Moro National Liberation Front, which struck a peace deal with the government in 1996. The pact leaves only the extreme Aby Sayyaf group still fighting for independence in the southern Philippines. The authorities refuse to negotiate with them." [BBC, August 7, 2001] "A faction of former Muslim separatists who signed a 1996 peace deal with the Philippines government has resumed its call for an independent Islamic state." [CNN, August 16, 2001] "A Philippine government delegation signed a secondary peace agreement with a key Muslim separatist group, the Moro Islamic
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Liberation Front. Both parties signed a manual for the cessation of hostilities, in the third round of peace talks being hosted by Malaysia between the government and the MILF. The new agreement supplements a cease-fire agreement in August, and lays out how to conduct and implement the cease-fire." [CNN, October 18, 2001] 2000 Philippine President Estrada called off peace talks with the MILF and initiated a military attack against the rebels. Later, in a bid to bring the rebels back to the negotiating table, Estrada ordered the withdrawal of criminal charges against MILF leaders accused of a series of bombings and massacres. In November, the President was impeached by the nation's House of Representatives on bribery charges setting in motion a trial to determine whether he should be removed from office. [Sources: InterPress Service, 22 September 2000 ; www.theage.com, 11 October 2000; CNN 13 November 2000] "The rebels, who are fighting for a separate Islamic state in the southern Philippines, withdrew from peace talks with the government partly because of the offensives and have refused recent government invitations to resume the talks." [The Times of India, 4 September 2000]
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1999 Launched in October, formal peace talks between the government and the MILF made no progress by year's end. "The second crucial issue is the ongoing peace talks between the GRP and the Moro Islamic Front. The formal opening of the talks was held on Oct. 25. It took more than two years before this ritual opening could take place." [Philippine Daily Enquirer, November 6, 1999] 1998 Following a ceasefire accord jointly signed the previous year, peace negotiations between the MILF and the government resumed in November. "The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) resumed peace talks with government negotiators Wednesday to avoid accidental clashes with government troops in the Southern Philippines. The Muslim secessionist rebel group sought government recognition of 46 of their camps in Mindanao." [ABS-CBN NewsOnline, November 5, 1998] 1997 In 1997 the integration of MNLF personnel with government forces began, a condition of a 1996 peace settlement. A January
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ceasefire between the government and the MILF was ineffective, and after postponing peace talks when government troops captured a major rebel camp, in October the MILF agreed to further ceasefire discussions. "In January, Philippine Government representatives and leaders of the separatist Moro-Islamic Liberation Front started talks to end fighting in the southern Philippines. On Jan. 27, the military signed a ceasefire with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, an insurgent group left out of last year's peace accord. By June fighting led MILF vice chairman to announce that the rebels had decided to indefinitely postpone scheduled exploratory peace talks with the government in view of the recent fighting." [Reuters, 26 June 1997] "Demobilization: The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) inducted around 1,100 members of the Moro National Liberation Front during an 18 March ceremony in Jolo. These are the first of 5,750 former rebels set to join the AFP following a peace accord concluded last year. On the other hand, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front has increased its forces by 30 per cent since last year to about 10,770 fighters, making it the Philippine's largest internal security threat, according to armed forces CoS Gen Arnulfo Acedera. [Jane's Defence Weekly, 15 October 1997]
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1996 After talks brokered by Indonesia on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), the government and the MNLF Muslim rebels signed a September peace agreement, to which other Muslim and Christian groups in Mindanao remain opposed. This established a three-year peace and development council headed by MNLF leader, Nur Misuari, after which a referendum will determine which provinces join an autonomous Muslim region. Over one-third of the rebel forces will be integrated into the Philippine army and police. "The compromise is to set up a Southern Philippines Council for Peace and Development, to be led by Mr. Misuari, which will oversee 14 provinces for three years." [The Economist, August 24, 1996] "In exchange, Mr. Misuari has abandoned his secessionist claims and will run as a candidate of Mr. Ramos' party for the leadership of the four-province Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, a distinct Moro area created in 1989 but regarded as inadequate by the rebels." [New York Times Service, August 20, 1996]
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"The breakaway Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which demands an independent Muslim state in Mindanao and claims to have up to 100,000 armed supporters, rejected the peace settlement and is awaiting separate talks." [Guardian Weekly, December 22, 1996] "The Philippines has welcomed an offer from Libya to host formal peace talks between the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front insurgents, scheduled for 10 November." [Jane's Defence Weekly, 13 November 1996, p.19] Also, "Some Christian groups have threatened to take up arms against the peace pact..." [Guardian Weekly, August 25, 1996] 1995 Peace talks between the MNLF and the government progressed during 1995, although the rising influence and threat of the MILF and other rebel groups have drawn a large deployment of government troops to Mindanao. "Despite differences, ongoing Government-MNLF peace talks made significant progress. In a climate of growing mutual confidence, MNLF Chairman Nur Misuari toured Christian-majority parts of Mindanao to promote a broader autonomous region." [The Philippines Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1995, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, US State Department, 1996]
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"The peace talks [opening in November in Jakarta], the third hosted by Indonesia, are aimed at ending a 23-year revolt led by the Moro National Liberation Front for Muslim self-rule in the southern Philippines." [Reuters, November 28, 1995] "To meet the threat from the MILF and more militant splinter groups, Manila has committed more than half its army to Mindanao." [Guardian Weekly, Feb 18/96, p.7]
Background: A massive US resettlement program early in the 20th century was accelerated after Philippine independence in 1946, resulting in an 80 per cent Christian population in Mindanao by 1983 and causing deep resentment among local Muslims. Since 1971 the government of the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines has faced armed opposition from several Muslim groups, earlier from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which sought greater autonomy
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for the island of Mindanao; and more recently from breakaway groups, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the fundamentalist Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), both of which seek Mindanao independence. Following the 1972 declaration of martial law by President Marcos and several years of intense fighting, the government agreed to a 1976 framework that led to an autonomous region of four Mindanao provinces in 1990. In 1996, the government and the MNLF signed a peace agreement but other Mindanao Muslim rebels and Christian groups opposed the settlement. Following a ceasefire accord jointly signed mid-1997, peace negotiations between the MILF and the government resumed in November 1998. By the end of 1999 peace talks had made no progress and in 2000, Estrada called off the talks with the MILF, unleashing military attacks against the rebels. By 2002, the MILF had reached a peace agreement with the government but fighting with the ASG continued. "... the decision was taken in 1971 to replace the MIM [Mindanao Muslim Movement] with the MNLF. The aim of the new organization was to achieve independence through armed struggle. To this effect, the Bangsa Moro Army (BMA) was created by Nur Misuari (the MNLF's leader) to act as the Front's military wing.
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"With the formation of the MNLF, the conflict in Mindanao rapidly escalated. Martial law was imposed throughout the Philippines and the army was essentially given carte blanche to use whatever means 'necessary' to eliminate the armed Muslim insurgency in the south -- including the formation of Christian vigilante death squads." ["Prospects for Peace in Mindanao," Peter Chalk, CANCAPS Bulletin, November 1996]
Economic Factors: There is a socio-economic disparity between the Christian majority and the Muslim minority in Mindanao. The Muslims in the most impoverished parts of western Mindanao believe government efforts to integrate them have not been successful. They point out that socio-economic development in those areas is lagging far behind the rest of the island. "Leaders in both Christian and Muslim communities contend that economic disparities and ethnic tensions, more than religious differences, are at the root of the modern separatist movement that emerged in the early 1970's...Some Muslim religious leaders
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asserted that Muslims suffer from economic discrimination, which is reflected in the Government's failure to provide money to stimulate southwestern Mindanao's sluggish economic development." [US Department of State 2000 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom, 5 September 2000] "Asiri Abubakar, a professor of Islamic studies at the University of the Philippines in Manila, argued that it should come as no surprise that Jolo residents help the rebels. Abubakar… noted that incomes, job opportunities, health standards and education levels of Muslims on the southern islands lag far behind the rest of the nation. To villagers in Jolo, he contends, the Abu Sayyaf rebels seem like a modern, Islamic incarnation of Robin Hood." [The Washington Post, 26 September 2000]
Arms Sources: The USA is the largest recent supplier of arms to the Philippines, followed by the UK, Israel, Taiwan and others. The communist rebels are armed with weapons captured from government forces. In 2002, the United States offered a military training and support package to the Philippines government to help fight Muslim extremists.
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[Sources: SIPRI Yearbook 2002, World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers, 1999-2002, The Military Balance 2000-2001]] "After meeting with President of the Philippines Gloria MacapagalArroyo on November 20, President Bush announced a generous military assistance plan for this Southeast Asian ally. In addition to a 'robust training package' and the $19 million already promised in foreign military financing, Bush said he would earmark $10 million in Defense Department goods and services for the Philippine military and $10 million for counterterrorism initiatives and law enforcement...The first piece of equipment, a C-130 transport plane, arrived on November 30 with '16,000 pounds of military hardware, including rifles.' On December 20, the U.S. Army sent thirty sniper rifles, twenty-five 81mm mortars, and 350 M-203 grenade launchers. Philippine officials said the equipment package would also include eight UH-1 'Huey' helicopters, Cyclone-class patrol boats, and 30,000 M-16 infantry rifles with 120,000 magazines. Other items on their wish list are twelve AH-1 'Cobra' attack helicopters and an unmanned reconnaissance plane, or 'drone'." [Human Rights Watch, February 2002]
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"Due to an escalation in separatist violence and the army's major operations against the MILF, the planned restructuring of the army was delayed, "including proposals to reduce its eight infantry divisions to three and to reorganize them as rapid-deployment forces." [The Military Balance 2000-2001, IISS] "Most [MILF fighters] are equipped with '70s-vintage weapons that flooded Mindanao at the height of the MNLF's war for independence. Later-model guns are quietly purchased from Philippine army units. The MILF also makes its own armaments. Hidden on a jungled hillside within the camp perimeter, one of several munitions factories turns out RPG-2 grenade launchers and their warheads." [AsiaWeek, April 3, 1998] (Source: http://www.ausa.org/www/armymag.nsf/(news)/ 20023?OpenDocument) U.S. ARMY CONTINUES THE FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM
U.S. ARMY IN PHILIPPINES
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The U.S. Army has deployed 660 troops to the Philippines to help the government in its fight against the Abu Sayyaf, an Islamic extremist group with links to al Qaeda. The exercise is a six-month joint operation to assist Filipino forces. The U.S. troops, which include 160 Special Forces personnel, will train and advise Filipino units who will then deploy to Basilan Island where Abu Sayyaf operates. A small number of U.S. soldiers will accompany Filipino units as advisors on their missions against the insurgents. The deployment is the largest outside of Afghanistan since the September 11 attacks. The Abu Sayyaf is holding American captives Martin and Gracia Burnham, missionaries from Witchita, Kan., and a Filipino nurse, Deborah Yap. They have been held for nine months in the dense jungles of Basilan in the southern region of Mindanao. Another American, Guillermo Sobero of Corona, Calif., was killed by the Abu Sayyaf. In addition to troops, the United States is also providing 30,000 assault rifles, eight troop transport helicopters, night-vision equipment and watercraft.
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LECTURE Conflict Management
Conflict is a natural and necessary part of group interaction. If there is no conflict in a group, members (from a multi-cultural group, for instance) might be holding back some of their real thoughts and feelings. Suppressed conflict can lead to smoldering resentments that might erupt in the future. While it is true that too much conflict can be destructive, if handled properly, it can be constructive, leading to greater clarity, awareness and harmony. Another critical role of the facilitator is being able to handle any form of conflict situation that may arise from group interaction.
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Here are a few guidelines for the facilitator responding to conflict:
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Accept conflict as natural. Treat conflict as an opportunity to examine the issues involved in depth.
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Bring hidden Conflicts out in the open. If you see signs of unexpressed disagreements, ask those involved what they are feeling. Sometimes, the absences of visible conflict among group members can be even greater problem. o
Many groups perceive lack of conflict as an indication of agreement or good meeting of process. "Niceness," though, can mask real disagreement, leaving it to fester under the surface. In such a case, you might say: "I sense that we're not addressing all the issues" or "In my experience it is unusual to find total agreement on a subject as important as this. I suspect there's more here than people are saying so far. I would like to invite you to bring to the open these concerns and let us help each other understand and agree on the matter."
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If the tension is high and people are not talking, simply saying… "What's going on here?" might open things up. You may try these approaches when you suspect the group is suppressing important issues, but as facilitator, don't pursue conflict for its own sake.
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• Disagree with ideas, not with people. Do not allow the participants to accuse or blame each other.
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Focus on issues central to the conflict. This may have the effect of escalating the conflict, but it is a necessary step to understanding disagreements.
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Call for quiet time when the atmosphere is too argumentative. Sometimes arguments get so heated that the participants are no longer listening to each other. Take a break, ask for a few minutes silence, or suggest that people count to ten before responding to the previous speaker.
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Remain neutral, as much as possible. An impartial facilitator can better watch the process of the meeting and help see howthe guidelines are being followed. As a facilitator, be aware of your opinions and feelings, however, the more clearly you can express what is important to you, the better you will be able to negotiate with others.
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Schedule a special or separate meeting outside the regular session to address deadlocked discussions if the conflict is just between an isolated number of participants and especially if the source of focus of the conflict is no longer within the big group's discussion concern.
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LIST OF PUBLICATIONS Psychosocial Trauma and Human Rights Program UP Center for Integrative and Development Studies University of the Philippines
Emerging Good Practices: A Documentation of the Experiences and Learning of Save the Children UK’s Programme for Abused and Exploited Children*
Changing Perceptions of Child Work* Agnes Zenaida V. Camacho 2001
Beyond the Home: Child Abuse in the Church and School*
Psychosocial Trauma and Human Rights Program 2002
Jay A. Yacat and Michelle G. Ong 2001
Integrating Child-Centered Approaches in Children’s Work*
Torture of Children in Situations of Armed Conflict: The Philippine Experience
Psychosocial Trauma and Human Rights Program 2002
Children Armed with M-16s: Primer on Child Soldiers in the Philippines*
Elizabeth Protacio-Marcelino, Ma. Teresa Dela Cruz, Agnes Zenaida V. Camacho and Faye A. G. Balanon 2000
Surviving the Odds: Finding Hope in Abused Children’s Life Stories*
Philippine Coalition to Stop the Use of Children as Soldiers 2002
Violeta Bautista, Aurorita Roldan, and Myra Garces-Bacsal 2000
Small Steps, Great Strides: Doing Participatory Action Research with Children* Ma. Teresa dela Cruz, Elizabeth Protacio-De Castro, Faye A. G. Balanon, Jay A. Yacat and Carolina T. Francisco 2002
Working with Abused Children: From the Lenses of Resilience and Contextualization* Violeta Bautista, Aurorita Roldan and Myra Garces-Bacsal 2001
Trust and Power: Child Abuse in the Eyes of the Child and the Parent*
Child Abuse in the Philippines: An Integrated Literature Review and Annotated Bibliography Elizabeth Protacio-Marcelino, Ma. Teresa Dela Cruz, Faye A. G. Balanon, Agnes Zenaida V. Camacho and Jay A. Yacat 2000
Recipes for Healing: Gender-Sensitive Care for Women Survivors of Torture Edited by Nancy Pearson, June Pagaduan-Lopez and Margaret Cunningham 1998
Human Rights and Health Professionals: Towards an Education Program for the Asian Region
Ma. Teresa Dela Cruz, Elizabeth Protacio, Faye Balanon, Jay Yacat and Carolina Francisco 2001
Psychosocial Trauma and Human Rights Program 1996
Improving the Referral System of Child Abuse Cases in the Philippines*
Torture Survivors and Caregivers: Proceedings of the International Workshop on Therapy and Research Issues
Arlyn G. Verba and Faye A.G. Balanon 2001
Household Adjustments and Child Welfare: Lessons Learned from the Asian Financial Crisis* Jenina Joy Chavez-Malaluan 2001
Organized by June Pagaduan-Lopez and Elizabeth ProtacioMarcelino 1995
Physicians and Torture: Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices June Pagaduan-Lopez, Angela Sison Aguilar, Joel G. Eleazar, Angus McDonald and Anita P. Schweickart 1995
For orders and inquiries, contact: UPCIDS-PST G/F Bahay ng Alumni, Magsaysay Avenue, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City Telefax: (632) 435-6890; 929-3540 local 20 Email:
[email protected] Website: www.childprotection.org.ph / www.psychosocialnetwork.org
*Not for sale (for exchange of publications and other research materials)
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