Part 7: How to Be a Human Rights Investigator and Reporter
A. Primary Training Resources
The Center for Universal Justice and Dignity follows a training program designed by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Since these international standards for human rights investigating, reporting, and monitoring derive from the earliest mandates for the United Nations, following the same training protocols will promote quality work by our staff that meets or exceeds professional standards and expectations of organizations who rely on our reports to make policy decisions.
The Center requires that all trainees become familiar with the complete Manual on human rights reporting, available at no cost online through the Office of the High Commissioner at the following link:
http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/manualhrren.pdf
You may also download sections of the Manual on Human Rights Monitoring. This manual for professional human rights officers includes an Introduction to the Reporting Manual, a discussion of Local Contexts and International Standards, a description of The Monitoring Function, and procedures for Following-Up and Reporting, and professional guidelines for The Human Rights Officer.
The introduction to the monitoring manual can be accessed through this link:
http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/training7Introen.pdf
Becoming familiar with these manuals is critical to your success in the training program to become investigators for the Center. Pay careful attention to Parts I, II, and III, which outline the history of the monitoring program, define basic terms essential to our work, provide local and global contexts as well as an overview of international human rights legal standards, and describe the processes of investigation, monitoring and reporting.
The monitoring manual lays out the basic principles of human rights investigation and monitoring in Part III (pp. 87-93), with emphasis on the imperatives to do no harm, respect all responsible parties, know and respect local customs as well as international standards, be sensitive to local contexts, and, above all, be honest, objective, and professional as you carry out your tasks with integrity. For other sections of the Monitoring Manual, go to:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/PublicationsResources/Pages/TrainingEducation.aspx, and click
on No. 7.
The Office of the High Commissioner also publishes numerous other useful resources and guides that you may wish to consult in preparation for your training missions and reporting. Go to the OHCHR’s publication website to see the full range of educational and legal documents available to the public:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/PublicationsResources/Pages/TrainingEducation.aspx#
B. The Training Program
You will be required to become intimately familiar with the Training Manual. But knowing the material does not guarantee success as a human rights investigator for the Center. Although it is critical that each trainee master the material to provide a competent grasp of the philosophical and moral theory, the Center has found that supervised, hands-on training in different contexts is the best way to provide real-world praxis to reinforce the underlying principles of human rights.
Essentially you will be required to complete training exercises in three of these five different parts of the world.
- United States - Hurricane Katrina emergency response and reconstruction
- Thailand – Sex trade in women and children
- Sri Lanka – Child Soldiers
- Afghanistan – The rights of women in tribal village
- United States – Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib
After completing three of these investigations, each trainee will be assigned to a team to conduct a thorough investigation of human rights violations. For more information about the reporting process, see Writing Reports for the Center on our training manual page.
Return to top