University for Peace: Curriculum Development Workshop on Justice, Human Rights, and Peace

University for Peace

Curriculum Development Workshop on Justice, Human Rights, and Peace – conclusions, recommendations, and areas for immediate follow-up

The second UPEACE Curriculum Development Workshop for the Great Lakes and Eastern African region was held in Kampala, Uganda from the 1st to 5th of December 2003, co-hosted with and coordinated by Makerere University, Uganda's premier institution of higher learning.

The workshop's goal was to focus on teaching the linkages between justice, human rights and peace. It is the second in a set of three sub-regional workshops being organized in 2003 and early 2004 by the UPEACE Africa Programme, bringing together academicians, researchers, and educators to consolidate knowledge and build the basis for mastering the skills needed for the management, resolution, and transformation of conflict. The strategy of curriculum development workshops allows individual professors, lecturers, and NGO leaders, to come together and rapidly develop from their cumulative experience what amount to immediately applicable teaching strategies. Participation at the workshop included representatives from academic institutions, non-governmental organizations, and government, covering 11 countries of the region, namely Burundi, Cameroon, DRC, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. Special guests and resource persons joined the workshop from Costa Rica, France, Netherlands, Nigeria, South Africa, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States of America. Field trips were organized to Mpigi and Jinja where workshop participants had the opportunity to interact with Uganda civil society organizations involved in peace and human rights work.

Participants contribute to a teaching package addressing the interlinkages between justice, peace, and human rights in Africa

A key output from the workshop includes the development of a teaching package which addresses the interlinked issues of justice, peace and human rights in Africa in a holistic and integral fashion to identify and understand both the factors that underpin peace and those that might cause war. Just as injustice is a cause, symptom and consequence of war, justice is the fundament of peaceful societies. Political justice and accountability is required to underpin a human rights regime, legal justice and the rule of law is the essential basis of governance and human security, and social justice is imperative for equitable development and inclusive participatory societies that eschew violence.

‘By digging into the truth, we will reveal the different perspectives that need to be reconciled or harmonized. By so doing, I believe we will have a better understanding of how best to pursue the overriding goal of human dignity, defined as the broadest shaping and sharing of all values, material, moral and spiritual’ (Francis Deng)

‘Peace without justice is a symbolic peace’ (Rigoberta Menchu)

The objective of the teaching package is to contribute to the formation of a new generation of rigorous, multi-disciplinary thinkers, analysts and activists who could contribute to fostering greater peace and justice in their countries, regions and continent. The package undertakes a multi-disciplinary and multi-dimensional approach to the subject of peace and justice, integrating global contextual and theoretical material with African contextual, continental and philosophical material, in order to produce an African-specific approach to justice, human rights and peace.

‘People who do not preserve their memory are a people who have forfeited history’ (Wole Soyinka)

Public Dialogue

At a Public Dialogue hosted by the Uganda Human Rights Commission during the Curriculum Development Workshop, a resolution was presented and supported to launch a global movement towards the adoption of a United Nations Convention on the Human Right to Peace. Participants at the dialogue resolved:-
“……that for the purpose of defending and promoting peace and building a permanent culture of peace in Uganda, in all the African countries here represented and in the entire world, we do hereby endorse the official opening of wide discussions and debate in our respective countries on the necessity to generate support for a petition by our respective countries to the Secretary General of the United Nations on the urgent need and necessity to have a fully fledged United Nations Convention on the Human Right to Peace”
During the same public dialogue, the Solicitor General of Uganda, Hon. Lucian Tibaruha, also officially launched the Uganda Human Rights Commission research on “Examining the status of health rights of patients and their attendants in private and public health facilities in Uganda”. In fulfillment of Article 52 (1) (c) of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, 1995, to “establish a continuing programme of research, education, and information, to enhance respect of human rights”, the Commission carried out this research which is being presented to the entire nation. In the words of Ms. Margaret Sekaggya, Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission, who presented the report during the UPEACE/Makerere University Curriculum Development Workshop on Justice, Human Rights, and Peace, “the human right to health and all health rights are intimately linked to the requirements of justice, human rights, and peace in any nation. When proper health care is provided for all citizens of a nation, then justice, human rights, and peace, are being realized”.
In a closing ceremony of the workshop, Dr. S.P. Kagoda, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, spoke of the timeliness of the workshop and the pertinence of the theme in a region which is “crying out for peace”. Whilst recognizing the important role that academics can play in encouraging greater understanding of the issues that are likely to breed conflict, Dr. Kagoda expressed his hopes that the curricula would be shared with the wider community, including inserting such material into the primary school level. The Ministry of Internal Affairs fully supported the workshop, and looks forward to helping to move forward the recommendations emanating from the meeting, extending their hope that the network will be able to contribute to the development of policies and laws related to issues of reconciliation in the region.
The strength of communication through art conveys powerful messages that can be understood by every age group. Makerere University Department of Music, Dance, and Drama performed creative dances, opened the workshop with a Song for Peace dedicated to the Africa Programme of UPEACE, and motivated participants in the midst of the workshop with a play entitled “Echoes of Peace”.
Key Recommendations for the workshop
Participants deliberated on recommendations for follow on activities from the workshop, highlighting their concerns that the workshop be seen not as a one-off event, but rather a spark for a longer term process of capacity building within the region to teach, train, and research on issues pertaining to justice, human rights, and peace. Recommendations included:-
a) Training of Trainer Workshops at the national level to strengthen the knowledge of a wide array of stakeholders on issues of justice, reconciliation, human rights, and peace
b) Pilot testing of the teaching package of material, and inclusion of practitioners as a target group of learners and teachers
c) Ensuring the centrality of gender in the teaching process and teaching material
d) Extensive requests for literature and teaching material to complement the teaching package and bibliography
e) Encouragement of inter-university exchanges of faculty and teaching staff within the region and across the regions in Africa
f) Facilitation, by the UPEACE/Africa Programme, of a network of peace educators in the region, including the development of a web-site and bulletin board to exchange information across the region
g) Translation of all workshop material into French for francophone participants from the region

Follow-up activities in Uganda
In a subsequent meeting with the UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Kampala, Mr. Daouda Touré congratulated UPEACE and Makerere University for addressing the linkage between justice, human rights, and peace, stating that “most of the problems in Africa and elsewhere are because of exclusion”. He underscored the importance of addressing not only real, visible signs of exclusion, but also the need to take account of “perceived” feelings of injustice. Mr. Touré encouraged UPEACE and Makerere University to train a broad range of stakeholders on issues related to justice, human rights, and peace, in order to create a critical mass of people who are capable of understanding and preventing violent conflict. Mr. Touré confirmed the support of UNDP in a number of follow-up activities, most notably:-
a) a national training-of-the-trainers workshop to build on the teaching material on justice, human rights, and peace which was elaborated upon during the curriculum development workshop. Such a workshop should involve a cross-section of stakeholders from Universities, NGOs, policy makers, military representatives, and UN representatives.

b) a workshop in Northern Uganda for a broad range of stakeholders, including the military, particularly those operating in refugee camps, on concepts of human security and the responsibility to protect. Such a workshop could also build on the key dimensions of justice, human rights, and peace, as raised during the curriculum workshop.

c) a workshop, in collaboration with the Uganda Human Rights Commission, on developing peace education and human rights curricula for the military services in Uganda (building on a workshop hosted by UPEACE in Sierra Leone in November 2003 for the military services and armed forces of Sierra Leone, and attended by Brigadier Kaihura Kale of the Ugandan army)
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