Human rights and good governance education in the Asia Pacific region

So, it is clear that there is a fair amount of work being conducted, and the examples I have given are by no means an exhaustive list. A strong case can be made for these disparate projects to be brought together more effectively under one umbrella. Though before that occurs, we would surely need to conduct a study to determine areas of overlap, possible synergies between projects, and areas in which there are gaps that may need to be filled.

The key overall observation of the state of domestic human rights and good governance education efforts is of the need to provide better coordination of human rights and good governance education efforts in Australia between all levels of government and between government and non-government agencies. At present, domestic efforts appear to be a collection of worthwhile, but fragmented programmes. Human rights and good governance education does not appear to be well integrated into the core curriculum in Australian schools and universities, an issue also raised at the conference in 2002.

HREOC does much to link the human rights community together into a network of sorts. The issue of a discrete Centre for Human Rights Education has been advanced to the Committee Inquiry as one viable option.

Good governance is central to the Australian aid programme's goal of poverty reduction and accounts for about 21 per cent of overall aid expenditure. In 2003-04 governance expenditure is expected to be about $370 million.

However the aid programme also includes a dedicated global human-rights programme, encompassing:

• The Human Rights Fund ($1.3 million in 2003-04)
• Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions
• UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
• Human Rights Small Grants Scheme

The Human Rights Fund supports local-level activities and the strengthening of national and regional institutions to promote and protect human rights. Often the activities in the Small Grants Scheme are aimed at the education and training of human-rights workers or community leaders and members. For example, in 2003-04, activities funded include human rights training activities for judges, lawyers, police, community leaders and other citizens in Bangladesh, Laos, India and Sri Lanka; human rights monitoring of the legal and judicial system in East Timor, and activities to protect the rights of women and children in the Philippines, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Vietnam.

Within its partnership approach to developing regional and bilateral programmes, Australia provides support for particular aspects of good governance and human rights education where particular needs are identified.

For example, following the success of the 1996-2002 Pacific Media Initiative whose primary goal was to improve media and communications throughout the Pacific and recognising the importance of a professional and independent media to holding governments accountable (to democratic ideals and human rights standards), Australia is supporting workshops under a new Pacific Media and Communications Facility ($2.1 m over 3 years from May 04).

The facility will support:

• open and accountable reporting in areas of good governance reform, such as politics, business and economics; improved standards of investigative journalism, news and current affairs;
• improved media management, including programming and human resources;
• government media training;
• improved ethics and media laws; and
• improved coverage of significant regional events.

Developing a National Action Plan on Human Rights was a requirement of the 1995-2004 UN Decade for Human Rights Education.