COHRE Trainers Guide 6 2007

HOUSING RIGHTS FOR EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE

TRAINER’S FILE

CENTRE ON HOUSING RIGHTS AND EVICTIONS

TIPS FOR TRAINERS

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Legal Rights and Citizen Education Programs: lessons learned

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Learning for human rights, as well as about them

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The main tasks of the facilitator/trainer

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Using common teaching aids

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Planning a training session

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Producing an Agenda

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Language issues

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Checklist for planning a training workshop

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Adult learning in a nutshell

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THE INTRODUCTORY SESSION

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Topic A :Introducing everyone

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Topic B : Expectation sharing

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Topic C: Setting House-Rules

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FRAMING THE DISCUSSION ABOUT HOUSING RIGHTS

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Topic A : What do we mean when we say the Right to ADEQUATE Housing?

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Topic B : Facts and Fiction - What do you think about housing rights?

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Topic C : What is the Housing Rights Situation in your Country?

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Topic D : Why Take a Rights-Based Approach to Housing Rights?

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HOUSING RIGHTS ARE ESC RIGHTS

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Topic A : Foundation Documents and the Interdependence and Indivisibility of Human Rights 40 BENFICIARIES OF HOUSING RIGHTS

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HOUSING RIGHTS UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW

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COHRE Trainer’s File Housing Rights for Everyone, Everywhere

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Topic A : Key Legal Sources on International Housing Rights Law

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Topic B : The contents of housing rights

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OBLIGATIONS OF THE STATE

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THE JUSTICABILITY OF HOUSING RIGHTS

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VIOLATIONS OF HOUSING RIGHTS

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Topic A: Who are Housing Rights Violators?

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Topic B : Acts of Omission and Commission

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FORCED EVICTIONS

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Topic A: Understanding forced evictions

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Topic B : Strategising around forced evictions

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NON-JUDICIAL STRATEGIES FOR PROMOTING HOUSING RIGHTS

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Topic A: Housing rights strategies that work

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TOPIC B: Monitoring and fact-finding

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USING THE UN COMMITTEE FOR ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS 70 Topic A : Overview of how the committee can be used

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Topic B : Using the Committee

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EVALUATING THE TRAINING PROGRAMME

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Daily evaluation of the programme

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Improving your own training skills

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Recording the process you use

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EVALUATION OF COHRE HOUSING RIGHTS TRAINING PROGRAMME

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ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES FOR TEACHING HOUSING RIGHTS ISSUES

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A process for a one-day workshop, based on one case study

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Miscellaneous activities

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A short and simple way to cover the right to housing (2 hours)

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TIPS FOR TRAINERS Legal Rights and Citizen Education Programs: lessons learned From: VeneKlasen, L and Miller, V A New Weave of Power, People and Politics, Pact, 2002, pg 86

A wide variety of legal and civic education programs exist worldwide with mixed impact.

The low success rate of many of these programs often has to do with the program’s emphasis on information as the key to empowerment. Such programs typically provide pamphlets, leaflets, flyers and brief talks that simplify legal information or describe how the political process works. While information is essential for people to exercise their rights and participate effectively, it is not only lack of information that keeps women, poor people and other marginalised groups from exercising their rights. Information alone will not make people feel they have rights.

Some of the reasons that information-centred education programmes fail to reach people who need them are: • There is no clear link between the information about laws, rights and government procedures and the concrete problems people face daily • Delivery of information that treats citizens as passive recipients can reinforce the perception that the law, rights and government are too complicated and not intended for people like them. In places with low literacy levels, written materials reach very few people.

Making expert information simple is not enough. The more important task is making knowledge relevant to people’s needs and experience so it can help them solve problems and improve their lives. Most people do not see the world through a legal or human rights lens. Making rights and citizenship real means starting with everyday problems and then making the connection to rights.

Tips for developing effective citizenship and legal rights education programs include: • Know your audience: Assess their needs, talents, knowledge and interests before designing materials and workshops • Be problem-centred, not information centred. For example, instead of starting by explaining laws and rights, begin by having people analyse common problems. Only then, introduce discussion of the laws and rights linked to those problems…

• Let learners define concepts in their own terms. What is democratic governance? What are rights? What is citizenship?…

• Link new information to problem-solving and daily experience. The format of discussion can begin with analysis of problems, and continue with new information prior to deciding on action.

• Distribute written materials at discussions, street theatre, or other media programmes to give people something to help them remember • Incorporate action planning as the final step of legal and civic education.

“What are we as a group going to do with this information? “What are individuals going to do next?” ”How can we use this information to address this problem and exercise our basic rights?

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Learning for human rights, as well as about them Although a lot of the content of COHRE’s training is about laws, it is important to remember that we are trying to contribute to a world where human rights are respected, protected and promoted. Thus we are trying to help people learn for human rights, not just about them. The ultimate goal of learning for human rights is empowerment – helping people develop the knowledge and skills to take control of their own lives and the decisions that affect them. This involves understanding the essence of national and international law, but it goes much further too.

We see Human Rights Education as “a process of learning, discovery and action that cultivates the knowledge, skills, attitudes, habits and behaviour needed for people to effectively know, assert and vindicate their human rights…” that it is founded on “mutual respect and reciprocal learning”.

There is a lot of literature supporting this. For example, the pedagogic principles of the Peruvian Institute for Education in Human Rights and Peace (IPEDEHP) emphasise the integration of cognitive and affective learning in its education for grassroots community leaders: Pedagogic Principles of the Peruvian Institute for Education in Human Rights and Peace Principle 1: Start from Reality – all learning must be based on the needs, interests, experiences and problems of the participants Principle 2: Activity – learning must be active – through a combination of individual and group activity Principle 3: Horizontal Communication - learning takes place through dialogue in which people share their thoughts, feelings, and emotions in an atmosphere of mutual respect Principle 4: Developing the ability to be critical – One must develop the capacity to be critical and to evaluate ideas, people and acts in a serious fashion Principle 5: Promoting the development and expression of feelings – it is only possible to learn values if the training methodologies take into account participant’s feeling.

Principle 6: Promoting participation – the best way to learn is by participating, being consulted, and taking part in making decisions Principle 7: Integration – learning is most effective when the head, the body, and the heart are integrated in the learning process.

(Quoted in Flowers, Nancy et al (2000), The Human Rights Education Handbook: effective practices for learning, action and change. Human Rights Resource Centre, University of Minnesota)

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The main tasks of the facilitator/trainer (With acknowledgements to the Partnership Organisation Manual, Community Water and Sanitation Agency, Ghana)

The main tasks of the trainer/facilitator are to help the participants to achieve their goal (get results) in a way that makes everyone happy (encourage participation) How do you encourage PARTICIPATION? • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Be friendly and relaxed. Don’t be too formal – talk in a conversational tone. Create an open atmosphere in which people feel free to talk Ask questions. Questions are your main tool for building participation. Keep your questions simple and easy to understand. If people don’t understand, repeat or rephrase your question.

Wait for responses. Ask your question and then pause. Give people time to think and come up with an answer.

Talk with your body. Smile, walk towards people, look at them, and use your hands and body to encourage people to talk.

Listen actively. Nod your head and encourage each person to talk with the use of short phrases –‘’yes’, ‘I see’, okay”, “and then?’ ‘tell me more Praise contributions. People like to feel that their ideas are appreciated. But don’t overdo it – people don’t want to be treated like children Keep asking questions. Don’t be satisfied with one answer. Repeat your question, ask it in a different way, or ask others if they have something to add.

Rephrase or repeat what people say. This helps to ensure that you and others have heard them and understood them correctly.

Don’t condemn or ignore what people say. If people say they have a concern, don’t try to convince them they have no problem. Take their concerns seriously, acknowledge the problem and help them look for solutions.

Limit your own talking. Remember – your job is to help others think, talk and find their own solutions, not solve the problems for them.

Observe – and equalise participation. See who is not talking and try to get them to talk. Keep the big talkers from dominating the discussion.

Involve all sectors. Encourage all groups to contribute – men, women and youth.

You can also use small group discussion to let them talk together.

Involve women. Make room for women’s voices. Look at them and invite them to speak. Make sure they are listened to and their views taken seriously.

Test the climate. Are people looking tired? Ask people how they are feeling. If they are tired, take a break or do a wakeup song.

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How do you facilitate to GET RESULTS? • • •

• • • • •

• •

Follow an agenda. Introduce one topic at a time, ask people to give their ideas and then ask for a decision. Keep the discussion on topic.

Set time limits. Decide how much time you need for each topic and try to organise the discussion within this time period. But be flexible – you may need more time for some topics because of high interest.

Use a problem-solving process: o Describe the problem. Draw out all possible facts about the problem o Brainstorm solutions. Draw out a number of solutions to the problem o Review the solutions. Ask ‘Which solution will work?’’ o Make a decision. Get agreement on what is to be done \plan for action.

Ask “ Who will do what by when and how?”

Ask questions. Questions are used to draw out people’s ideas on the problem and get agreement on the solution and how to implement it Draw out ideas and information. It is important to have all the facts and opinions in the open. This makes it easier to come to a decision.

Clarify. Repeat a point in different words to make it clear and then check with the speaker – ‘’What I hear you saying is …. Is that what you mean?”

Provide information. Sometimes you need to provide information yourself to allow for realistic decision-making, e.g. information on one of the technical options, how a disease is transmitted, or how to open a bank account.

Summarise. Briefly state the major points to help people see what they have said.

Example: ‘We have been talking about collecting money. One person said each individual should pay C200, another said C100, and another said each compound should pay C500. Before agreeing on the amount, let’s decide on how to collect – by individual or by compound? Which do you prefer?’’

Ask people to decide. Your aim is to get agreement on what is to be done. Restate the suggestions and ask for agreement. Check that people actually agree.

Plan for action. Help the community make a clear decision. Who is to do what and when? Check that people know what they have promised to do and feel responsible for completing the task.

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Do you have the talking disease?

We each have two ears and only one mouth, but we love to use our mouths more than our ears! Who does most of the talking in your training session? Is it the trainer, or the participants?

Facilitation is the art of teaching as much as possible by talking as little as possible

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Using common teaching aids The most commonly used teaching aids are • Flipcharts • Overhead projectors (OHPs) • Whiteboards/chalkboards • Videos • Posters, photographs, maps Flipcharts, OHPs and boards are usually used as an aide de memoir: • Trainer’s use: either the trainer writes key words or ideas on the flipchart or OHT or board as he/she leads the participants through a session (this can involve jotting down key points made by participants), or the trainer prepares the material before the session. Note that sometimes trainers use AV aids as an alternative to putting time into selecting appropriate teaching methods, and this should not be encouraged.

• Participant’s use: participants use flipchart paper to write down answers and ideas in groups for later use, or to help reporting back. It is helpful for a group which has been working to reach consensus on something to record their consensus in this way If you use an OHP, some golden rules are: • Do not leave it on when you are not using it directly (it will make people focus on the OHP and not on you, and they will easily get left behind in the discussion) • Make sure that you stand where you do not obstruct anyone’s view of the projected image • Lay a pen or something similar on the OHT so that it points to the issue you are dealing with at a particular time, or • Use a sheet of paper to block out parts of the OHT that you have not yet covered (otherwise people read ahead ad miss what you have to say) • Make sure that you write or type in big, clear letters, with plenty of space between sections

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Planning a training session Planning the training session is just as important as the training itself. You should spend roughly as long planning as running the session itself.

The content of your training course will depend largely on your analysis of the needs of the trainees, and on your analysis of COHRE’s engagement with the group. Before you can start working out what to cover, you need to ask and answer questions like: • Why do the learners want to come to COHRE’s training course?

• What do learners want to be able to do as a result of the training?

• What specific concerns or issues do learners want to address?

• Why does COHRE want to train these people about Housing Rights?

• What does COHRE want to achieve with the training?

• What specific concerns and contexts does COHRE want to address?

It is not that difficult to answer the questions about COHRE itself (though if you are going to have a training team from various parts of the world you will have to make a great effort to include the whole team in thinking about this, and you will have to pay attention to communication strategies.

It is more difficult to get this information about the participant learners in the programme, especially since the participant lists often do not get finalised until the last minute. One tip is to send out a pre-course questionnaire for people to fill in and return to you. Another possibility is to involve a partner organisation in the host country in collecting the information for you. If you don’t manage to get useful responses before the course starts, you must make sure that you spend sufficient time on these questions in the first session of the course, and you will also have to be prepared to change your plans at the last minute to accommodate the information you gather there.

If you are gathering information via a pre-course questionnaire or from a partner organisation, you should also try and find out other information about the kinds of participants who will attend, so that you can put together an appropriate programme.

You need to know things like; • The educational level of the participants and their culture and background • The participant’s existing level of knowledge about housing rights issues • The participant’s interest in the subject and their willingness to share experiences • Current issues and priorities for participants • The time that participants have available On the basis of all this (hopefully real!) information, you should then be able to think about • Which topics you should cover • The order in which they will be covered • What methods will be most appropriate for the participants • How to encourage the sharing of experiences and information between participants COHRE Trainer’s File Housing Rights for Everyone, Everywhere

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This trainer’s file and the participant’s resource manual cover a lot of different topics.

You will need to choose among the activities and the topics to put together a programme of the desired length and of the desired focus. You will find that it helps a lot to use the learning objectives at the beginning of each section in the trainers file when you make these decisions.

One more crucial thing to do before you start: Separate out what you think participants must know/be able to do, should know/be able to do and could know/be able to do. You will need aim to achieve the must know/must be able to do parts.

Choosing methods for training.

Your choice of method will depend on factors such as • The professional rank of the group being trained (eg are they judges or ordinary community members) • The time allocated • The level of literacy /education of the participants • The learning space available\The number of participants • The learning styles participants are comfortable with In this trainers file there are different ways of covering the same topic, so you should be able to “mix and match” activities fairly easily.

When you put together the whole programme, try to ensure that you use a variety of training methods, and that you get participants to use as many of their senses as possible to maximise their learning. Also take into account that participants often experience low energy levels at certain times of the day (e.g. straight after lunch) and it is better to get them involved in an activity then than to have them sit listening passively (and falling asleep).

Producing an Agenda This training package is put together in such a way that you can mix and match your activities according to the needs of the participants. The downside is you will have to put the agenda together yourselves. Begin by breaking the day(s) up into time blocks, which will be determined largely by meal times. Consistency in this is generally a good idea.

Remember to give focus to the most relevant and pertinent issues.

Participants usually like to have their own copy of the agenda, which you will therefore have to copy for them. A sample agenda is on the next page.

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Language issues The COHRE Resource Manual has been written in English. This can create difficulties for those training in other languages. Some concepts may not have exact equivalents in other languages. For example in English the word standards has two roots (a measure, and a rallying symbol) but there is no word in French that has the exact meaning. COHRE trainers in the Philippines, found that participants were confused about the expression 'forced evictions' because their own term for it was 'demolitions'. In Malaysia they do not like the word 'squatters' they prefer 'urban pioneers'. Besides these issues, you should remain aware that it is never very easy for ordinary people to understand legalese and you should try to talk in as colloquial a way as possible.

Some strategies to deal with language and translation problems are: • Right at the start of the training establish a language policy for the workshop which is as all inclusive as possible • When you introduce a new concept, describe the concept itself in three short, simple sentences. Then give the name for the concept that is used in the Resource Manual. Then ask people to say what term they would use for that in their own language.

• Refer people to the glossary at the back of the Manual.

• Put up a page of flipchart paper at the front of the room, and encourage participants to write any words they do not understand on the page. Encourage other participants to add definitions (you must do it if no participant does) in their own language. This can be done at any stage of the day, such as during breaks.

• Encourage people to use their own language to describe things, and if necessary get someone to give a summary in English

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Checklist for planning a training workshop THE VERY EARLY STAGES Set draft goal of workshop Choose a date, preferably three months in advance Decide: COHRE or COHRE plus a partner organisation?

Decide: Which organisation will assume responsibility for what?

Decide: Duration of training Decide: Residential training or non-residential training Decide: Will the venue be quiet and isolated, downtown and easy to get to, or in the office Decide: Who will be the trainers?

Decide: The desired number of participants Decide: The financial system (full or partial subsidy, per diems or funded meals, participant fees) Research suitable venues and obtain quotations Draft a budget Identify where funding will come from Obtain necessary funding Put together a training team Appoint a lead trainer to co-ordinate the training Decide on trainers Recruit the workshop administrator (from a partner organisation?)

Identify who will be responsible for ensuring that support is given to the participants after the training Begin the process of advertising the training THREE MONTHS IN ADVANCE Order resource manuals in sufficient quantity from COHRE secretariat. Allow at least 6 weeks for delivery and follow the progress carefully An alternative is to send the Resource Manual electronically to wherever the training is to happen and to get it printed locally, but this is often problematic and of poor quality – therefore to be avoided Draft objectives and agenda to create interest and focus preparations, but remain flexible Target the participants well and maintain consistent communication with them before the workshop Decide the target participant profile including language abilities, experience levels, position or function within their organisation, type of organisation Prepare application form, include questionnaire on training needs Prepare a short advertisement of the workshop, include goals, location, duration, trainers, target participants Advertise the workshop and disseminate application forms in meetings, with newsletters, or word of mouth

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Brainstorm a list of local individuals who might contribute to a high quality learning event If necessary COHRE or a partner organisations should personally recruit participants ONE MONTH TO SIX WEEKS IN ADVANCE Review applications and if necessary select participants based on draft goals of workshop and targeted participant profile Send out letters confirming participation and date of workshop Based on participant application forms and goals, agree objectives Finalise agenda Assign responsibilities in the team for various sections of the agenda Write up terms of reference (ToRs) for additional resource persons Recruit additional resource persons or content specialists if necessary Finalise the venue. Look for adequate size of main training room, breakaway rooms, break and meal facilities, experience and flexibility of venue staff, ease of transport to and from venue, office support facilities Contract the venue. Include training rooms, equipment, refreshments, break times, type of meals, meal times, refreshment available in training rooms Fax hotel when possible with a confirmation of number of rooms, participant list, detailed program Obtain travel schedules and if necessary visa requirements of each participant Organise transport if required for participants to and from the venue Confirm trainer travel schedules and accommodation Organise additional activities or special events for participants (such as evening activities or field trips) Obtain necessary equipment and resources TWO WEEKS BEFORE THE WORKSHOP Send participants final instructions Include the following: Title of workshop, date, arrival/registration/departure times Aims and objectives of workshop Outline of the agenda with daily start and finish times Venue location, map, facilities available and contact details Travel arrangements and details Checklist about what to prepare and bring (clothing, personal stationary, preparatory reading or work) Information about fees, expenses or per diem arrangements If workshop is residential, information about accommodation and meal arrangements Sort out the financial administration Review budget Review contracts, invoicing procedures and terms of payments COHRE Trainer’s File Housing Rights for Everyone, Everywhere

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Review procedure for accounting and cash disbursements Confirm with venue number of participants, confirm what workshop is financially responsible for and not Confirm how physically things will be paid: bills, cash, cheque, credit card Arrange stationery Flip chart stands and chart paper markers in various colours (NB Black is the easiest to read) Spare pens, and pads of paper Scotch tape, blue tack, post-it notes Hole punch, stapler, scissors, If overhead projector is used – transparencies and pens Arrange for Group photograph Prepare certificates of attendance

ONE WEEK BEFORE WORKSHOP: FINAL CHECKLIST Reminder phone call to participants and resource people Confirm travel arrangements to the venue Confirm travel and accommodation arrangements for training team Check equipment including connectors and cabling, correct power plugs and adapters if voltage Confirm lunches and coffee/tea breaks with catering Organise system for typing up the proceedings of important discussions Put together participant’s packs Agenda and welcome letter Instructions for the venue Emergency numbers Financial reminders Name tags Participant Resource manuals Photocopied handouts Evaluation forms Additional material from COHRE and partner organisations DAY BEFORE Organise room layout in consultation with lead trainer Check toilet facilities and supplies Check equipment is functioning, and confirm technical support in case of break down Check that training materials are photocopied and stationery is present

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FIRST DAY Receive and welcome participants Register participants and distribute participant’s packages Confirm return air tickets or travel arrangements Training rooms open in sufficient time?

DURING THE TRAINING Is the atmosphere friendly and inviting? What can you do to loosen things up?

Do your teaching methods build on and use the skills & knowledge of participants?

Do you encourage participation by asking questions and posing problems?

Do you identify, emphasise and repeat the most important points?

Do you leave out what is not important or too detailed (even if it is fascinating)?

Are the first few minutes of your sessions attention-grabbing, or do you lose people from the start?

Are you avoiding lectures or at least limiting them to 10-15 minutes?

Do you tell stories and give examples to illustrate ideas?

Do you make eye contact with participants in all parts of the room?

Can your voice be clearly heard in all parts of the room?

Can your writing be clearly seen in all parts of the room?

What is your body language saying?

Do you make sure that quieter or less powerful participants have the chance to speak?

AFTER THE TRAINING Immediately (i.e. within 24 hours of completion) lessons learned debriefing Thank you letter for resource people and organisations Pay invoices, collect receipts, determine how much it cost Produce workshop report and disseminate to whoever needs it Modify training materials Identify how to improve your practice the next time. WRITE IT DOWN AND FILE IT Send the participant’s evaluation forms to the COHRE secretariat for safekeeping and for use in reports.

FOLLOW-UP Identify what follow-up means and who will do it Will it be valuable to keep in contact with the participants yourselves – for what purpose?

Alternatively, have you discussed with a country-based partner organisation why they should keep in contact with participants?

How do you intend to keep in touch, and when?

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Adult learning in a nutshell

Adults learn best when: • • • • • •

They share, analyse and build on their own experiences They are encouraged to have dialogue with one another The topic is relevant to their own lives They are treated with respect at all times Their powers of reasoning and observation are encouraged, rather than memorising They do not feel they are wasting valuable time

(you may want to add more ideas of your own)

Maximise the senses used in learning

The Learning Cycle: Concrete Experiences

If I hear it, I forget it 20% retained

If I see it, I remember it 30% retained

If I see and hear, I remember more 50 % retained

Testing implications of new concepts in new situations

Observations and reflections

If I see, hear and discuss it, I remember even more 70 % retained If I see, hear, discuss and do it, I Know it 90% retained

And if I DISCOVER it, I use it!!

COHRE Trainer’s File Housing Rights for Everyone, Everywhere

Formation of abstract concepts and generalisation

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THE INTRODUCTORY SESSION Trainers’ Objectives:

•

To establish a friendly and respectful atmosphere which facilitates participation and learning

•

To introduce the agenda and ensure that it covers what the participants are expecting

•

To deal with administration and housekeeping issues

What’s on the CD-rom?

Nothing related to this section What’s in the Resource Manual?

Worksheet: Housing rights squares

This is one of the most crucial sessions of the programme. You have to keep it up beat and interesting enough to capture and hold the interest of the participants, and make them want to stay for the rest of the training.

A simple rule of thumb is: the longer your training session, the more time it is worth spending on these activities, especially getting-to-know-you activities and expectation sharing. If your training is being hosted by another organisation, they may want to set up formal opening procedures (speeches, prayers and all). This is a great opportunity for the hosts to take control of part of the programme, so don’t interfere. But negotiate the appropriate length of time allotted to this, trying to keep it short and sweet. And then do not skimp on the important introductory activities that you have to do as part of the training, for the reasons outlined below.

The first purpose of the introductory session is so that participants will feel free to participate fully in the activities that follow. You will • help participants to feel less strange and alone, and thereby increase their willingness to participate actively in discussions (by getting to know some of the other participants) • help them to release nervous tension (laughter is the best way to do this) • help them to see you as a human being (by establishing a rapport with them) • give participants a sense that the training is going to be interactive and fun COHRE Trainer’s File Housing Rights for Everyone, Everywhere

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•

establish a language policy so that most people can participate (for example, feel free to use your own language any time, and work out what need there is for translation)

The second purpose is to introduce the agenda and ensure that it covers what the participants are expecting. As part of organising the training session, you will have been involved in intensive discussions about this already, but you still have to check that your objectives are the same as the participants. It is a good idea to think ahead about how you would handle possible last-minute requests to change the agenda.

You will • Clearly state the objectives of the training session • Ask participants to say what they want to learn (see exercises below) • Point out which expectations raised by the participants cannot be met in this training • Explain the agenda/programme clearly so that participants know where the discussion is heading (either give out copies of the agenda or write it on newsprint and leave it displayed throughout the training) • Give participants a sense of some of the issues that will be covered in the programme (try to do this in an interesting way that makes them curious and keen to stay) Thirdly, the introductory session usually has to cover all sorts of administration and housekeeping issues. Keep this to the minimum, but is usually a good idea to • Establish basic house rules (for longer trainings you can get participants to do an exercise on this, otherwise be autocratic and announce rules about smoking and mobile telephones) • Introduce a staff-member who can help with any problems • Sounds silly to say this, but point out the toilets and the dining room

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Topic A: Introducing everyone Whenever a group comes together for any purpose, there should be some form of introduction unless everyone knows everyone else .At the very least, everyone should hear the names of everyone else. Beyond that, the introduction activity will depend on the size of the group, the time available, the tone of the meeting and the acceptable level of risk. Remember to introduce yourself in the same way.

Sample Activities 1. Simple introductions (about half a minute per person) Begin by introducing the training staff.

Ask participants to take turns to introduce themselves by saying their name and the organisation they represent. When people stand up to introduce themselves, others are more likely to remember them.

To further increase the chance of people remembering names and relaxing a little, you can ask them to give further information about themselves. Make sure that you ask them to say something that can be said in one or two words. Examples are; • what they came to this training for (see expectations section below) • how many other people share the house they live in • a talent they have • one interesting thing about themselves • or even something completely irrelevant like their favourite food 2. Pair and group introductions (5 – 10 min) This activity gives people the chance to get to know a few other participants a bit more personally, which is very useful if the group will be together for a few days. It works well with big groups.

Before doing this activity it is useful to agree on a signal to get the group’s immediate attention (e.g. a tap on a glass, a clap, a sound from a local musical instrument, waving hands in the air etc) Ask participants to get up and to pair up with somebody they don’t know, or somebody they know less well. Ask them to introduce themselves to each other and to find out a bit about each other’s lives. You could be more specific, and ask them to describe the house that they live in, or their ideal home. Make sure you give people enough time to really get to know one another a bit. After three or four minutes, give the attention signal and ask the pairs to join up with another pair, and to introduce their partners to each other. Follow up the activity with a round of simple introductions as in (1).

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3. Housing rights squares (15 min) This activity gets people to talk to one another about housing rights or human rights more generally. It gets people out of their chairs, which is good for encouraging interaction and participation. It is not suitable for groups who battle with reading. It works well with big groups.

Ask participants to turn to the housing rights squares in their Resource Manual.

Participants need to find answers to the different squares from different members of the group. They should write the answer and the name of the person who supplied it in the space in each square.

Stop the activity even if people haven’t finished, leaving about 5 minutes for participants to report their answers.

4. Drawing activity (15 min) Give people a sheet of paper and ask them to draw their own home. This could be a floor plan or a picture. Emphasise that it does not have to be a work of art. They should draw themselves into the picture, and if they wish, the other people who live in the home too.

After three minutes, ask participants to form small groups of four and after introducing themselves, to show their pictures and describe their homes to one another. (For a group of less than 10 you could do this in plenary instead). Stick the pictures up on the wall.

Variation: You could ask people to draw the home they wish they lived in.

Follow with a round of simple introductions.

Comment: You will probably get participants who protest that they can’t draw. The reason why we ask people to draw is that it forces them to think in a different way (they use a different part of their brain than when they are talking) and often they find a way of showing something that they find difficult to put into words. So keep an eye out for anyone who seems to stalling on the task. Encourage them by telling them they will be surprised at how well they actually can draw. Remind them that we don’t expect them to be great artists. Say that stick figures and diagrams are fine.

5. Mimed introductions (1 min per person, so don’t try it with big groups).

In plenary, ask participants to say their name and then act/mime something that is important to them, or an activity they really enjoy. You can make the theme things or activities in your home. Quite often this is unforgettable! It certainly loosens up the group!

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6. Interviews, including expectations (30 minutes) This one works best in longer training sessions. Copy one Participant Information Card for each participant (note these are not in the resource Manual, you have to copy them if you choose this exercise).

Participants should divide into pairs, preferably with someone they don’t know.

There are lots of ways of doing this. For example you could ask everyone to arrange themselves in a line according to their birthdays, and to pair up with the person who’s birthday is closest to theirs; you could simply ask them to find a partner that they don’t know; you could give out a set of pictures which have been cut in half and let participants find their other half” etc. All the effort that goes into fun ways of dividing people up is not just fun and games – it get people moving, it makes them laugh and relax, it ensures that they do not sit and talk to someone they know etc.

Once they have a partner, they should interview one another and record their partner’s answers on the Information Card.

You can then ask participants to introduce their partners to the plenary, using the information recorded on the card (this will probably take 2 minutes a participant).

Write up the expectations and resources on newsprint and then proceed as for expectation sharing, below. Stick the completed information cards on the wall and encourage participants to look at them during the breaks. Preferably leave the information up for the whole training.

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Participant information card Name ____________________________________________ Country/city________________________________________ Organisation_______________________________________ Occupation________________________________________ Name ONE of your expectations for this training session, ie, what you expect to be able to do at the end of the programme. Please explain. _____________________________________________________________________ Name ONE thing you feel you can offer the group. Please explain.

Participant information card Name ____________________________________________ Country/city________________________________________ Organisation_______________________________________ Occupation________________________________________ Name ONE of your expectations for this training session, ie, what you expect to be able to do at the end of the programme. Please explain. _____________________________________________________________________ Name ONE thing you feel you can offer the group. Please explain.

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Topic B: Expectation sharing There are three main reasons for getting people to say what they expect to learn: • it helps the trainer to know what motivates the learners, and whether the prepared programme should be adjusted in any way.

• it adds to learner motivation by helping them to feel that they have been consulted on the programme and that they have some power in the learning process.

• at the end of the training, it gives the trainers and trainees something against which to evaluate what they have achieved.

Sample Activities 1. Round room (30 seconds per person) This activity can be linked to the introductions, or done separately.

Ask participants to take turns to do one of the following • Say why they are here • Name one thing they hope to learn at this training • Name one thing they hope to do better after the training • Complete the sentence “One thing I want to learn today is….”

Write all comments up on flipchart and don’t allow any discussion/comment.

At the end summarise the expectations and relate them to the agenda. State upfront which expectations cannot be met through this training.

2. Brainstorm (5 – 10 min) Ask participants to simply call out what they hope to achieve/learn at this training, while you write everything onto flipchart. People can talk more than once or keep quiet as they wish. Do not allow discussion. Encourage people to keep up the pace.

3. Expectation Chart (20 min) This activity is more detailed and is better for longer training workshops, but can get a bit chaotic if you have more than about 20 participants.

You need a lot of small pieces of paper (A4 cut into 4) and tape, or use big post-it labels.

Give 5 sheets of paper to each participant and have extras available. Ask participants to write one thing on each sheet that they do or do not want from the training. They can write about content, format, or practical details. Prepare a wallchart with 3 columns headed content, format and practical details. When participants have finished writing, let them stick their sheets in the appropriate columns, grouping similar items together.

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Go through and summarise what people written. Leave this record up to refer to in the evaluation session.

(5 minutes to write, 10 minutes to stick up and group, 5 minutes to summarise) 4. Discussion about applying what you learn here (30 min) This will get participants to think about strategies to ensure that their expectations are met, and to apply learning from the training session to their own environments. It is a good exercise for longer training events, or to use informally in one-to-one discussion with participants during break times. It is useful to get participants to think about these issues at the start of a training session.

Lead a discussion around these questions: • If your expectations are met, how can you ensure that your organisation will benefit from this workshop?

• What practical steps can you take during and after the workshop to ensure that this will happen?

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Topic C: Setting House-Rules People are more likely to stick to the rules if they have been part of making them. But it is only worth devoting time to this if it is a multi-day training. Otherwise, just announce, for example that no smoking is allowed in the building and that people should please turn off their mobile phones.

Sample activities 1. Brainstorm (5 minutes) Ask people to think what rules will help them to learn and help the training session run smoothly. Get them to call out their ideas while you write them up on flipchart.

Check whether everyone agrees with all the rules and then keep the list displayed for the duration of the training.

2. Group work (20 minutes) Divide participants into groups of 6-10. Give each group a sheet of flipchart paper and a felt-tip pen. Introduce the activity by saying that this training session is partly about international housing laws and agreements. What is a covenant, and what is its purpose? Now say that we are going to decide on the five most important groundrules for the duration of this training. In the same way that we try to build consensus around a covenant, the group must work to build consensus on the five most important points. After 10 minutes, display all the group’s ideas and work to achieve agreement on a five-point list.

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FRAMING THE DISCUSSION ABOUT HOUSING RIGHTS Trainers’ Objectives:

•

To introduce and create interest in the topic of the training, and to get participants to relate the issues to their own experience

•

To provide a definition of the right to adequate housing under international human rights law

•

To dispel some commonly held misperceptions about housing rights

•

To analyse the housing rights situation in participants’ countries and to relate this to housing rights problems worldwide

•

To clarify a “rights-based approach to housing rights”

myths

and

What’s on the CD-rom?

• International Human Rights Internship Programme (1997). Ripple in Still Water.

Reflections by activists on local and national-level work on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights International human Rights Internship Programme: Washington pg 9-17.

What’s in the Resource Manual?

• Why take a Rights-based approach to housing rights?

• Defining Housing Rights • Some common myths about housing rights • Worksheets: o What do we mean when we say adequate housing? o Questionnaire on Housing Rights o Housing rights in my country What’s in the Trainer’s Toolbox?

• Video clip on right to adequate housing (Vuka Vrcevica, by COHRE) • OHP on Adequate Housing • OHP on Housing Rights Myths • OHP on Overview of Housing Poverty Remember that the learning process involves people examining (challenging?) their existing experience and knowledge. So one of the first things we want to do in a training session is to get people to think about the topic in relation to themselves. And we COHRE Trainer’s File Housing Rights for Everyone, Everywhere

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want to do this in a way that motivates them to learn more about the topic. The module will help you to find out what participants current understanding of the issues is.

This will help you to see where to focus the discussion.

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Topic A: What do we mean when we say the Right to ADEQUATE Housing?

The most important point to get across here is that the right to housing means more than having a roof over your head. The right to housing should be seen as the right to live somewhere in security, peace and dignity. This interpretation means that: • Housing rights are linked to other human rights and principles; • Housing rights mean the right to adequate housing; and, • You have a right to housing irrespective of your income level, or any other social status.

Sample activities 1. Video followed by discussion groups (60 min) Watch the video clip about the right to adequate housing. Then divide into small groups to discuss: What do we mean when we say we have a right to adequate housing?

Give each group a sheet of flip chart paper and a felt-pen to record their answers.

For a really good group discussion you need to have 30 minutes for this, plus reportback time.

You can do report-backs in various ways.

• Ask each group to send someone up to explain their newsprint report to the group.

Summarise by focusing on the common points.

• Stick up all the reports on the wall and let people “gallery walk” (i.e. walk around and read the reports). Then summarise the points of similarity. This doesn’t work for big groups, or for groups with lots of people who don’t read well.

2. Drawing pictures in groups (60 min) This is an interesting way of doing things. Often people find ways of drawing things that they find hard to put into words. Emphasise that you are not expecting Picassos here.

Stick figures and minimalist representations are fine!

Divide people into groups of five or six. Give each group a sheet of flipchart paper and a small box of crayons or a couple of felt-pens. Ask the group to discuss and draw what they mean by ‘’adequate housing.” (30 minutes). Then do reports per group (30 minutes). Leave the pictures up on display.

3. Worksheet with pictures followed by discussion groups (45 min) Divide into small groups of 5 or 6. Ask participants to turn to the worksheet: What do we mean when we say adequate housing? (page ***) Ask people to look at the pictures individually for a few minutes, and to think what aspects of the pictures could be described as adequate or inadequate. Then the groups should answer the questions on the worksheet together (25 min). Take report backs according to the headings on the COHRE Trainer’s File Housing Rights for Everyone, Everywhere

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worksheet, asking for different groups to report first and others only to add new points (20 min).

1. Pair discussion analysing housing in their own communities (30 min) This is a good exercise if people all come from the same community but it gets a bit complicated if they come from different places. Write headings below on the board and ask participants to work in pairs to discuss what aspects of their community’s housing they feel are adequate or inadequate (15 min).

• • • • • • • •

The type of house The cost of the house The quality of the building materials Repair problems Access to basic services such as water, sanitation, electricity, roads and drainage Location of the house, and how this affects access to facilities, amenities, jobs and environmental health How housing affects child development and education How housing affects the health of people

After the pair discussion, do not take detailed reports. Write up “For housing to be adequate it must be….” And ask participants to complete the sentence on the basis of their pair discussion. Write up responses. Do not entertain argument or discussion yet.

Afterwards, point out which items are included in the generally accepted definition. Then ask if anyone would like to argue for the inclusion of any other elements in the legal definition (15 min).

4. Whole group discussion with OHP/flipchart (30 min) You can probably do things quicker this way, but you will find that the ideas come mainly from you and from the most confident in the group. This might mean that the others learn less. Use this method if you are working with a group that already knows a lot of this stuff, more to set the context than to provide input.

Using the OHP provided, ask participants to supply details for each heading. Show the whole OHP, and use a non-permanent pen to write in participant comments. Alternately, write the headings up on flipchart paper beforehand, and fill in the details as discussion progresses (make sure that all your flipchart pages are simultaneously visible). You can ask questions to elicit certain ideas that are not forthcoming, or add information yourself.

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Topic B: Facts and Fiction - What do you think about housing rights?

These activities in fact do more than cover housing rights myths. They also provide an opportunity for participants to consider what their own views on housing rights are, which is a crucial part of the learning process.

Sample activities 1. Questionnaire on Housing Rights (60 min) For this activity you need copies of the Questionnaire on Housing Rights (Page ***) The exercise gets participants thinking about their own attitudes, which is important in promoting a human rights ethos, and is an important component in meaningful human rights education. Use the activity in longer training sessions, and especially with reasonably well-educated audiences. Don’t shy away from using it with legal professionals. It is not suitable for people who are not proficient readers.

Hand out the questionnaires and ask participants to mark whether they agree or disagree with each statement (10 min).

Then go through the questionnaire with the group, asking for comments and discussion from participants. If necessary, fill in with information about the myths and realities of housing rights. For further information on this, see the box on the next page. Refer participants to the article in the Resource book.

2. Sociogram discussion (30 min) This is a slightly less detailed way of dealing with the same issues as the Housing Rights Questionnaire. A sociogram is like a graph, made by positioning the human body! So it is quite a physical exercise, which gets people out of their chairs (this adds energy). It doesn’t need reading, and would be good to use in a short workshop. Don’t try the exercise if there are big tensions among the participants. You need a reasonably big space for this (it might be an idea to go out into a corridor or outside). You should agree on an attention-getting signal before starting.

Draw an imaginary line down the centre of your space and demarcate one end for 100% agreement and the other end for 0% agreement. One at a time, say the statements below, and ask participants to position themselves along the imaginary line according to how much they agree with the statement. After reading each statement, ask people who are standing near to each other to discuss why they positioned themselves there (about 3 minutes). If there are big clumps of people, get them to talk in groups of 2 or 3. If there are very differently placed clusters, get each group to explain their position to everyone. If anyone changes their mind after hearing other arguments, they can move position along the line. Let people give their own opinions – only add if you think it is absolutely necessary. Keep a tight control on this, or you will run into lengthy and detailed debates.

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You can choose statements that are most relevant to your participants, but don’t do too many. Five is probably a good number (about 6 minutes per question).

• • • • • • • • •

Housing rights are too vague to be defined.

Housing rights are only part of the larger right to an adequate standard of living.

National laws do not recognise housing rights, so neither can international law.

The only way to protect housing rights is to adopt national legislation.

Housing rights are unaffordable.

Housing rights cannot be enforced in court.

Housing rights cannot be violated in the same way as other human rights.

Squatters are criminals.

Housing rights are only a problem in developing countries.

3. The OHP presentation (30 min) This is the traditional way of presenting, and there’s nothing wrong with it so long as it isn’t the only way you do things in your training session. Remember to strive for balance! And remember that people have a limited attention span, so stick to your 30 minutes maximum. When using the OHP, use a blank page to cover up the items that you have not yet dealt with. Move the page to reveal one item at a time.

You can choose to be the main source of information (you do almost all the talking), or you can choose to ask participants for their opinions and fill in further information afterwards.

You will find the OHP in the Trainer’s Toolbox.

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Topic C: What is the Housing Rights Situation in your Country?

You will need to decide how much time to spend on this and how to cover it taking into account who your participants are. Your decision will be influenced by questions like: • Is everyone from the same country? (If different countries are represented, do you need to have separate groups for them? If everyone is from the same country, do you want to split people into regional groups, or mix them all up?)

• Are participants all involved in housing rights issues already? (They might be well acquainted with this content, so you can speed things up or set them a more challenging task).

• What kind of participant preparation has gone on before the training? (It is possible that discussions analysing the housing rights situation have already happened. If so, how can you capitalise on these to score time or to take the discussion to a deeper plane?)

• Are you looking for ways to involve local experts in the training? This could be a place for local input.

Sample activities 1. Individual and group analysis of Housing Rights in this country (1 ½ hours) For this you will need copies of the Housing Rights In My Country worksheet, flipchart paper and pens for small groups.

Give out the Housing Rights in my country worksheet, for participants to fill in individually (10 min). Then divide people up into groups (see introduction to this Topic).

Their task is to share their responses to this worksheet in order to find three things for each heading that everyone agrees on. Write these points up on flipchart for reporting purposes (30 min).

Take report-backs from groups, encouraging people not to repeat what other groups have said (no more than 5 minutes per group or 30 min max.). End off with a quick summary. Highlight some similarities and differences between this country and the international situation (20 min).

2. Expert local input (1 hour) This is a good place to ask a local expert to make an input. It could be somebody from a local NGO, possibly from the partnering organisation. Or perhaps there is a Very Important Person from a religious community or government or the judiciary who you want to get involved in the issue.

It is absolutely vital to brief them properly, or this session may take on its own proportions! You need to stress again and again that they should not speak longer than 30 minutes (people can barely concentrate that long). Give them a copy of the worksheet, and ask them to use that as a guideline for their talk.

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Use the rest of the hour for whole group discussion on the issues. If there is someone in the group with knowledge about the international situation, ask them to comment briefly on how these problems compare with other countries. Or you could add that yourself.

3. Using pictures in group work (1 ½ hours) This one relies on your own resources because you will need to gather materials yourself. It is a form of force-field analysis, which is good to use with community groups or even with children because it is very hands-on and visual. You need quite a bit of space to do the exercise properly, but you can send people outside or spread them out into breakaway rooms.

Work out how many small groups of 5-7 people you will have in the training session, and prepare the following for each group: • • • • • •

A set of about 7 photographs showing the most important housing rights problems in the country (the more recognisable the pictures the better, and try to get pictures that focus on one problem at a time) A pile of stones (representing things that are holding back realisation of housing rights) A pile of maize/ bean seeds/ other local seeds (representing things which promote housing rights) 2 long pieces of string A few pieces A4 paper cut in half (make extras available) A felt-tip pen or two

Divide participants into small groups of 5-7. Give each a set of photographs and ask them to agree on the 3 most important housing rights problems, and arrange the pictures of them in the middle of their workspace (about 20 minutes).

Then ask them to decide what the stones represent (i.e. what are the causes of housing rights violations and who are the perpetrators). The group can either write the names on paper, or represent them in some other way. They should arrange their pieces of paper, weighed down by stones, on one side of the pictures (about 15 minutes). Then ask them to decide what the seeds represent (i.e. the factors or people supporting and promoting housing rights). Write names/draw pictures and arrange them on the other side of the pictures (about 15 minutes).

Then decide which is the strongest – the forces working for housing rights or the forces working against them. Use the string to join the stones to the pictures on one side and the seeds to the pictures on the other. Make the string longer to show a stronger force, and shorter to show a weaker force (10 minutes).

It is probably best if you note down all points of commonality while groups are doing the task, so that you can summarise on behalf of the groups. Alternately, you could give this task to one of the participants.

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After the exercise is done, ask each group to choose someone to stay next to their model to explain it to anyone who has questions. The rest of the participants walk around looking at other models (10 min).

Then call everyone back to plenary and present your summary of all the models (15 min max). Take a few general comments from the floor.

4. Closing Comments: overview of housing poverty in the world (10 minutes, just for fun) Use the OHPs provided to show the scale of housing rights denial in the world.

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Topic D: Why Take a Rights-Based Approach to Housing Rights?

Participants have just analysed the housing problems in their country/region. This topic makes the important link between the problems identified, and trying to deal with the problems using a rights based approach. This will place COHRE’s approach clearly on the table. Why are we choosing to use this approach, rather than to just build more houses or focus on development issues? And how does the right-based approach link in with development issues? At a very minimum, it is worthwhile giving a short input to create the link between the problems and the focus on rights. For longer training sessions, it will be fruitful to engage participants in discussion and debate around the concepts.

Sample Activities 1. A “few words” in the introduction to COHRE in the very first session (5 min) When you explain what COHRE is in the introductory session, explain what COHRE understands by a rights based approach.

2. Input on rights-based approach to housing issues (15 min) Give a short input (watch the time!) explaining what a rights based approach means.

You could use Scott’s ideas in the Resource Manual as a framework, or do your own thing.

3. Plenary discussion about a rights-based approach (30 min) This is a suitable activity for a smallish-sized group of participants who are already working on housing rights.

Write the questions below on flipchart/board/OHT. Ask participants to discuss the questions in pairs for five to ten minutes, and then open up the discussion to plenary.

Write down the main points made on flipchart or the board.

• •

What does it mean to tackle housing rights from a rights-based perspective?

What does it not mean to tackle housing rights from a rights-based perspective?

• Is there a connection between a rights-based approach and “development”?

In the plenary, try to avoid getting stuck on definitions of development (some people might focus on empowerment, others on structural change, modernisation, globalisation, or money issues, including the IMF, World Bank, etc). A way to handle this is to acknowledge that development is a contested term, but to ask participants to hear all the views people wish to express and to tease out how focussing on rights contributes to the various views of development. It is quite possible that participants will want to continue this discussion beyond the time you have set aside for it. Encourage COHRE Trainer’s File Housing Rights for Everyone, Everywhere

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them to follow up the debates at meal times. You could also reassure them that these issues will come up again when we discuss strategies in the last part of the training.

4. Case study to discuss the rights based approach (45 min) The case-study for this exercise comes from Malaysia. Note the case study is not in the Resource Manual. If you want to use it, you will need to copy it from this file.

A country-specific case study would obviously be better, so if possible write up (or even just tell the story of) a similar local situation, and ask groups to discuss the same questions. This is another way of involving a partner organisation in preparation for the training – ask them to produce the case study.

Divide participants into groups of 7-8. Remind the groups to appoint rapporteurs. Let groups discuss for 20 min, and then report back to plenary. Finally take general discussion.

If you use this exercise, please note down the main points that emerged and your reflections on how useful the exercise was, and e—mail to info@forumasia.org, as they wrote the case study.

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HOUSING RIGHTS ARE ESC RIGHTS Trainer’s Objectives:

•

To show the interdependence and indivisibility of all human rights

•

To highlight the key features of economic, social and cultural rights

What’s on the CD-rom?

Martin Scheinin (1995) “Economic and Social Rights as Legal Rights” in Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: A textbook.(Eide, Krause and Rosas, eds.), Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Turku, pp. 41 – 62.

Matthew Craven (1995) The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: A perspective on its development (Chapter 3: State Obligations) Clarendon Press Oxford, pp. 106 -152.

What’s in the Resource Manual?

• Overview of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights • A guide to key provisions of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) • In appendix: Simplified version of the UDHR • Worksheets: o The Rights of the Child from Declaration to Convention o Some Questions about ESC Rights What’s in the Trainer’s Pack?

Model of a human rights temple (in parts), plus human rights cards OHT slide: ESC RIGHTS: DO YOU AGREE?

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Topic A: Foundation Documents and the Interdependence and Indivisibility of Human Rights Having established why we are using a rights-based approach to focus to focus on housing issues, we move now to cover the foundation documents of human rights law: i.e. the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR, 1948), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR, 1966) and its optional protocol, and the International Convent on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, 1966).

It is useful to include the UDHR in a housing rights course, because it helps participants to see housing rights in context, to understand some of the historical background to ESC rights, and to understand the indivisibility of rights.

Key concepts to get across • Human rights law is based on national and international standards, and on the obligations that these standards create for both state and non-state actors.

•

The most important documents regarding Housing Rights are the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Convent on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, 1996), and General Comments 4 and 7 on the ICESCR.

•

All human rights are interdependent and indivisible, so housing rights are linked to other economic, social, cultural and political and civil rights. This means that many standards relating to other rights have implications for housing rights.

Sample Activities 1. The “temple” model of the UDHR (20 min) This activity presents a model for understanding how all these rights fit together. It is best to use this activity with group new to the international human rights framework. For a group that is already well versed in this content, rather do activity 2 or 3.

You will need the model of a temple supplied (in parts) in the trainers’ pack, and ticktack to stick it up with. Alternatively, you can draw it on a flipchart or a chalkboard (this will give you the opportunity of adapting the basic idea to local conditions by creating a model in a local building style).

Begin by very briefly explaining the context in which the UDHR was developed (post World War II, concern for developing world peace, desire to prevent atrocities …).

Explain that one of the drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights suggested that we can think of the provisions of the UDHR like pillars of a temple holding up a broad roof. Each pillar supports human rights of a different kind. Stick up pillar 1 (Civil Rights). Quickly ask participants to name some civil rights, and as they name them, stick up the relevant cards under the pillar. Add the other civil rights cards. Repeat this COHRE Trainer’s File Housing Rights for Everyone, Everywhere

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procedure for pillar 2 (Social Rights), pillar 3 (Political Rights) and pillar 4 (Economic Rights). Then stick on the roof and explain that the last three articles of the UDHR hold all the others together, setting out the principles to harmonise rights.

Now ask what happens to a building if a pillar is broken or even weakened (remove the Economic rights pillar from the model. Elicit that if economic rights or any other rights are ignored or violated, social and political rights will suffer. Get participants to give examples of other rights which suffer when housing rights are not respected.

Refer Participants to the simplified version of the UDHR.

28 – 29 - 30

1 – 11 Civil

12 – 17 Social

18 – 21 Political

22 – 27 Economic

2. Small–group discussion on the indivisibility of rights, general focus (20 min) This is a more useful activity to use with groups who already have a good background in human rights. Divide participants into groups of roughly three, where they are sitting (don’t make a big deal about setting up the groups – it will waste time!).

Refer participants to turn to the simplified version of the UDHR in their course book, to use as a reference in discussion of the following questions.

Are all rights are of equal importance?

Can some rights be ignored without undermining others?

(Give 10 minutes in groups, and then open discussion up to the plenary, for another 10 minutes. Rein the discussion in after this time and summarise briefly - it is not a major focus of the course so you don’t want to get side-tracked.)

3. Small-group discussion on the indivisibility of rights, with housing focus (20 min) Alternatively, if you would prefer more of a housing housing-rights angle on the small group discussion, refer participants to Article 25 in the simplified version of the UDHR COHRE Trainer’s File Housing Rights for Everyone, Everywhere

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(You have a right to have what you need to live a decent life, including… a home…) and ask participants to discuss: Is your right to a home of equal importance to other rights? If your right to a home is ignored, will other rights be affected in any way? Explain your answer.

(Give 10 minutes in groups, and then open discussion up to the plenary, for another 10 minutes. Rein the discussion in after this time and summarise briefly - it is not a major focus of the course so you don’t want to get side-tracked.)

4. Input on the History of the ICCPR and ICESCR (10 min) Briefly explain the history of the Covenants. Be careful about going into too much detail and running out of time. Important points to get across are: • What is a Covenant? (the details of how they get ratified comes up in the next section) • Why did the ICCPR and ICESCR end up as separate Covenants?

• Vertical and horizontal obligations – what this means for a model of change?

• Human rights as a work in progress (continually being reinterpreted and amplified) 5. Input on the steps in the evolution of Human Rights Law (15 min) Try to cover this section by asking questions that will get the group to share what they know, and you just fill in the missing bits. If it is a group that is entirely new to Human Rights law you will have to do most of the talking, so remember to keep it short, sweet and basic. At the end you can refer participants to the information in the Course Resource Book.

Here’s some information to guide your input.

• Besides the UDHR, the ICCPR and the ICESCR, there are dozens of other international human rights treaties which recognize the housing rights. Housing rights are also upheld in various related human rights standards (ask for a few examples).

• International Covenants/Conventions and treaties are drafted by working groups made up of government, non-government and intergovernmental representatives.

• Then they are adopted by a vote of the UN general assembly.

• These are legally binding to the countries that have ratified them. (What does ratification mean?) When a UN member state ratifies a convention it agrees to abide by the provisions of the convention, to bring the laws of the country in line with the convention and to report on its progress in doing this. Before a country ratifies an agreement it signs it, to indicate that it has started the process required by their government to ratify the convention. Signing also means the country agrees not to do anything that is contrary to the objectives of the convention.

• A Convention only enters into force when a specified number of states have ratified it. (e.g. the ICCPR and ICESCR were adopted in 1966 but only entered into COHRE Trainer’s File Housing Rights for Everyone, Everywhere

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• •

• •

• • •

force in 1976 when the specified 35 countries had ratified them. The USA only ratified ICCPR in 1992).

Each Convention is monitored by a treaty body or Committee that receives and considers reports from States Parties.

The Committee uses the understanding it has gained from examining state reports to produce General Comments. These are authoritative interpretations or guides to the rights laid out in the treaty, which aim to promote the implementation of the Convention and to assist State Parties in fulfilling their obligations to the Convention.

They explain what a specific right really means and consists of, and as such define what constitutes a violation.

There are many UN and Regional Systems, State Reporting Procedures and Complaint Procedures that are there to ensure that the laws are put into practice.

When housing was included in the UDHR, there was little authoritative guidance about the right to adequate housing, or of the right not to be forcibly evicted, or of the rights to non-discrimination and equality and how they related to housing. Over time, housing rights advocates and economic, social and cultural rights experts breathed life into Article 25 of the UDHR. Grassroots activists, in turn, used a rightbased framework to press for their cause, and legal practitioners began invoking housing rights standards in court. Because of all these actions, the right to adequate housing is now widely recognized as a human right.

The role of NGOs – carry the concerns of ordinary people to the UN. Influence the UN government representatives at all levels (give example of COHRE).

There are also Declarations and Codes of Conduct, Resolutions and Recommendations.

Remember customary law is binding on everyone. Customary international law develops from the practice of states. To international lawyers, ‘the practice of states” means official governmental conduct reflected in a variety of acts, including official statements at international conferences and in diplomatic exchanges, formal instructions to diplomatic agents, national court decisions, legislative measures or other actions taken by governments to deal with matters of international concern.

Many human rights advocates argue that the UDHR rises to the level of customary international law.

6. Worksheet Case study of the evolution of a Convention (15 min) Case study is on the worksheet the Rights of the Child from Declaration to Convention in the resource manual. Either read out the case study or get participants to read it themselves. For a fairly literate group, let people work in pairs to complete the worksheet. For a less literate group, do it together in plenary, using a flipchart to write up the important steps.

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BENFICIARIES OF HOUSING RIGHTS Trainers’ Objectives:

•

To illustrate how housing rights violations impact on the lives of specific vulnerable or marginalised populations (such as women, the elderly, the poor, refugees, children and others)

•

To emphasise the principles of equality and nondiscrimination with respect to housing rights

What’s on the CD-rom?

Leilani Farha (1999) “Women and Housing” in Women and International Human Rights Law, vol. 1, (Askin & Koning, eds), Transnational Publishers, New York, pp. 483 -532.

What’s in the Resource manual?

• Women and Housing Rights • Children and Housing Rights • Disabled Persons and Housing Rights • The Elderly and Housing Rights • The Housing Rights of the Poor • Occupied Populations and Housing Rights • Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Internally Displaced Persons and Housing Rights • Worksheets: o Special Beneficiaries of Housing Rights What’s in the Trainer’s Toolkit?

Nothing for this section This section is a continuation of the section on International Legal Sources, and as already pointed out, the exercises in the previous section can also incorporate the sources covered in this section. However, it is useful to get people to think specifically about particular vulnerable groupings as well. Once again, you should beware of talking your way through all the laws covered here, as this will be boring and difficult to remember. The exercise below gets people to work with the information in the Resource Manual.

Before participants start the activities, give a short input on Article 11 (1) of the ICESCR. Which stresses that EVERYONE has “a right to…. housing,” and Article 2(2) of the ICESCR which prohibits “discrimination” in the exercise of these rights. Note that discrimination means an arbitrary and unlawful distinction. The word was deliberately chosen to allow affirmative action to ensure the respect of the rights of marginalized groups.

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Sample Activities 1. Small group research project (90 min) Divide the participants into 7 groups and allocate each group one of the vulnerable groups covered in the Resource Book (if there are not many participants, you could either choose to leave out one or two of the groups, or else give some groups more than one group to cover).

Refer participants to the section of the Resource Manual which covers beneficiaries of housing rights, and to the worksheet on Beneficiaries. For further information, you could also give groups copies of COHRE Sources relating to these groups.

Give participants 45 minutes to answer the questions in groups, and to prepare to teach the plenary about their findings in any way they think is appropriate. They could report back in the usual way, but rather encourage them to plan short skit, make up a song or a poem, draw a sketch, etc., and to involve their whole group in the report. Emphasise that they have only 5 minutes per group for this teaching activity and that you will stop them when their time is up.

NOTE: Don’t shy away from encouraging these unusual report-backs! It is not just fun and games. It will add to the energy and the creativity of the workshop and will therefore be much more memorable!

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HOUSING RIGHTS UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW Trainers’ Objectives:

•

To introduce the most important legal sources on International Housing Rights law

•

To develop an overview of the contents of housing rights under international law

What’s on the CD-rom?

United Nations Human Rights Fact Sheet No. 21 (1994) The Human Right to Adequate Housing, UN Centre for Human Rights, Geneva, including annexes containing General Comment 4.

What’s in the Resource Manual?

• International Legal Resources on Housing Rights • Regional Legal Sources on Housing Rights • International Humanitarian Law Standards • Worksheets: o Housing Rights around the World o Case Study of Evictions in Dhaka City, Bangladesh What’s in the Trainer’s Toolkit?

Nothing for this section

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Topic A : Key Legal Sources on International Housing Rights Law The extent to which you focus on this topic will depend on your audience and their needs. At a very minimum you want people to know that: •

The key International legal documents are: o The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Article 11 (1), o General Comment No 4 (1991) on the Right to Adequate Housing, which is the single most authoritative legal interpretation of what the right to housing actually means in legal terms under international law o General Comment No 7(1997) on Forced Evictions

•

The right to adequate housing and rights directly linked to housing rights have been legally enshrined by regional organisations in Europe, America and Africa.

•

A large number of international treaties, conventions and recommendations dealing with specific interest groups (e.g. women, children and displaced people) have provisions relating to the right of those groups to adequate housing.

•

Many countries guarantee housing rights in their constitutions and in other laws.

•

People need to know what the status of their particular country is in terms of these national, international and regional laws. This will define the obligations of their government with respect to housing rights, and can be used to advocate for the rights to be put into practice.

Sample activities IMPORTANT NOTE It might be tempting to try to “teach” all the relevant legal sources in the training session, but remember that people are unlikely to retain this large amount of information unless they actually work with it. Therefore it is far more useful to give a very quick overview, along the lines of the summary above. Then show people where the relevant material can be found in the resource book, let them read it overnight, or perhaps over an extended break (beware of the lunchtime siesta syndrome!), and then focus the group’s attention on an activity which uses the information they have read.

Also note that the next section of the resource manual covers specific beneficiaries of housing rights, and it is possible (indeed a good idea) to engage participants in activities that cover both the key legal sources and the specific beneficiaries at the same time. Activities below marked with a ** can be used in this way.

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1. Housing Rights around the world (60 min) ** Divide the participants into small “research groups” and refer them to the Worksheet: Housing Rights around the World, as well as to the information on international and regional sources on housing rights law in the Resource Manual.

Assign each research group a different set of 3-6 statements from the Worksheet. They have 15–20 minutes to find 2 or more legal articles that apply to each sentence. Start the process off with a guided example.

Now form new groups by assigning a number to each person in the old groups (if there are 4 people in the group, number them off from 1 to 4), and then grouping all the “ones” into a new group, all the ” twos” into another new group etc.

Ask the participants in the new group to report to each other on their research group’s findings so that each statement on the handout is covered.

In plenary, discuss selected statements that they find especially important or interesting.

2. Case Study discussion (30-45 min)** For this exercise you can either use the case study provided (about Bangladesh) or, even better, use your own case study from the country where you are training.

Preferably give everyone a copy of the case study, and divide them into small groups to work out which of the international instruments might potentially apply to the case (given the limited information provided). The main point of the exercise is to give them a reason to go through the sources listed in the Resource Manual and to familiarise themselves with their provisions by applying them to a particular context. It will definitely help if people have at least read the relevant sections in the resource manual first (see suggestions above).

To report back, ask groups to take turns to mention one source only, and to summarise why it seems to apply to the case.

Topic B: The contents of housing rights 1. Exercises on “adequate housing” If you didn’t cover this in the Framing the issues section, you could do any of the exercises about adequate housing here.

2. Illustrated input: Building a wall of housing rights (10 min) or whole class activity (20 minutes)

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Give input on the basic content of housing rights. Structure your input around the metaphor of building a solid wall, in which each and every brick plays an important role, and relies on the other bricks. As you build up the input, draw and label the bricks in the wall (see example below). The foundation layer is the meaning of the word adequate tenure security, availability of services, affordability, habitability, accessibility, location, cultural adequacy. The next layer involves that the right to adequate housing applies to everyone, regardless of age, status, affiliation, group etc. Also that it is more than a roof over the head, etc.

A nice (but slightly longer- you will need about 20 minutes) alternative way to do this is to give out piles of A5 paper/big post-it labels (the bricks) and pens , and ask participants to write on them what they think is the key content of housing rights. Then let them “build a wall” with their bricks, wither on a space on the floor, or on a wall.

(Don’t panic about the chaos that might develop with everyone trying to help with this task – they will come to a way of organising themselves). They could either group all similar “bricks” together, or they could eliminate duplicates. If anything important is left out, you can add bricks at the end.

Applies to everyone Location Tenure security

More than a roof over the head Available Affordability Habitability Accessibility Cultural services adequacy

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OBLIGATIONS OF THE STATE Trainers’ Objectives:

•

To define the obligations of the state in relation to international housing rights law

What’s on the CD-rom?

General Comment No. 3 (The nature of States parties obligations (Art. 2, para. 1) of the Covenant), (Fifth session, 1990), UN doc. E/1991/23.

What’s in the Resource manual?

• The obligation to respect, protect and fulfil, in general • The obligation to respect the right to adequate housing • The obligation to Protect and Promote Housing Rights • The Obligation to Fulfil Housing Rights • Obligations of Non-State Actors • Areas for action towards the full and progressive realization of housing rights

Sample Activities 1. Drawing activity: Respect, protect and fulfil (45 min) Divide the participants into three groups. Assign each group a topic: respect, protect or fulfil. Give each group flipchart paper and crayons. Instruct the groups to research the topic they have been given by reading the articles on state obligations in the Resource Manual. Their task is to present their findings to the other groups in graphic form. This means they should find a way to represent their findings using drawings or diagrams, a table or whatever. Their presentation should be clear and easy to read.

Allow 30 minutes for research and preparation and then 5 minutes per group for reports and questions of clarification.

2. Group research and teaching activity: Respect, protect and fulfil (45 min) If your participants have already shown that drawing is a big stumbling block and that they battle to give good reports using this method, let them do the research and then teach the others about it in the most effective way they can think of. Emphasise the word teach (you could even ask for some ideas about effective ways of teaching), and avoid ever referring to the activity as reports – this might yield better results in terms of people engaging in teaching and learning activities.

3. Competitive team game: Respect, protect and fulfil (30 min) This is a good activity to choose if participants are feeling dopey and flat. Divide people into two teams. Get them to begin by reading the State Obligations section in the Resource Manual (15 min). Stick up three sheets of flipchart paper in front of each team, labelled respect protect and fulfil. Line the teams up in front of the paper, give COHRE Trainer’s File Housing Rights for Everyone, Everywhere

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each team a thick pen and tell them the winning team is the one that writes down the highest number of examples of these obligations in 10 minutes. Each person writes one example and then hands the pen to the next team member before going to the back of the line. After 10 minutes call halt, count up and declare the winning team.

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NATIONAL HOUSING RIGHTS LAWS Trainer’s Objectives:

•

To provide an overview of National laws which affect housing rights

What’s on the CD-rom?

Nothing related to this topic What’s in the Resource manual?

• Constitutional Recognition of Housing Rights • National Laws and Housing Rights What’s in the Trainer’s Toolkit?

Nothing for this section Sample Activities 1. Input by local expert (1 hour) This is an excellent place for local people to be involved in the training. In advance, organise for a local lawyer, academic or partner NGO person to research the housing rights law situation for the country where the training is being held. If the training is for a regional group, it might be an idea to get them to do a comparative input.

Suggest that the person writes up the input for distribution to participants, but insist that the input is not longer than 30 minutes, followed by another 30 minutes of questions and discussion. It takes consistent work with a person who is doing an input to ensure that they stick to the time allocated. You will need to explain why you have allocated what they will consider a short time, and suggest ways of cutting down content to fit it.

The trainer’s role is as a facilitator – introduce the speaker, pass a surreptitious note to indicate that time is nearly up, field questions.

2. Group activity on National housing laws (1 hour) This activity is for groups from the same country. If more than one country is represented, prepare cards relating to these countries.

You will need to prepare cards containing information about housing laws in the country where the training is happening. When you do this, whittle down information to about one and a half pages maximum. Ideally you need one card for each group of 6 participants at your training.

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Divide participants into groups of 6 or 7. Ask them to discuss how existing housing laws in their country can affect their lives as men and as women. (10 min) Distribute cards among the groups (Ideally one card per group). Ask the groups to discuss and assess how these laws affect their lives from their own perspectives.

Encourage them to share experiences on how these laws are put into practice in their particular communities and how they affect men and women. (30 min) Ask each group to report whether they think these laws are beneficial or discriminatory to urban poor people. If possible they should recommend how the laws could be improved or other measures that the government should take to address urban poor problems. Provide time for discussion and clarification. (20-30 min)

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THE JUSTICABILITY OF HOUSING RIGHTS Trainer’s Objectives: What’s on the CD-rom?

What’s in the Resource manual?

• Justiciable Components of Housing Rights • Treaty obligations • Applying the Covenant in national courts What’s in the Trainer’s Toolkit?

Nothing for this section Sample Activities

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VIOLATIONS OF HOUSING RIGHTS Trainer’s Objectives:

•

To clarify responsibility of the state with regard to its own actions and those of third parties in relation to ESC rights

•

To provide a deeper understanding of acts of omission and acts of commission regarding housing rights

What’s on the CD-rom?

What’s in the Resource manual?

• Who are Housing Rights Violators?

• Violations of ESC Rights in General • Acts Constituting Violations of the Right to Adequate Housing • Worksheet: Acts of Omission or Acts of Commission What’s in the Trainer’s Toolkit?

Nothing for this section Sample Activities

Topic A: Who are Housing Rights Violators?

1. Short input (5 min) Provide a short input, based on the information in the Resource Manual.

2. Group discussion (30 min) Form participants into small groups. Display the questions below. Clarify what is meant by an “Actor” by asking for examples from the plenary. Give groups 20 minutes to discuss.

1.

2.

3.

Name three kinds of actors who have been implicated in housing rights violations in your country.

What are the different ways in which these actors violated housing rights?

Should non-state actors (e.g. corporations) be expected to uphold housing rights? Why or why not?

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Quickly compile a composite list in relation to questions 1&2, by asking participants to call out answers first to question 1. Record the answers on flipchart. Then ask for and record answers to question 2. At this stage you could assure people that you will come back to question 3, and skip to the next section, on types of violations. Start by explaining what we mean by Acts of Omission and Commission, and then get the participants to classify the answers to 2 above as omission or commission. Add further information and refer participants to the article in the Resource Manual.

Then open up debate on question 3. To ensure that individuals do not dominate the discussion, ask for three arguments for, and three arguments against. Each person is only allowed to make one argument. Then open it up to the floor for debate. You might even have to play devil’s advocate to get the discussion going.

Topic B: Acts of Omission and Commission 1. Short input and Worksheet on Acts of Omission and Commission (20 Min) Briefly explain what is meant by the two terms. Then ask participants to work in pairs where they are sitting to decide which items on the worksheet are acts of omission and which are acts of commission. Quickly go through the answers in plenary. Then explain that these statements come from the Maastricht Guidelines. Finally make it all relevant to housing rights, by asking participants to read the lists of acts constituting violations of housing rights in the Resource Manual.

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FORCED EVICTIONS Trainer’s Objectives:

•

To clarify the meaning of forced eviction through local examples

•

To discuss possible legal and non-legal strategies against forced evictions

What’s on the CD-rom?

General Comment No. 7 (Art.11 (1) of the Covenant) Forced evictions (May 1997) What’s in the Resource manual?

• In appendix: General Comment No 7 • Understanding Forced Eviction as a Violation of Housing Rights • Main Causes of Forced Evictions • Government Obligations to Prevent Forced Evictions • Legal sources on Forced Evictions • Strategies to Prevent Forced Evictions • How to Use International Procedures to Prevent Forced Evictions • Worksheets: o Can forced evictions be justified? o The Grootboom Case – The Right to Shelter o Evictions Role Play Scenario

Sample Activities Topic A: Understanding forced evictions 1. Plenary discussion/ small group work: What are forced evictions? (20 min / 30 min) If you haven’t done this already in your course, this exercise is essential. You need to find out what words participants use to describe forced eviction. Begin by telling a brief story (a real local example is the best) of an eviction. Ask participants what they call this kind of situation in their own language. Then ask them to identify the characteristics of whatever they call a forced eviction. If forced evictions are a major focus of your training programme, you could divide people into groups of 4 or 5 to come up with these characteristics (you will need at least 20 minutes in groups). Record the ideas on flipchart. Add information from the list in the article in the resource manual called

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Understanding Forced Evictions as a violation of housing rights. Ask participants to read the article overnight.

2. Group activity: Can forced evictions ever be justified? (30 min) Divide the participants into 4 groups. Give each group a different scenario on the worksheet (to be found in the resource manual.) Participants’ task is to debate the issue on the scenario and prepare to report to plenary. Give participants 20 minutes to discuss in groups, and then take reports in plenary. Begin the report session by asking “Is forced eviction justified if it is done to enable development to take place?” Allow a bit of general debate on this (Think in advance: what will you do if there are strong arguments both ways – do you think it will be useful to allow the debate to run? Will you need to structure the debate in any way? How will it affect your timing?). Then ask the groups to report on the circumstances under which they would accept evictions happening in the name of development. Write up key points on flipchart.

3. Role-play: The Grootboom case (1 ½ hours) Note this exercise could also be used to bring out some of the issues around progressive realisation of housing rights The case study is in the Resource manual. Ask participants to take turns in reading paragraphs aloud in plenary. Then divide participants into two groups, one representing the community, and the other the government. Ask both groups to choose one of their members to be their legal representative in the court. The groups must then develop the arguments that their representative would present to a courtroom. Give the groups 2030 minutes preparation time.

Then role-play the constitutional court process, with one of the trainers playing the role of the Constitutional Court president. Each side has a chance to present its case. Then give the two groups a short time to caucus and to develop a five-minute response to the argument put forward by the other side. After the role-play, let all the participants vote, as judges, for the stronger argument. Remind the participants to vote on the basis of the arguments presented, not on the basis of their emotions, values or allegiances to their group. Finally facilitate a plenary discussion about this exercise. What were the strengths and weaknesses of how each side presented its case?

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Topic B: Strategising around forced evictions The next section of the course, on non-judicial strategies, is directly relevant to strategies around forced evictions, and so you could very easily treat the two sections as one.

1. Carrousel: Examples from Forum Asia (45 mins) Forum Asia’s newsletter contains many strategies that people have used in response to forced evictions. This exercise builds on these strategies. A carrousel is like a merry-goround. Arrange the room so that there are 6 “stations” or groups of chairs (need enough chairs for one sixth of the total group at each station). In the centre of each station, place a copy of one of the examples that follow in this file (note: they are not in the resource manual). The idea is that participants will move from one station to the other discussing a different strategy at each station. Participants will find the action of moving between discussions unusual and energising but if you do not have the room to have everyone moving, it is possible to do the exercises in six small groups with no movement – you will just have to make copies of all the strategies for each group.

So, you need to divide participants into six groups, explain that they must read and then discuss the strategies at each station. Demonstrate what you will do to indicate that they must change stations (clap your hands, tap a glass with a spoon, sing or whistle a familiar line form a tune, or whatever). Warn them that they must move around the circle promptly when they hear the signal. You must keep time carefully -Allow 5 minutes at each station, plus a minute to move and settle. After everyone has gone round the carrousel, reconvene in plenary and ask for any additional strategies that have been used by participants or people they know. Record these on flipchart. If there is a lot of interest or debate in any of the strategies, you will need to decide how important it is to discuss it in this workshop, and whether you should allow overtime discussion now, or rather schedule time for further discussion later.

Carousel station 1 Carousel station 2 Carousel station 3 Carousel station 4 Carousel station 5 Carousel station 6

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2. Role Play: Forced evictions and international law (2 hours) Divide participants into three groups. One group will represent the residents of Beedieville. This will be called Team Beedieville (about 40 % of participants). Another group will represent the local government. This will be called Team BMA (about 20% of participants). The third group will assist the trainers in determining which side will win the case. This will be called Team Tribunal (three people). Team Beedieville and Team BMA will appoint four spokespersons to make their respective presentations. All members of Team Tribunal will also be asked to speak.

After 60 minutes of preparation, hold a final hearing on the Beedieville case.

• •

• • • •

Team BMA will open the proceedings with a 2-minute initial statement. Team Beedieville will then have 2 minutes to introduce their positions.

Team BMA will then make a 10-minute argument stating their position in support of eviction. This will be followed by a 10-minute statement by Team Beedieville outlining why they should not be evicted. Both arguments will be based wholly on international human rights law.

This will be followed by 15 minutes of questioning by Team Tribunal, to which members of both teams will need to respond.

Team BMA will then be given 10 minutes to cross-examine Team Beedieville. In turn, Team Beedieville will be given a further 10 minutes to cross-examine Team BMA. Team tribunal will then deliberate for 5 minutes and then issue a final and binding judgment, against which no local appeal can be made.

No witnesses may be called.

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NON-JUDICIAL STRATEGIES FOR PROMOTING HOUSING RIGHTS Trainer’s Objectives:

•

To examine successful non-legal strategies for the enforcement and implementation of housing rights

•

To develop practical skills in monitoring housing rights at the national and local level

What’s on the CD-rom?

Excerpts from: Kathryn English and Adam Stapleton (1995) The Human Rights Handbook: A Practical Guide to Monitoring Human Rights, Human Rights Centre, Essex What’s in the Resource manual?

• Making a positive difference: the role of NGOs • The state reporting process • Monitoring housing rights • Collecting and documenting information • Monitoring progressive realisation of housing rights through the use of benchmarks and indicators • Using education to protect and promote housing rights • Worksheets: o Developing a plan for Progressive Realisation of a State housing rights obligation. o Potential Objectives of Monitoring o Conducting a fact-finding mission o Presentation to the Board of Directors

Sample activities Topic A: Housing rights strategies that work 1. Brainstorm: Non-legal strategies for promoting housing rights (15 minutes) Ask participants to call out any ideas they have about how housing rights can be promoted through non-legal strategies.

The idea of a brainstorm is to get out as many strategies/ideas as possible in as short a time as possible. The trainer writes up all the ideas on flipchart. Any ideas are acceptable (remember, the most zany ideas can often be worked into something quite useful), and no debate is entertained until the brainstorm is over.

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2. Group categorising activity: Evaluating different approaches to realising housing rights. (60 minutes) By evaluating various statements about what must be done to achieve housing rights in this country, participants explore the relative importance of different tactics for achieving housing rights - changing legislation, changing attitudes, and taking action in order to achieve these rights.

For this exercise you will need: • •

Flipchart paper and pens Handout 1: Changing legislation to achieve housing rights TO BE COPIED ON WHITE PAPER • Handout 2: Changing attitudes to achieve housing rights TO BE COPIED ON BLUE PAPER • Handout 3: Taking action to achieve housing rights TO BE COPIED ON YELLOW PAPER Explain to participants that in this activity they will evaluate different ways to work for housing rights in this country.

Divide participants into small groups. For each group prepare an envelope containing one complete set of statements from Handout 1: Changing Legislation to Achieve Housing Rights, Handout 2: Changing Attitudes to Achieve Housing Rights, and Handout 3: Taking Action to Achieve Housing Rights. The statements should be cut into strips and mixed together before being put in the envelope. If participants ask why the statements are printed on different coloured paper, let them know you will tell them why at the end of the activity.

Each group should also have one sheet of flipchart paper. The paper should be held lengthwise and divided into three columns. The columns should be headed: Essential, Useful, and Irrelevant.

As the group members read each statement, they should try to place it in what they agree is the appropriate column. In essence, group members are answering the question: In order to achieve Housing Rights, which actions are essential, which are useful, and which are irrelevant?

When the group cannot agree, they should save that statement until they have placed the ones about which they can agree. They should then discuss the remaining statements and try to place them under the Essential, Useful, and Irrelevant columns.

Each group should try to reach a consensus. Members may alter the wording of a statement if it helps them to reach consensus. Blank slips of paper can be used to create additional statements if needed. When all the statements have been placed on the newsprint, they can be taped in place.

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Groups should be allowed time to look at each other's finished sheets and to identify differences in priorities.

Groups should then return to their own sheet and note whether there is any pattern to how they have placed the different coloured statements. At this time, the facilitator should draw attention to the significance of the different colours on which the statements are printed.

Point out to the participants that statements printed on white paper are about changing laws to bring about equality. Statements printed on blue paper are about changing people's attitudes to achieve equality, while the statements printed on yellow paper are about persons taking direct action towards equality.

Ask participants to look at their chart again and discuss the following questions to debrief the activity: •

In general, what ideas or concerns guided you as you placed the statements under the three columns? Point out to participants that their answers to this question reveal their theories about how to bring about change for housing rights.

•

Was there a pattern for or against changing legislation, changing attitudes, or taking direct action?

•

Why do you have preferences for working towards change in certain ways?

Make clear to participants that there is no single, right way to work towards change. The goal of the exercise is not to determine which method of working for change is best. In fact, participants may themselves point out the symbiotic connection, for example, between changing legislation to change attitudes and the need to change attitudes to change legislation. If anything, the activity should help participants appreciate that all three strategies are important and that the goal is not to choose one but to balance all three.

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White page: Changing legislation to achieve housing rights

All states should pass laws to recognise the right to adequate housing.

Discrimination against the Roma people should be recognised as a crime.

Laws which criminalise behaviour homelessness should be repealed.

associated

with

There should be laws prohibiting disconnection of water supply to homes, even in cases of non-payment.

There should be laws which outlaw eviction without adequate alternatives.

The government should repeal all laws which violate the right to adequate housing There should be a campaign for an international covenant on housing rights

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Blue page: Changing attitudes to achieve housing rights

Stereotypes that nomadic people are uncivilised should be challenged.

The idea that homeless people are lazy, unreliable and drunkards should be challenged.

Tolerance for homeless people should be taught in the school curriculum.

Information about why people live in slums should be available in the public media.

The Roma should be accepted as equal to any other people, then they will have equal rights to housing.

The idea that women should not be allowed to inherit land and property from their husbands must be eradicated.

The view that housing rights cannot be realised because they cost too much is a myth which must be challenged.

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Yellow page: Taking action to achieve housing rights

Homeless people should become more visible and take part in high-profile actions (such as demonstrations) which get media attention.

Those who support the housing rights of disabled people should lobby the government as well as religious and other institutions.

Housing Rights activists should work to raise the issues within any organisation or institution to which they belong.

There should be a boycott of the products and services of big Multinational companies which violate housing rights.

Slum-dwellers should oppressed groups.

take

joint

action

with

other

We must monitor and document all housing rights violations in our country.

People threatened by eviction should engage in nonviolent resistance to the eviction.

We should show solidarity with people threatened by eviction by forming a human shield around them.

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3. Role Play: Focus on civil society action developing campaigns Adapted from: D.J. Ravindran (2003) Economic Social and Cultural Rights Concepts and Tools Facilitating learning process. Bangkok: Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development

This activity is good to use right at the end of a workshop, to get people to consolidate what they have learned in the training.

To prepare for this activity, ask participants to submit in advance a case study depicting a real-life situation that warrants intervention. The best would be to get them to submit these case studies before the course starts. But knowing how things usually work… perhaps you could give it as a homework task at the beginning of the course. You are looking for a 1 – 1 ½ page case study. Encourage participants to do this in pairs if they wish, or in area groups.

Choose a number of these case studies, and type them up and copy them. Divide the participants into pairs, and give each pair a case study to work on. There is lots of interest advantage in having people work on a number of different cases, but if you don’t have enough options, the activity will work with only one case study. Don’t be tempted to put people into bigger groups – pairs or at the maximum threes will ensure that everyone thinks about what they have learned and gets involved actively in the exercise.

Explain the task, which is to prepare a presentation to the Board of Directors of a National NGO (you can give it a real or a fictional identity) arguing why and how the organisation should address the rights violations in the case.

Participants use the guidelines on page **** to prepare their presentations. Note that you have to tell the participants how long they have for their presentations. Depending on how many groups you have and how much time you have available, aim for 5- 10 minutes each.

The training team, possibly with some local participants, should form the “Board” and listen to and evaluate the proposals. Give the pairs 45 min – 1 hour to prepare their presentations, and then hear the presentations. At the end, one of you should give a little input on the reasons why you would choose X campaign. Remember that you can ask for further information to be supplied.

Finally, pull the exercise together in plenary. Ask participants to share their reactions to the exercise, and to say what they have learned from it (if no-one wants to say anything, ask them to first buzz for a minute with a neighbour – not the person they have done the exercise with). It might be a good idea to focus on the campaigns part of the exercise as you pull the exercise together in plenary. Ask participants what they thought of the Board’s choice and the reasons it gave. You could also summarise the kinds of campaigns that were suggested and look at common components (eg media coverage, lobbying decision makers, mobilising communities to action –what kind of action, education and so on). You probably won’t have time to go into all the different strategies COHRE Trainer’s File Housing Rights for Everyone, Everywhere

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here. But you can quite easily remind people that they need to have very clear objectives for each component of a campaign – what will they achieve (and why), how are they going to do it, by when etc.

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TOPIC B: Monitoring and fact-finding 1. Group Work: Developing a plan for progressive realisation of a state housing rights obligation (1 ½ hours) Introduce this activity with a short input on what monitoring, benchmarks, indicators and policy objectives are (see the articles in the Resource Manual, but avoid reading them aloud!). Then divide into small groups. The worksheet should be completed in relation to a specific case study. Any of the studies in the Manual will do (or any of the local ones you have developed). Clarify the case study you want people to have in mind as they do the exercise. Brainstorm a list of the state’s housing rights obligations, write them up and get of each group to select one obligation. In groups, they then complete the worksheet (60 mins) Reconvene in plenary and facilitate a discussion about this framework.

• What do you find useful about this framework?

• What did you find difficult? What further assistance will you need before you can apply it in your country?

2. Group work: Potential objectives for monitoring housing rights (30 min) Begin by asking the group • What is monitoring?

• What does monitoring involve?

• Why do human rights organisations need to collect information and data?

If there are a number of people from the same organisation present, let them work together in a small group. Otherwise just divide up randomly and tell participants to answer for all their organisations. The task is to complete Worksheet 14 by thinking about the types of housing rights issues and the types of monitoring activities that they can monitor.

3. Group work: Fact-finding activity (1 ½ hours) Agree on a local forced eviction or other housing rights case to base this work on. If you do not have a local case, you can use Worksheet 18, or any other case study in the manual.

First do a short, sweet input on the guiding principles for fact-finders (see Manual) (5mins). Then get groups to complete the worksheet 15 on fact-finding. (60 min). Finally reconvene in plenary and ask for responses to the activity: • How can this process be applied in real life in your country?

• What potential problems could come up?

• What additional questions should be considered? (25 min)

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USING THE UN COMMITTEE CULTURAL RIGHTS Trainer’s Objectives:

FOR

ECONOMIC,

SOCIAL

•

To provide an overview of how the CESCR can be used to further housing rights at a national level

•

To simulate the process of using the committee

AND

What’s in the Resource manual?

• What does the Committee do?

• Determining Whether To Use The Committee • When is the best time to approach the Committee?

• Committee procedures relating to NGOs • What is your government's role in the Committee process?

• Preparing for your participation in the Committee • What to Expect: How Does the Committee Make Decisions?

• Country missions as an advocacy tool • Follow-up Domestic Activities Depending on the time available in your training and on the focus of the training, you could either just give a brief overview of how the CESCR can be used, or engage participants in lengthier simulation of using the committee.

Sample activities Topic A : Overview of how the committee can be used 1. Brief input on using the CESCR (20 minutes) Give a 15 minute overview of how country activists could use the CESCR. Refer people to the details in the Resource Manual, and also say that there are more details available on COHRE’s web-site. Allow 5 minutes for questions. You can enhance your input by putting up headings such as State party report, shadow report etc on the board/flipchart.

2. Participants read and formulate questions (30 minutes) Do not do this activity if people are really tired and without energy. Ask participants to read through the Resource Manual on the topic of using the committee (15 minutes).

Then ask them to form pairs with the person sitting on their right and together to note down three interesting things they discovered in their reading, and at least one question they would like to ask about what they read (5 min). Spend the last 10 minutes asking and answering questions.

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Topic B : Using the Committee 1. Video clips from Out of the Shadows (on using the committee) (30 min) In the trainer’s pack you will find a extracts from a video about using the committee.

Show the video and then either open up for questions and discussion (an extra 20 minutes) or go on to the planning part of the exercise below.

2. Planning for using the committee (1 ½ hours) Divide participants into groups of 7 – 10. Give each group flipchart paper and pens.

Refer them to the worksheet in the resource Manual, and give the groups 60 minutes to develop the plan of action according to this worksheet. Advise participants that you are available to give advice or help, and they should consult you without hesitation.

It is probably not necessary to take proper report backs. Rather place the plans on the walls, for participants to look at over lunch breaks. But tie up the activity in plenary by discussing any problems/debates/issues that were raised in the groups.

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EVALUATING THE TRAINING PROGRAMME Evaluation is a means for us to better understand what we are doing, how we are doing it and the results of our efforts. It offers us a way to see if we are achieving our intended goals, and it helps us to adjust our activities to achieve better results in future.

You need to be clear about which project objectives you are trying to evaluate – the achievement of certain goals, processes, materials, and systems? And you need to think about indicators of success.

Programmes have first-, second- and third-order effects that can be evaluated.

• First-order effects are the activities that are carried out directly by the executors of a programme (that’s us, in COHRE). Evaluations often focus on first-order effects because they are so much easier to document. For example, at this level, an evaluation would look at whether the promised training took place and who attended it, and what did we actually do?

• Evaluations of second-order effects look at the impact of the programme, eg is there any change in the practice of the participants, is the resource book being used by the participants. The best way to gather information on this is through personal contact after the event. You should work out whether you (COHRE) should do this, or a partner organisation.

• A third-order effect would be changed knowledge, skills or attitudes. Again, this is difficult to measure. You can gather some evidence during the training Daily evaluation of the programme It is really a good idea for the training team to meet at the end of each day to evaluate how things went and to plan for the next day. You might want to include members of your partner organisation in this meeting, or even some participant representatives.

You will probably be exhausted and be tempted to skimp on this meeting, but you will reap the benefits if you commit to a daily evaluation and planning session. At this kind of review meeting you can talk about: • What do people seem to be responding well to? (Methods? Topics?)

• Is everyone participating fully? What can you do to equalise participation?

• Is the pitch of the course right in terms of content and level? How should you alter your plans?

• What is the energy level in the group like, and what does that mean for the kinds of activities you should do next?

Improving your own training skills The most effective way of improving your training skills is to get honest feedback from a colleague about how you come across – every time you run a session. First talk about what you actually did (was your voice audible in the furthest corners of the room, did COHRE Trainer’s File Housing Rights for Everyone, Everywhere

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your body language and eye contact include everyone, how did you use the flip chart/OHP, how did you set up the activity etc etc). Then identify one or two concrete things that you are going to do better next time you run a session. Next time, get feedback on this.

You might have to work hard to develop a relationship where you can give and receive feedback honestly, but it really is worth it!

Recording the process you use For future reference, it is useful to evaluate the processes/methods you used. After you do an activity, jot down IN THE TRAINER’S FILE your responses to questions like • Was the activity used as it was presented in the file? Was it modified in any way? If so, how?

• Was the timing realistic? Comment.

• Was the lesson successful? Comment • Suggestions for changes Once again, you should really fight the tendency to avoid recording your responses. By the time you teach the session again, you might have forgotten your ideas, and you could end up repeating problems. Also, because of the way we work, next time someone else might run that session, and your comments could help them a lot.

Sample Activities The key thing to remember is that your evaluation needs time. If you try to squeeze it into the last five minutes of the programme when everyone is packing up to go home, you are wasting your time. Allocating sufficient time for evaluation will achieve two things: • You will get useful information and more honest responses • Participants will consolidate their learning 1. Administering an Evaluation Questionnaire (10 – 15 min) Copy an evaluation questionnaire that you would like to use. Some examples are included in this file. Hand it out, and encourage participants to be honest. Tell them that they can remain anonymous. Tell them that the purpose of the evaluation is not to judge them, but to improve the product in future. Remember to collect the questionnaires.

Don’t forget to analyse them! COHRE keeps copies of the evaluations for our funders, so you have to get them back to the Secretariat. It is most useful if you include a summary page of the results.

2. Quick Oral evaluation (15 min) This tool is very useful, and can be used at any stage of a programme. Draw 3 columns on the board/flipchart, and label them + (for positive), - (for negative) and (for COHRE Trainer’s File Housing Rights for Everyone, Everywhere

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improvements). Ask participants to first call out good things about the programme, and write them up. When they say a bad thing, they must also suggest an action to improve it.

3. Where to from here evaluation (20 – 60 min) In a way this is more planning than evaluation, but it is well suited to link with evaluation activities, and for the last session of the training. If you have not covered things like how are we going to network/keep in touch, you should schedule more time.

You can either get people into small groups (if it is a regional workshop this is a good idea) or do it all in plenary.

Ask: • What are we as a group going to do with the information we have gained at this training?

• What are we as individuals going to do next?

• How can we use the information we have to address the problem of housing rights?

4. Symbolic sharing (about 1 min per participant) Before the last break time, announce that during the final session participants will need to bring with them a symbol of what this training has meant for them/done for them.

Give a few examples and encourage them to find something similar during the break.

Examples: a seed (representing something that you are growing into), a glass of water (representing knowledge you have gained), a drawing…

In the final session, place a large cloth or something similar on the floor of the room, and gather participants around it in a circle. Ask participants to share their final thoughts and feelings about the course, by very briefly showing the symbol they have chosen and quickly explaining its significance. Start the process going by sharing your own symbol.

Place the symbol on the cloth. Give people the freedom to decide when to speak, or to remain silent if they wish (usually nobody does).

Encourage brevity, but watch out– this can sometimes feel quite emotional in a unifying kind of way, and you don’t want to ruin things by rushing it too much.

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EVALUATION OF COHRE HOUSING RIGHTS TRAINING PROGRAMME Date: ___________________________ Place:______________________________ How did you find the…

Excellent

Good

Sufficient

Problematic

Very useful

Somewhat useful

Not very useful

Meeting rooms Accommodation Food Transport Experiences within the training Please mark with an X My learning about key housing rights documents, principles and mechanisms for protection has been…

My learning about possibilities for action around housing rights issues has been …

The classroom activities (small group activities, role plays, case studies) were…

The Resource Manual was…

The level of the language used was…

The skills I have learned will be…

What was most valuable to you in the training?

What was the least useful aspect of the training?

Suggest ways that the training might be improved.

How do you expect to apply what you have learned in the training in your community or work?

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ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES FOR TEACHING HOUSING RIGHTS ISSUES Please make an effort to add in any activities/ ideas that you have used in your work.

A process for a one-day workshop, based on one case study This is a process for a fairly educated group who will feel at home reading information and who will be committed to read before the workshop. Distribute the Resource Manual before the training and request participants to read the information before the workshop.

The process centres on a case study. The best would be to write up one from the country where the training is happening. Otherwise, use the case study on Brazil, worksheet 18 in the Resource Manual. Divide participants into small groups of 5or 6, and get them to work through the activities on worksheet 19 (this can be used with any case study). It is a very full agenda, so you will need to watch the energy levels and do energisers or have small stretch breaks. Between each activity, facilitate plenary discussion on the topic.

Miscellaneous activities "What Characterizes a Human Being?"

Adapted from: Learning, Reflecting and Acting for a Human Rights Future, a training manual for the education of the human right to housing in urban communities, a project of PROCESS, Inc, a PDHRE affiliate, Manila, Philippines, May 1996.

This activity discusses the concept of a human being and her/his rights as a human being through drawings and group work.

Materials Needed: flipchart paper, scissors, art papers, felt pens, paste crayons/coloured pencils, masking tape 1. Divide participants into groups. Ask each group to discuss the following: • •

their concept of human beings and the qualities of human beings important elements that individuals must have and enjoy in order to enhance the qualities of human beings

2. After they have discussed, ask each group to draw human beings at the centre of a piece of flipchart paper, indicate their qualities that characterize them as human beings and around them the elements that they must have to fully experience the qualities as human beings.

3. Let each group explain their drawing in a plenary.

4. After the presentations, process the activity. Ask: What is your reaction to the activity?

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5. Deepen discussion on the contents of the drawings. Ask the following questions: • • • •

What does it mean to be a human being?

What do we need as a human being?

Why have some individuals been denied of the elements necessary to be fully human?

How do you define human rights?

6. Highlight key points in the discussion and provide a short input based on key points surfaced in the discussion.

• • • •

• •

In order to be a human, individuals must possess all the qualities that contribute to their human dignity — the totality of being human.

When any of these qualities that comprise the totality of human dignity is missing in an individual, it means a violation of one's dignity as human being.

There are elements that individuals must possess in order to fully enjoy their dignity as human beings. These represent their RIGHTS as individuals.

Each person has basic human rights — civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. Human rights are an individual's assertions to protect and respect one's dignity as a human being. That each person must assert such right to protect one's dignity.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides a set of basic rights recognized by governments that have to be respected, protected and promoted. These set of rights are indivisible, universal and inviolable.

Understanding such rights could help us in protecting our human dignity.

7. Ask for further questions or clarifications regarding the input provided.

8. Based on the discussion, ask participants to express their insights/learnings on the activity. Highlight similar as well as distinct points raised by the participants.

As a synthesis, provide a general statement based on key points discussed.

"Who Are The Urban Poor?"

Adapted from: Learning, Reflecting and Acting for a Human Rights Future, a training manual for the education of the human right to housing in urban communities, a project of PROCESS, Inc, a PDHRE affiliate, Manila, Philippines, May 1996.

This game sparks off discussion about the urban poor — who they are and what are their characteristics.

Materials Needed: several bundles of barbeque sticks

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1. Ask participants to form a circle. At the centre, place the bundles of barbeque sticks.

2. Explain that the goal of the activity is to determine the features of urban poor people.

3. Instruct participants that you are going to say something, if it is true for them, they must take one barbeque stick.

4. Start the game by asking the following: • • • • • • • • • •

who among you come from the province who among you owns a lot who among you owns a house who among you have regular jobs who among you have income that adequately meets daily needs who among you have access to health services who among you have adequate electricity and water at home who among you have access to proper waste disposal who among you send children to schools who among you live in a clean environment

5. Let each participants count the number of sticks they have.

6. Analyse the activity in plenary by asking • • • • •

What reactions/insights can you draw out from the activity?

What did you observe?

Why are people occupying different clusters?

How do you feel about these differences in positions?

How do you define who the urban poor are?

7. Conclude by highlighting the reasons for the differences in status of people in a society as given by the participants. Provide a definition of who the urban poor people are based on the discussion.

"Building A House" (Access to Resources) (1 ½ hours) Adapted from: Learning, Reflecting and Acting for a Human Rights Future, a training manual for the education of the human right to housing in urban communities, a project of PROCESS, Inc, a PDHRE affiliate, Manila, Philippines, May 1996.

Here simulation is used to discuss how the unequal distribution of wealth in society has given rise to the existence of urban poor communities.

Materials Needed: art paper, crayons/coloured pens, paste 1. Ask participants to list 20 important materials used in building a house. List them on the board. (5 min) COHRE Trainer’s File Housing Rights for Everyone, Everywhere

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2. Divide participants into 5 groups. From the above list, ask each group to draw 4 important materials used in constructing a house. Before the groups start, each group enumerates the 4 materials they are going to work on to avoid duplication of materials. After the groups are through, collect all the materials and place them on a table. (10 min) 3. On 5 strips of paper, write the number of the groups and let the groups choose their numbers. The group with the number 1 will be the first; 2 will be the next and so on. (5 min) 4. Remind the groups that their objective is to construct a beautiful house using materials on the table. Ask members of Group # 1 to come to the table and pick 10 materials they think are important in constructing a house. Give 5 minutes for the group to choose.

5. Ask members of Group 2 to choose 6 materials. Give them 5 minutes to choose.

6. Ask members of Group 3, 4 and 5 to get any from the 4 remaining materials.

Give them 1 minute to get their materials.

7. Ask the groups to start constructing their house.

8. Analyse the activity by asking • • • •

How do you feel about the activity?

For the groups that have enough materials, did you encounter problems in constructing your house?

For groups that do not have adequate materials, did you encounter problems in building your house? What did you do to solve these?

How do you relate the activity to the situation of urban poor?

9. Provide an explanation of the activity: • The activity shows how distribution of wealth in a given society or community affects the well-being of an individual as symbolized by one's house.

• The absence of the basic elements to keep their human dignity intact like land, decent jobs, housing, facilities pushed the urban poor to live in subhuman conditions.

• Since the urban poor is one of the most neglected sectors of society, they rely on their own efforts in order to survive.

10. Conclude by asking participants to express their insights/learnings on the activity.

Highlight similar as well as distinct points raised by the participants. As a synthesis, provide a general statement based on key points discussed.

Other ways of raising discussion about access to resources: Arrange a small area of the training room with comfortable chairs, a nice table with plenty of snacks, cool drink and so on. As participants come into the room, show about 5 people to this area, and make the rest sit in the ordinary seats. Tell the ones at the special table they can eat the food. Continue with the training, but give the privileged COHRE Trainer’s File Housing Rights for Everyone, Everywhere

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group more attention than the rest, praise them a lot and so on. Don’t make too much of a show of what you are doing, rather behave as if what you are doing is absolutely normal. Wait and see what happens. Maybe you will have a revolution! After a while, analyse what has been happening: • • • • • •

How do you feel when you are a “have”?

How do you feel when you are a “have not”?

Why did you not say/do anything about the situation? (if this is what happened) Why did you not share with the others?

In what way is this little exercise like real life?

What could be the relevance of the exercise to the issue of housing?

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A short and simple way to cover the right to housing (2 hours) Adapted from: Learning, Reflecting and Acting for a Human Rights Future, a training manual for the education of the human right to housing in urban communities, a project of PROCESS, Inc, a PDHRE affiliate, Manila, Philippines, May 1996.

1. Ask participants to enumerate what they think are their rights related to housing.

List them on the board. (15 min) 2. Ask one of the COHRE trainers to provide a short input on these rights. Allow some time for questions and clarifications. (30 min) 3. In a plenary, ask participants: Are there differences between your perceived rights and the rights spoken about in the input? Where does the difference lie?

(15 min) 4. Direct the following questions to both the participants and the person who gave the input. (45 min) • • •

Can you think of a situation when your rights to housing were not recognized/respected? What happened? What did you do?

What can you do when your rights to housing are not recognized/respected?

In what ways can your rights to housing and other housing laws beneficial to urban poor be protected and promoted?

5. Present a summary of a person's rights to housing as stated in international instruments and the constitution. To wrap up the activity, synthesize key points raised during the discussion. (15 min)

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