Programs: Human Rights

 

An institutional partnership program in Russia with the Moscow Research Center for Human Rights (MCHR) provided the framework for strengthening the capacity of this coalition of Russian human rights NGOs, and significantly extending its network. Nine regional Human Rights Centers were established to provide services to local human rights organizations in the form of training, consultation, reference materials, and access to office and communications equipment. Strong regional human rights movements were developed in Apaty, Chelyabinsk, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Lipesk, Nizhny-Tagil, Rostov on the Don, and Vladimir. MRCHR’s human rights network expanded from 300 to 700 organizations, including groups located in isolated areas such as Siberia and the Far East. The institutional capacity and technical expertise in human rights protection and advocacy of MRCHR and 100 local human rights organizations in Moscow and nine regions were strengthened through training and targeted technical assistance.

 

ADF’s Human Rights Fund in Haiti has provided legal assistance, medical and psychological treatment and rehabilitation support to human rights victims and their families, human rights education programs, and developed community-police relations programs. HRF provided services to 16,000 human rights victims, organized a national human rights education campaign reaching one million people, trained 60 Haitian human rights and popular organizations, and organized community-police relations programs with local mechanisms for community oversight in eight communes of Haiti.

 

Through a program of ADF assistance that included including training, technical assistance and subgrants to human rights NGOs, ADF made significant contributions to the monitoring of human rights in Croatia. Twenty NGOs were trained in documenting human rights abuses using HURIDOCS, the Human Rights Documentation System database. Six Croatian NGOs regularly collaborate in developing national statistics and documentation on human rights in Croatia. NGOs in the ADF network identified and provided counseling to witnesses deposed by investigation units of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, established human rights documentation centers, and produced newsletters on human rights.

 

In Nicaragua, ADF provided assistance for the institutional development of Nicaragua's two leading independent human rights organizations, the Asociacion Nicaraguaense Pro Derechos Humanos and the Comision Permanente de Derechos Humanos, and their program activities in human rights. ADF upgraded their capabilities to investigate, document, and report on human rights abuses, conduct human rights educational activities, provide legal assistance to victims, and mobilize coalitions of human rights organizations to contribute to improve the formulation of laws and policies concerning human rights.

 

ADF also supported the early institutional development and programs of the Inter-African Union for Human Rights (UIDH), consisting of over thirty organizations representing twenty-two African countries. UIDH, established in July 1992 with headquarters in Burkina Faso, provides a broad-based forum to coordinate actions on behalf of human rights, up to and including pressuring governments to cease human rights abuses. It serves as an information clearinghouse and has a quarterly journal. UIDH monitors the observance of human rights, including those human rights viewed as essential for economic, industrial and scientific progress; encourages research on human rights issues, and cooperation among organizations and national institutions dedicated to the promotion of human rights. UIDH is also involved in mediation in areas of conflict and human rights violations. UIDH accords African organizations a common voice with which to speak out on human rights and liberties around the continent.