Organising institution |
 Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Poland
| |
Delivering institution |
Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Poland
| |
Date of commencement/
establishment |
1992 | |
Name |
Training courses for various professional groups | |
Substantive focus |
law enforcement
prison administration
civil society
administration of justice | |
Target group |
Judges
Media specialists
Police/Security forces
Teachers | |
In-service training or
pre-service training |
No | |
Content |
In 1992, the Helsinki Foundation was approached by the Police Training Center with a request for help in the training of future police officers in Poland. A series of seminars for various groups was organized: students and lecturers of the police academy and police officers. In this way, information was acquired about the problems of paramount importance for this specific professional group -- issues that are among the most controversial. This information led to the development of a detailed training program and to the preparation of a book entitled, Human Rights and the Police (published by the Police Training Center). Furthermore, police academy lecturers were invited to attend the Human Rights School. Today, most police academies have a program, handbook, and lecturer training in human rights.
At present, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights is trying to develop a similar program for prison staff. In the future, this kind of training will also be offered to teachers from schools of all levels.
Having recognized the role played by journalists in the process of teaching human rights to society, in 1993-1995 the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights developed a special program for journalists. Over twenty daily papers and magazine were examined daily and checked for typical mistakes and misleading commentaries on matters related to human rights and freedoms. The result was the publication of a weekly bulletin distributed to over 350 journalists. It contained corrections of mistaken information and pointed to important if seemingly insignificant statements and decisions of the Supreme Court and Constitutional Tribunal that had gone unnoticed by the media. The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights media department organized two- to three-day meetings for journalists, each meeting dealing with a specific issue. In 1994-1995, alongside journalists, numerous judges also attended the meetings.
Since 1996, the Helsinki Foundation has been carrying out a program called Judges, which is an educational program for the Polish and Russian judiciaries. The program aims to strengthen the Polish and Russian judges' sense of being the third branch of power, a sense often lacking. The program aims to develop sensitivity to new phenomena (such as acquainting participants with the European system of human rights protection and of specific implications that follow for judges specializing in different branches of the law -- from human rights to comparative law to standards of the rule of law). In its section for Polish judges, the program consists of a series of two-day meetings, distribution of interesting materials, and persuasion to cooperate with non-governmental organizations. Within the section for judges from the Russian Federation, the program includes six-day seminars for groups of twenty-five judges, supplemented with distribution of publications on human rights to each group; a total of three such meeting are held in 1998. | |
Geographical focus |
Poland
Russian Federation | |
HR incorporated in curriculum |
No | |
Methodology used |
Meetings, Distribution of materials, Persuasion, Seminars, Weekly bulletin, Review of newspapers and magazines, Preparation of a book, Lectures. | |
Additional information |
Funding institution: Ford Foundation, German Marshall Fund, Open Society Institute, C.S. MOTT Foundation, European Union, United Nations, private sponsors. | |
Was the program evaluated |
Information not available | |
|