[Announce] human rights tools

Thu Nov 9 20:28:03 CST 2006

From:
Human Rights Tools <editors at humanrightstools.org>

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Dear readers,

This issue is about jobs, blogs, tools and funding. What more could you 
want? We hope you'll enjoy it.

Table of contents

1. New job service for human rights professionals

2. Do you blog about human rights?

3. New or noteworthy tools and resources
- Brookings: Guide to International Human Rights Mechanisms for IDPs and 
Their Advocates
- ICHRP: Human Rights Standards: Learning from Experience
- OHCHR: collection of rule-of-law tools for post-conflict states

4. Funding opportunity: Echoing Green Fellowship

_________________________________________________

1. NEW JOB SERVICE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS PROFESSIONALS

We consulted our website statistics and discovered that the most popular 
section was our Career Center, and in particular the links to the human 
rights job listings.

We also realized that visitors to Human Rights Tools (in other words: 
you) are a very valuable group of people for human rights recruiters. 
This is because our visitors (again: you) are primarily human rights 
professionals looking for tools and resources. They are passionate about 
their jobs, curious, and want to keep themselves up to date. They are 
not necessarily actively looking for a job -- and of course, tend to be 
exactly the type of person that recruiters are trying to reach.

So we decided to improve the Career Center, and have just finished 
setting up a brand new job section, which lists job announcements for 
human rights professionals:
http://jobs.humanrightstools.org/

Click on the link below to get email alerts of every job announcement 
the minute it is published:
http://jobs.humanrightstools.org/jt/contacts/accept_invite.php

We also strongly explore the lists of links on the left side of the 
page. They don't look like much, but through them you will access all 
the best job announcements, coming from websites dedicated exclusively 
to human rights, but also civil society jobs listings or United Nations 
vacancy pages. If you are currently on the search for your next 
challenge, make sure to bookmark this page so you can return to it easily.

Please also forward this email to your friends and colleagues. Even if 
they are not looking for a job right now, they will appreciate to see 
what jobs are currently on offer and what skills are in demand.

Also please send it to your human resources department, as they may also 
want to post their vacancies on our jobs bulletin board.

2. DO YOU BLOG ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS?

If you have a human rights blog, please let us know. We will list it on 
a special page called "Human Rights Bloggers Community", and add it to 
our public Bloglines account. All blogs are welcome, personal or 
institutional. Even if your blog is not 100% about human rights, send it 
anyway. Simply reply to this email with your URL!

Our friends at Aidworkers.net have given us this idea (thanks Tom!), and 
its a great one:
http://www.aidworkers.net/?q=blogs

3. NEW OR NOTEWORTHY TOOLS AND RESOURCES

ICHRP: Human Rights Standards: Learning from Experience
http://www.ichrp.org/public/publications.php?id_projet=19&lang=AN
This latest ICHRP report, fresh off the press, provides a guide for NGOs 
and advocates wishing to pursue new human rights standards. It makes the 
useful distinction between the three types of protection gap which make 
new standards desirable: "normative", "application" and "supervisory". 
It takes us through the roles of the different actors, the different 
bodies and organisations where standard-setting takes place, and the 
work processes. However the most useful part, from a practical point of 
view, is the collection of strategically and tactical advice given in 
the the conclusion : from developing a bottom-up approach to building a 
long-term political strategy. The timing of the report is quite good 
too: the Human Rights Council is beginning its work, and it is useful to 
learn from past experiences in order to see how to improve in the future.

Brookings: Guide to International Human Rights Mechanisms for IDPs and 
Their Advocates
http://www.brook.edu/fp/projects/idp/2006_guidebook.htm
Intended for those who advocate for rights of internally displaced 
persons (IDPs), this 240-page Guide provides a comprehensive reference 
to the rights of IDPs, conveniently organized by theme. It also covers 
all the mechanisms available to advance IDPs rights, from the UN Human 
Rights Council, to the World Bank.

OHCHR: collection of rule-of-law tools for post-conflict states
A collection of five manuals:
- Vetting: an operational framework: 
http://www.ohchr.org/english/about/publications/docs/ruleoflaw-Vetting_en.pdf
- Monitoring legal systems: 
http://www.ohchr.org/english/about/publications/docs/ruleoflaw-Monitoring_en.pdf
- Truth commissions: 
http://www.ohchr.org/english/about/publications/docs/ruleoflaw-TruthCommissions_en.pdf
- Mapping the justice sector: 
http://www.ohchr.org/english/about/publications/docs/ruleoflaw-Mapping_en.pdf
- Prosecution initiatives: 
http://www.ohchr.org/english/about/publications/docs/ruleoflaw-Prosecutions_en.pdf
Congratulations to OHCHR for a very good set of tools. Written by 
different authors, we found all to be of excellent quality. They answer 
the key questions: for example, the "Prosecution initiatives" helps with 
the following dilemmas: Whom to prosecute when faced with a myriad of 
suspects? How to deal with the impunity gap? They are practical concise 
and oriented towards the practitioner. If you are involved in reforming 
state institutions, you will no doubt want to download this collection.

4. FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: ECHOING GREEN FELLOWSHIP

Are you a social entrepreneur with an wonderful idea to realize? By 
applying for an Echoing Green Fellowship, you could receive up to 
$90,000 in seed funding and support to launch a new organization that 
turns your idea into action. You will find details on their website, here:
http://www.echoinggreen.org/

But are you an entrepreneur? Do you have the personality traits? Read 
this page to see what a social entrepreneur really looks like:
http://www.echoinggreen.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageId=162
(OK, they forgot to mention the over-sized ego!)

Not every applicant will receive a grant of course! To put all the 
chances on your side, Jeremy Schifeling, who wrote to us about this 
fellowship, says its really important to put the time and effort into 
crafting the best application you can. A good way to start is by doing 
their online pre-application questionnaire, which will give you a pretty 
good idea of what they are looking for:
http://www.echoinggreen.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageID=688

And while you're visiting, be sure to browse through their case study 
section, you can be sure to find some useful tips and advice, on 
fundraising in particular. And read about the work of previous 
Fellowship recipients, they will also inspire you.
http://www.echoinggreen.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageId=48
http://www.echoinggreen.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageID=658

Even if you don't get the fellowship, you will not regret having put in 
the effort, because it will have forced you to clarify your thinking 
about your dream project, and hopefully you will have produced some good 
quality text which you can use in other applications. Initial ideas 
always sound great when we talk about them, but its only when we try to 
put them into writing that we can work out the inconsistencies and 
produce something that really holds water.

In fact, even of you don't apply this website will still be useful to 
you. Most of us are going through their strategic planning exercises 
right now. Well if you are planning a weekend retreat with your 
colleagues to strategize about the future of your organization (what 
fun!), then the application form will give ten very interesting 
questions to explore. Management consultants will make you pay a lot for 
these questions - Echoing Green gives them to us for free:
http://www.echoinggreen.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageID=169

If you apply, don't wait until the last minute - start preparing now 
(deadline 1 December).

So what’s coming in the next issue? Well, we could be looking for the 
actor that lies in all of us. Or we may build a human rights house 
together - with either bricks or bytes. That’s all we're saying for now, 
you will just have to wait and see!

Some final notes:

TO SUBSCRIBE: if you have received this newsletter from a friend and 
would like to sign up, you can do so from the page below. Its free, of 
course.
http://www.humanrightstools.org/news/newsletter.htm

SHARE YOUR COMMENTS: you will find this newsletter online on our 
website. And at the very bottom of each newsletter, there is a "Comment" 
link which you can use to share your comments about this newsletter: 
your opinion about the resources presented, similar resources that ought 
to be mentioned, and your own experiences as well. We appreciate your 
feedback, as do your fellow readers!
http://www.humanrightstools.org/news/news/archive.htm

SHARE YOUR TOOLS OR EXPERIENCE: if your are producing a new tool or 
resource, or would like to share an experience which would be of 
interest to the wider human rights community, please write to us - we 
can profile it in an upcoming newsletter. Simply respond to this email 
to let us know.

TRANSLATING THIS NEWSLETTER: if you want to translate this newsletter 
into your language and post it on your mailing list, you are welcome to 
do so! Just let us know if you do so (to avoid duplication), and please 
acknowledge Human Rights Tools as source.

Best regards and good luck in your efforts!

Daniel D'Esposito, editor

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