1.- Latin American Regional Meeting on Education in Prison
Brasilia, 27 and 28 March, 2008

By Adelaida Entenza
ICAE
 

2.- Opening of the Regional Meeting on Education in Prison

Marc De Maeyer
(UNESCO UIL  Director CIEP 2008)

Brasilia hosts today the first regional conference preparatory to the international conference on education in prison!

That is that there is no long tradition in international conferences sector on education in prison.

But there are long traditions of confinement of people having harmed others; there is also a long tradition of information, of cooperation, of exchange of information between prisoners.

There is also a good tradition of international exchanges on security, on the possible reform of prisons, on the reform of penitentiary systems.

There is also a great tradition of international exchanges in the formal, non formal, global, for everyone, for minorities, for specific regions of the world education sectors? except for education in prison.

It?s undoubtedly because we don?t like much to mix genres.

Prison punishes; education frees.

But this changes. For some years, governments are admitting that prison constitutes a failure; they admit it does not resolve anything or not much; they admit prison is a social failure, apart from being a failure for each prisoner.

They note that prison, instead of helping resolve the problem of violence, of crime,... aggravates it, amplifies it, it sometimes gives a legitimacy.

There has been, until recently, a kind of lax consensus on incompatibility between prison and education;? but now that the observation becomes evident for several governments, we are ready to admit there is a problem, and that problem might probably be solved by education.

Certainly, we do not all agree on the definition of education and its role but here we join the essential debate on education, its functions, its agents. And not only in prison.

We will support adults? education, we will claim that education is a right, we will admit that education is not a product but a process; that it has no sense until it develops itself lifelong.

Our challenge is to show that these new options, these new definitions, these new functions also suit for prisoners.


Is the same person that will live different moments: before, during and after prison. Each moment, each phase is an opportunity to learn. What has to be checked is next to whom one learns... with whom one learns and what it is learnt.

Many things are learnt in prison: survival, the group, assimilation, silence, absence of initiative, dissimulation. All that is learnt on the spot. Without instruction but not always without a master.

But it is there that danger lies, and it is here that the intervention of the State becomes necessary: can a State tolerate that various learning could happen in their most supervised institutions and not be able to intervene?

Isn?t it absolutely necessary for the State, responsible of education, to print its own mark, to impose its view of education, of social development, of political dynamics, of society, of social cohesion? 

Doesn?t it also have to think about the families of prisoners, guards? continuing training, the role of libraries, the way of supporting education between peers, a dynamic literacy, citizenship??

In this emergency, numerous actors will mobilise with different objectives.

In the position paper of the conference, we list a certain number of motives why education in prison wants to be organized.

- for some, education in prison environment would be a specific concern of industrialized countries that would have the resources that enable them to add educational programmes to services already offered in prison, while many other countries cannot even offer the basic services.

- for certain, it would be a demand that could only be satisfied later, when the other more urgent problems outside prison (development, wars, famine) and inside prison (security, feeding, health) would be solved.

- for others, it would necessarily reduce recidivism.

- for others, it would be one of the ways to keep prisoners occupied and calm down the most nervous ones.

- even for others, it would aim to restart an education missed; it would be the place of "re-education".

- for certain others, it would be the occasion to reorganize the prisoner?s life and his/her release.

- even for others, it should humanize and improve the conditions of confinement  becoming a phase previous to the setting up of the rehabilitation process.


Lately, ministries of education, social affairs, training, justice, the civil society, organised groups, private companies, churches, sects, consider they have to bring something in prison, they can teach ?something to prisoners?

As it is believed that a certain education can be useful? it is true that prior, ignorance, humiliation, surveillance, punishment? have already been tested. As a last resort, we will try education.

So, we stand before several actors who want to bring education.

What UNESCO and the Belgian French Community propose by organizing this first international conference on education in prison is to identify the actors and clarify their projects.

In prison as well as outside, good will, policy projects, ambition, are not enough.

Education in prison is not schooling, or the second chance, or a privilege. Education in prison is a right and positive or negative statistics in matters of recidivism should not alter the primacy of the right to education for all, whatever the context, whatever the results previously obtained.

Ladies, Gentlemen

As you surely noticed, this international conference is a whole process that started more than two years ago and not a four-day event.

Along this process of preparation, mobilisation, sensitisation, visibility, we could count upon the positive support of several persons and institutions.

I would like to highlight the support of the Unesco Office in Brasilia, the Unesco Office in Santiago de Chile, the Brazilian ministries of education and justice, the Eurosocial project for Latin America, a certain number of governments and NGOs in the region.

The conference will be held in Brussels from 20 to 24 October this year, and will gather those in charge of the administration of education, justice, social affairs, and also of the organized civil society and of universities.

Numerous initiatives are also taken by non governmental organizations, and I would like to highlight the support received from Alfasol, from Ilanud, from A?o educativa, from Instituto de Aceso a Justicia, from Uni Freire in Brazil and form the Ministry of Education of Argentina. Each one coordinates a thematic working group and this afternoon they will have the chance of presenting you the results of the first moments of the research.

I would like to take the opportunity to warmly greet Madam Jacqueline Pitanguy who has accepted to be the president of the scientific committee of this first international conference on education in prison.

This conference will take place within seven months; apart from the regional meetings organized in each region of the world, apart from the thematic workshops, I would also like to highlight that we will try to give value to the work done by prisoners - and particularly through non formal education activities.

We will do so by organising several exhibitions in institutions of the city of Brussels.

We know that non formal education is an education of its own right and not poor education for poor people.

By learning to shape projects, by tangling with others and getting to the end of this project to the point of being able to present it as successful to others, prisoners make or remake the experience of success.

And isn?t here the basis of education for all: that of allowing each one to appropriate knowledge and skills, to face them, to decide about its use at the service of a life project.

Whatever their past, prisoners preserve the right of having positive learning experiences; they preserve their right to success. This right does not erase at all their criminal liability; this right does not modify at all the one of projects formulation.

The right to education is inalienable, valid in any circumstance. It does not deny or give value to the past.

Our job, as those in charge of government, actors of civil society, researchers, employees of intergovernmental international institutions, is a job of surveillance, of promotion, of follow-through of this right.

Education in prison is the reconciliation with the act of learning, even with the pleasure of learning.

Thank you


LATIN AMERICAN REGIONAL MEETING ON EDUCATION IN PRISONS

Brasilia, 27 and 28 March, 2008

Recommendations

Recommendations for the International Conference on Education in Prison (CIEP 2008), CONFINTEA VI and the Latin American community.

The following recommendations refer to all institutions within contexts of confinement.
 
Said recommendations are supported by the following basic principles:

1. Education is a lifelong fundamental human right.

2. The State shall be the unique responsible of guaranteeing and making effective the right to quality education of people deprived of freedom in confinement institutions.

3. All persons, as persons holding a legal right, must have access to quality education, whether they are deprived of freedom or not.

4. Education must be understood integrally comprising the individual in all dimensions of his/her personality: ethic, aesthetic, political, artistic, cultural, and in the field of health, the world of work and social relations.

5. Respect for diversity depending on race, ethnic group, gender, sexual orientation, age group and religion must be a guiding principle of every educational process.

6. Respect for multiculturalism must be a guiding principle of every educational process.

7. The attention given to quality of education is essential in contexts of social inequality like in Latin America.

Recommendations to Education in Contexts of Confinement

In view of the principles stated, we make the following recommendations:

1. Ministries of Education and/or similar governmental bodies must assume the responsibility of the educational policy in these contexts, in coordination with Ministries of Justice or equivalent bodies for its implementation.

2. Governments must design, implement and evaluate complete public policies on education and not only isolated projects.

3. It is essential that the different governmental bodies and/or institutions formalize moments of coordination with a view to develop complete educational policies and transversalized by gender, race, ethnic group, age group, religion and sexual orientation. These policies must consider the following dimensions: health, work, social development, culture, political participation and citizenship, human rights, sports, among others.

4. Formal and non formal education must be coordinated as part of the educational project of each institution.

5. It is important to recognize the leading role of the private subject in educational processes (Peer Education), but not implying the substitution of the State?s responsibility as guarantor of education. This leading role must be valued and recognized in different ways such as remission of penalties, cultural and economic encouragement, among others.

6.  To strengthen education and valuation of prison agents, teachers and other professionals working in contexts of confinement within a perspective of human rights, with a view to promoting their role as facilitators in educational processes.

7. To increase reality of confinement institutions? visibility, favouring citizen participation in its transformation.
 
8. To strengthen the links of confinement institutions with universities and civil society organizations organized to build the social bond.

9. To generate the systematic production of statistical and qualitative data of free access, in order that they contribute to transparency and definition of public policies.

10.  It is essential to recognize the children living with their mothers in confinement institutions as persons holding legal rights, and to make their transition to educational and recreational institutions outside the prison easy.

11.  It is necessary to develop pedagogical projects that facilitate family and community participation.
        
12. Within the educational strategies, it is advised to create libraries, video libraries and other cultural and recreational spaces.

13. Within the principle of lifelong education, it is advised to establish policies that facilitate the continuity and monitoring of educational processes as from the recovery of freedom.

Participants in this Regional Meeting showed concern regarding the present tendency to privatization of penitentiary services given that they can negatively interfere in the implementation of coordinated and integrated educational public policies.

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3.- Soul searching for women activists as TAMWA Marks 20 yrs

Salma Mlidi
smlidi@yahoo.com

On March 29, 2008 the Tanzania Media Women?s Association (TAMWA) began a week long commemoration of 20 years of advocacy for women?s human rights. Among activities earmarked to mark the occasion include the opening of a self sponsored office building; the launch of a Fundraising Campaign for a Women?s Media and Documentation Centre; and a book launch of TAMWA?s story in pioneering social transformation in Tanzania as experienced by members, supporters and friends.

TAMWA was officially launched and registered in 1987 by 10 women pioneers working in the media with two major aims: to agitate for a positive portrayal of women in the media; and to raise the academic and professional standards of female journalist to enable them to assume positions of influence in the media with the expectation that they will have a voice with regard media content and output in so far as its portrayal of women.

Twenty years later TAMWA has much to celebrate about. Arguably TAMWA is the foremost advocacy organization for women?s right in Tanzania. TAMWA?s command of the local media is unparralled and stems from years of capacity building and advocacy of media heads in various media institutions. Nevertheless, in Tanzania, TAMWA is best known for her work in gender based violence. Soon after her formation TAMWA made it her business to expose crimes against women that were otherwise considered taboo e.g. domestic violence and notably wife beating, incest, and family neglect; and sexual harassment in the workplace.

TAMWA also addressed the larger phenomena of sexual abuse against women and children in Tanzania contributing to the impetus of increased local responses to address the phenomena e.g. by the Tanzania Women Lawyers Association. Undeniably, Gender Based Violence (GBV) is the mother of activist struggles in Tanzania thanks to a large part to TAMWA?s relentless advocacy on the subject. Other than the ongoing Campaign on breast cancer by the Tanzania Medical Women?s Association (MEWATA) which is mainly service oriented no other advocacy campaigned has been as successful as the Campaign to Stop GBV launched by TAMWA in the mid 90?s.

Through innovative strategies like media advocacy, action research and campaigns TAMWA made sure that her advocacy agenda was current news and popular, not just with legislators and bureaucrats but with the local populace. It is not unheard of that activists visiting any village in Tanzania would be approached by concerned villagers about human rights violations against women and children in the belief that the activist who cared enough to visit them represents TAMWA. While Tanzania now has a number of women?s rights organizations TAMWA remains the most recognized and coined by men and women alike. 

TAMWA?s advocacy ensured that GBV was not only named but was also unpacked and demystified. Certainly fifteen years ago many Tanzanians did not know about the prevalence of FGM in the country. Personally, I learnt about the practice in France after watching a documentary prepared by Sudanese women on alternative forms of cutting. However, building on her research work on crimes committed against women undertaken with journalist in various regions of Tanzania, TAMWA exposed FGM and made it a national agenda. Consequently, Tanzania was among the first countries to outlaw FGM and to have an active anti-FGM network at regional and national levels.

Another less publicized issue was the deaths of old women accused of witchcraft in west and north western Tanzania. TAMWA made the link between the deaths of old women to economic insecurity experienced in most poor rural communities. Access to landed resources increasingly endangered the lives of old women occupying land that younger relatives wanted to access and control. Other than changing the dominant perspective about the issue i.e. about witchcraft beliefs, TAMWA was able to lend impetus to and influence the content of the Land Campaign in the late 1990?s to address the question of women?s access and control of landed resources.

In many ways TAMWA activist trajectory informed and continues to inform my own activist trajectory. I was introduced to TAMWA in the early 90?s when I was still doing my LLB helping out in what was then know as the Library and Documentation Unit. This was the beginning of my own official activist trajectory and as Fatma Alloo, the first TAMWA Chair, puts it, ?Of channeling my anger against injustice towards more productive activist enterprise?. Other than having first hand access to feminist literature from different parts of the world, I got to meet many authors and or subjects of books in the centre satiating my growing zeal for alternative leadership figures and visions. 

Just as the Tanzania African Nationalist Union (TANU) Women Wing and later Umoja wa Wanwake Tanzania (UWT) was a pioneer for women?s interests pre and post independence, TAMWA pioneered autonomous women rights organizations as well as autonomous advocacy agendas. Figures that led TAMWA also offered the first real taste of female leadership outside the dominant party structure. The growth of private media houses meant that TAMWA personalities were recognized nationally, oftentimes as readily as leading government figures.

The pedestal TAMWA has come to enjoy in the civil society sector means that the successes and struggles she achieves impact on the larger women?s movement in Tanzania. Thus when in the mid nineties TAMWA suffered an organizational crisis bought on by rapid organizational growth, burn out and rifts between the ranks that otherwise would be normal in an organizational context but that spiraled to become personal because of the absence of an awareness in how to manage the health of a dynamic, visible and politically charged organization, mushrooming advocacy organizations held their breath. They were conscious that TAMWA?s failure would reflect not just in the women?s movement but also in the larger civil society sector that was beginning to attract some level of sanction on account of its work.

Perhaps the crisis appeared bigger than it actually was because the emerging activist sector while commonly survives on camaraderie, trust and enthusiasm had not had to deal with the full force of what it means to be empowered individuals. Also the age old habit of selfless devotion and sacrifice ?serving others? most women succumb to may have been transferred to the activist space such that some members may have felt not adequately appreciated. Indeed in an activist space the actors are many, the roles more visible and the stakes are higher such that it is not uncommon for egos to become more sensitive to criticism or doubt. Nonetheless, TAMWA survived and emerged stronger. In fact the crisis introduced the notion of organizational health and anti burn out measurers to CSOs. Following an emotional OD intervention members were able to come to terms with their reality and create a healthier space to address existing and perceived weaknesses. TAMWA had to change and since she has learnt the value of reinventing herself and her agenda making it timeless. 

TAMWA?s records successes not just institutionally but also with her membership which comprises of exceptional pioneers. Edda Sanga was Chief Comptroller and acting head of Radio Tanzania before her retirement while Joyce Mhaville manages the largest private radio and television network in the country. Fatma Alloo, Halima Sheriff and Rose Kalemera all among founder members have also worked in the civil society sector serving and serve in a number of prestigious boards. Pili Mtambalike and Rose Haji work for the Media Council of Tanzania and MISA Tanzania respectively. Young women journalists who interned at TAMWA are mostly employed as media consultants and directors in the private sector. Mahfoudha Alley Hamid a TAMWA veteran was a member of the first East Africa Legislative Assembly and currently serves as Deputy Chair for the Tanzania Human Rights Commission while others like Zainab Vulu serve as Parliamentarians and others like Halima Kihemba and Betty Mkwasa in local government administration.

As I danced and ululated in celebration with women I had known and grown with for 20 years, I could not help but feel a strong sense of achievement. Members I had not seen for a number of years trickle into the new headquarters to join in the momentous occasion. There was laughter and congratulations all round. By sheer will the vision of 10 women, who the whole world seemed to ridicule had lived on, thrived and triumphed! It inspired and gave birth to other smaller social justice movements at local and national levels.

The Tanzanian First Lady, Mama Salma Kikwete graced the occasion. I was gripped by a strange disquiet as she posed a challenge to TAMWA for the next twenty years. As I looked around me, I wondered would I recognize my sisters (and brothers) in activism 20 years from now? Certainly, mostly TAMWA members and ?official? activists? attended the event. I would have loved to see greater participation of the population that TAMWA spent 20 years advocating for. Perhaps a public solidarity walk would have been more appropriate to facilitate a broad based commemoration. Also while there were a few men in attendance, many men representing media organizations stayed away. How could they then be seen to lend moral support to women?s human rights when such support is not felt in physical terms?

While TAMWA?s successes fill me with pride I can?t help but worry about the implications. I worry whether the agenda we have fought so hard to push is getting co-opted as more young women with activist potential are being lured by the private sector which sector is reverting to selling the sexualized image of young women. It is no secret that other than plastering images of young and supposedly successful women in marketing ads, many companies employ younger women because of the ?sex appeal? they offer. Another consideration is the lower wages they attract in contrast to male executives. This is not to say that young female media practitioners are not worth their salt. Rather there is a real concern around the original agenda of using the media to conscientize about and advocate for women?s human rights being compromised in the era of a liberal media and economy.

The detachment of young women from the struggles of past is palpable as most activists organizations and initiatives remain dominated by middle aged and retired women. Young professions have sold out to the liberal economy as most become preoccupied with becoming successful in the market and portraying an outer image of success through apolitical consumerism. Gender discrimination has mutated or gone underground such that young female professionals appear clueless about the struggles of past that brought about the even playing field they now enjoy. Mistakenly, and perhaps because they come armed with an education, they think this is how things were and will continue to be.     

Indeed, TAMWA produced young professionals and executives who can compete with handsome pledges to her fundraiser providing much needed relief from over demanding and increasingly tightfisted funders. But I wonder if in so doing whether the women?s movement is not opening herself up to an elitist and consumerist culture that is unconcerned with the means through which she achieves her end? Or is it a matter of redefining our values?


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4.- 2008 United Nations Prize in the field of Human Rights

OHCHR HumanRightsPrize
HumanRightsPrize@ohchr.org

4 April 2008
Dear Sir/Madam,

It is my pleasure to bring to your attention that nominations are now being soughtfor the 2008 United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights. The prize will be awarded at an event at United Nations Headquarters in New York on 10 December 2008, as part of the annual commemoration of Human Rights Day.

The United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights was instituted by the General Assembly in 1966 (Res. 2217/XXI of 19 December 1966), and was awarded for the first time on 10 December 1968 on the occasion of the commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights. Thereafter, the prize has been awarded in 1973, 1978, 1988, 1993, 1998 and then in 2003. The prize is honorary in nature and is awarded approximately every five years to individuals and organizations in recognition of outstanding achievement in the field of human rights.

A special committee has been entrusted by the General Assembly with the selection of laureates from nominations sought from Member States, specialized agencies and non-governmental organizations in consultative status and from other appropriate sources, in accordance with the above-mentioned resolution. This committee is composed of the President of the General Assembly, the President of the Economic and Social Council, the Presidents of the Human Rights Council, the Chair of the Commission on the Status of Women and Chairman of the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee.

The Prize is an opportunity not only to give public recognition to the achievements of the awardees themselves, but also to a send a clear message to human rights defenders the world over that the international community is grateful for, and supports, their tireless efforts to promote all human rights for all.

Please find attahced a list of previous recipients, a copy of the relevant portion of the annex to the above resolution and a nomination form for [UTF-8?]submitting a nomination for this year?s Prize (also available on our website http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/HRPrizeStory.aspx). I
would be most grateful for your contribution and look forward to receiving your nomination by Tuesday, 15 July 2008.

Yours sincerely,

Susan Curran
Chief, Communications Section
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

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5.- Invitation to share: UN-related arts for sustainable development initiative

INVITATION GREENING THE ARTS, a symposium to explore collaborative ways to increase
involvement with the arts across the sustainability movement, invites artists, educators and activists to gather in Ithaca , NY , April 25 & 26, 2008.

The first of a series of participatory envisioning/planning gatherings for a global initiative  ARTS AT THE HEART OF A SUSTAINABLE WORLD, associated with the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development and International Earth Charter  this event will review the current state of thinking and activity, and call on Open Space Technology to lay groundwork for local/regional (NYS) next steps, and for an international gathering in New York City in Spring 2009, in tandem with the UN Commission on Sustainable Development meetings.

For information and registration, contact artsattheheart@yahoo.com ,
If you cannot attend, we invite you to send your own thoughts as an MSWord attachment to be included in the ?08 program, and in planning for ?09.

- fostering sustainable community through collaborative initiatives in hospitality, education and the arts, in the 150 year-old democratic spirit of the Danish Folk School


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