Project and Programmes

Ongoing Programme

Creative International Forum (CIF) has recently implemented 'Capacity Building Programme for Protecting Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms" in partnership with National Peace Campaign (NPC). European Commission (EC) has funded this programme for the period of three years. The programme covers 30 districts of Nepal, which are mainly the conflict affected areas of Terai Region and eastern hills. The programme aims to build the capacity of the representatives of Civil Society Organization members and young politicians of the selected districts of the county so as to effectively mobilize and engage them in protecting and promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms in vulnerable districts. The focus groups of the programme are CSOs, HR and peace networks, journalists, lawyers, educators, members of CA, younger politicians, local government authorities, bureaucrats, judiciary personnel and other concerned change agent of the society. The activities of the programme include a number of workshops, trainings, media interventions and publications to capacitate specified target groups and to create awareness among common people on human rights and fundamental freedoms. The major activities of the action and their status are as follows:


Orientation to project team members
The orientation to the project team members was held at Hotel Ashoka in Kathmndu from February 8 to February 11, 2009. The three day programme was attended by altogether 15 staff members of the project including regional coordinators and staff of the central offices of NPC and CIF working under this programme. The first day of the programme started with the opening remarks of the chairperson of National Peace Campaign (NPC) Mr Komal Pokhrel and chairperson of CIF, Jagadish Dahal. The introductory remarks provided brief introductions of the organizations to the project team and the review of the situation of the target districts. The sessions of the first day were facilitated by Shushil Pyakurel (former member of NHRC), Tanka Raj Achyarya (Global Campaign for Free Expression) and Mandira Sharma (Executive Director of Advocacy Forum). The facilitators shared with the participants a range of topics like history of HR, concept and understanding of HR, Big Seven HR Treaties, domestication of international laws monitoring and documenting HR situations and cases of HR violation in general. The first session of the second day was facilitated by Shiva Hari Dahal (Representative, DCAF). Mr. Dahal discussed the current situation of HR and conflict in Terai and eastern hills. Following this session, Mr Kumar Adhikari shared achievements and challenges of media program conducted by NPC.

The remaining sessions of the orientation programme were based on the core discussion on the project implementation. Mr. Jagadish Dahal and Mr. Komal Pokhrel oriented the staff members on the objectives, activities, implementation procedure of the action and sustainability of the project. On the concluding day, the participants were asked to prepare work plan and half yearly action plans for implementing the project activities. Moreover, Miss, Ambika Pokhrel and Mr. Sidhartha Ojha facilitated the session on financial and reporting guidelines.

Regional Strategic Planning Workshop
Creative International Forum (CIF) conducted 5 regional strategic planning workshops in its regional centers as a part of its Capacity Building Programme supported by European Commission. The workshops started from April and ended in June, 2009 forming regional peace networks and district focal organizations covering all the parts of Nepal.
Objectives of the workshops
The workshops had the following objectives:

  • Delineate the roles of civil society actors to contribute to the constitution drafting in the transitional phase of the country
  • Identify the roles of human rights defenders to identify and address the regional level issues of human rights
  • Define the roles of civil society to minimize/reduce growing trend of culture of violence and HR violations
  • Form a common forum/network of the organizations working on the areas of human rights, peace building and strengthening of democracy and facilitate them for their effective mobilization

Participants of the workshop
The workshops had the participation of 277 civil society members from 69 districts of Nepal. The participants represented the organizations working on human rights, peace building and rights of marginalized communities.

Overall facilitation of the workshop
Resource person Mr. Bidhur Subedi and CIF chairperson, Mr. Jagadish Dahal facilitated the workshop.

Topics covered in the workshop
The workshops in each region were mainly concentrated on the three areas; human rights protection and promotion in each region, formation and effective mobilization of networks and drafting district wise action plan for effective mobilization of networks. The facilitators presented the issues for discussions to the participants in the forms of questions as well by means of paper presentation from the local resource persons.

Paper presentation by local resource persons
Local resource persons presented papers covering a wide range of local issues of human rights in each workshop. The major themes of the papers were mainly the current HR situation, role of civil society actors, concept and modality of network mobilization in the context of their regions.

Formation of focal organizations and regional peace networks
The major achievements of the workshops were the formation of district focal organizations and regional peace networks. Focal organizations have been formed in all 75 districts of Nepal during the workshops. Then, five regional networks have been formed covering all the focal organizations.

Process
The network was formed taking the consensus of the participating organizations. First of all, a district focal organization was formed with the consent of the representative organizations from each district. After that, district focal organizations chose their respective regional peace networks.  Five regional networks and the contact persons of the respective networks are as follows:
Name of the regional peace network coordinating organizations and coordinators

SN

Name of the organizations

Name of network coordinators

1.

HUSADEC, Dhankuta

Mr. Bidhur Subedi

2.

Samaj Vikash Kendra, Parsa

Mr. Kamal Mohan Pokhrel

3.

Indreni Development Centre, Rupandehi

Mr. Pradip Shah

4.

Force Nepal, Banke

Mr. C P Singh

5.

HUPEC, Kanchanpur

Mr. Lal Bahadur Khadka

Action plan of district focal organizations and regional peace networks
Each workshop framed action plans of the focal organizations and regional peace networks. The action plans included the activities to be performed in the areas of human rights promotion and protection.

Citizen appeal paper
Each workshop ended with releasing citizen appeal papers on behalf of the participants. The papers expressed serious concern of CSOs members over the increasing trend of HR violations, impunity, insecurity and exclusion and appealed to the government to create appropriate atmosphere for protecting and promoting human rights.

Master Training
National Peace Campaign (NPC) conducted Training of Trainers (TOT) on Human Rights (HR) from 11-18 May, 2009 at Dhulikhel, Kavre, Nepal. The training was a part of the Capacity building programme implemented in partnership with Creative International Forum (CIF) under EC funded project. 

Objectives of the training
The training aimed at equipping civil society members involved in HR protection with adequate information, knowledge, skills required for trainers to conduct training and workshop in the regional and district levels. Specifically, training also aimed to organize for developing regional level trainers in the field of Human Rights.

Participants of the training
There were a total of 28 participants coming from far west of Nepal, Kanchanpur to far east, Taplejung. The participants were CSO members working in the conflict affected areas of Terai region and eastern hills.

Facilitators of the training
The training was facilitated by international resource persons: Liz Philipson and Ingrid Massage from the UK and Belgium respectively. Two sessions of the training i.e. Development of HR in Nepal and ESCR (Economic, Social and Cultural rights) were conducted by legal expert, Hari Phuyal and OHCHR resource person Dip Thapa Magar respectively.

Opening day of the training:
The training started on 11 May, 2009 at Dhulikhel Resort, Kavre. Mr. Jagadish Dahal, the chairperson of Creative International Forum (CIF) welcomed the participants and trainers. Mr. Dahal introduced the trainers, Liz Philipson and Ingrid Massage to the participants highlighting their expertise on the filed of human rights. Following his welcome speech, the facilitators got the participants to introduce themselves, collected expectations of the participants and set the ground rules for the training period.

Major topics covered
The training covered a number of contemporary issues/topics on human rights. The basic concepts of rights, human rights and features of human rights like universality and indivisibility were dealt on the first day. The facilitators clarified these concepts with elaborations. Likewise, Hari Phuyal, facilitated the afternoon session regarding the constitutional development of human rights laws in Nepal. He provided the overview of how human rights provisions were incorporated in the Nepalese constitutions at different eras and also gave a brief assessment of the lacking parts in such legal provisions.
On the second day, the facilitators discussed a range of HR conventions and mechanisms and their historical perspectives. In the same way, topics like investigations of human rights violations, fact finding and documentations were also covered. In the evening session, Dip Magar from OHCHR introduced ESC rights and their interdependence/interrelation with other rights.
The rest of the training sessions were completely facilitated by Liz Philipson and Ingrid Massage. The sessions covered contemporary issues/topics such as violence against women, equality and equity, self determination, impunity, transitional justice, HR advocacy, and training guidelines. At the end, the facilitators asked the participants to prepare for doing presentation on one of the topics covered in the training sessions. For this, the participants were provided with session planning sheet and instructed to plan for their sessions.
Training method
The training was highly practical.  During the training, group discussions, question-answer, case studies, role plays and short power point presentations were done. The key points related to the topics were highlighted in the Meta Cards and Flip Chart. There was a provision of the interpreters for translating English to Nepali and vice versa.  This benefited both the participants and the trainers to understand the views and problems of each other.

Participants' presentation
on the last day of the training, each participant was involved in presenting on the given topics on behalf of their groups. For this purpose, five groups were formed and each group was allotted 30 minutes' time for presentation and explanation.  The peers and trainers provided comments and feedbacks to each of the groups after their presentation.

Training evaluation
The participants were given out forms to evaluate the training. The forms contained both the objective and subjective questions for assessing different aspects of the training.

Certificate distribution
The participants were awarded with certificates of participations at the end of the training. On receiving the certificates, the participants thanked the organizers for providing them with the opportunity to take part in the TOT. They expressed their commitments that they would use gained knowledge and skills in their professional fields.

Concluding of the Training
The chairperson of NPC, Mr. Komal Pokhrel concluded the progamme expressing his thanks to the participants, resource persons and the project team members for making this training a success. Similarly, he expected that the training would enable participants to work as resource persons and HR defenders in their respective places and organizations.  

Regional Human Rights Training
Under the capacity building program, Creative International Forum (CIF) conducted Regional Level Human Rights Training in partnership with National Peace Campaign (NPC) under the EC funded project. The trainings stated from last week of June 2009 and completed in the second week of October, 2009. The training mainly involved the members of civil society organizations implementing a wide range of programs on human rights and other rights based issues at the local levels. There were also representations of lawyers, journalists and teachers, who are a part of civil society and are directly and indirectly involved in promoting and advocating human rights and fundamental freedoms locally.

Objectives and Contents: The trainings were conducted with an objective to provide basic knowledge and skills to the participants on human rights. Meanwhile, it was also expected that the participants will engage in translating the acquired knowledge and skills on human rights in their respective organizations and districts by involving themselves in interaction, sharing and training facilitation activities. To achieve these objectives, the training covered a wide range of topics concerning HR issues, HR concept, HR standards, HR mechanisms and its advocacy.

Venues, Dates and Program districts covered: The trainings were organized in regional centers that covered all the program districts of the action. The venues, dates and details of the program districts covered are as follows:



SN

Regional Centre

Venue

Date

Districts covered

1

Siraha

Hotel Godhuli, Siraha

26-30 June,

Udhayapur, Saptari, Siraha, Sarhali, Dhanusa and  Mohatari

2

Dhankuta

Hotel Suravi, Dhankuta

20-24 August

Khotang, Bhojpur, Sankhuwasava, Solukhumbu, Terathum and Dhankuta

3

Chitawan

Hotel Saphari, Chitwan

27-31 July

Bara, Parsa, Rautahat, Chitawan, Nawalparasi and Rupandehi

4

Banke

Hotel Mayur, Nepalgunj

3-7 September

Kapilbastu, Dang, Banke, Bardiya, Kailali and Kanchanpur

5

Jhapa

Sungava Training Hall, Ilam

9-13, October

Taplejung, Panchthar, Ilam, Jhapa, Morang and Sunsari

Participants of the Training:  A total of 125 participants profited from the trainings. The details of the participants are described in the below table:


SN

Descriptions

Males

Females

Total

1

Siraha

12

13

25

2

Dhankuta

15

10

25

3

Chitawan

14

11

25

4

Nepalgunj

11

15

26

5

Jhapa

14

10

24

 

Total

66

59

125

Resource Persons of the Training: The trainings were facilitated by resource persons, having wide experience on the areas of human rights, peace building and non violence. The participants of Training of Trainers (TOT) under this project and the members of the regional/district networks were used as trainers. Apart from this, resource persons from OHCHR and NHRC also facilitated some of the training sessions.

Methods of Facilitating Training: The trainings were conducted using participatory methods. Group discussions, group presentations, followed discussions based on documentary shows and clips, presentation from power point were some of the notable methods used in the trainings.

Immediate Outcomes of the Training: The regional level trainings provided a platform to a total of 125 CSO actors to acquire knowledge and skills on human rights, and also share their practical experiences in the field of HR monitoring and HR advocacy among their peers and resource persons. The participants of each of the trainings have made action plans regarding how they will transfer/share the acquired knowledge and skills in their respective organizations and districts after the trainings. 

Baseline Study
Baseline study was conducted from March to April, 2009. The study was conducted with the following objectives:

  • Document the overall HR situations of the programme districts
  • Collect information about the CSOs working on HR, fundamental freedoms and democratic practices in the programme districts
  • Assess and recommend NGOS working in the  field of human rights and peace for the potential informal partners
  • Assess the existing knowledge and skills of CSO members and other target groups specified in the project document
  • Suggest process, contents, strategies, additional intervention for the effective implementation of the activities of the action

The baseline information will be the benchmark to assess results, impacts and outcomes of the project after the completion of the programme.  

Major Areas Covered in the Programme

  • Capacity building training
  • Publications
  • Baseline Study and Research
  • Media Programme
  • Alliance Building & Collective Engagement of CSOs and Political Forces
  • Stakeholders Sensitization

Districts covered by capacity building programme
Map of Nepal highlighting 30 project districts Click to view Detail

Past Projects click to view