The FORB Training of the Trainers course

This is a course for trainers, so it begins with some basic educational theory and with tools to help you with the first steps of planning a training. The module explores :

• What human rights education involves.
• The different ways in which people learn and the implications of this for developing trainings.
• How to select, understand and tailor learning to your audience.
• How to develop learning objectives for trainings.

This short module explores human rights education in more practical terms discussing:

• The core components or building blocks of human rights education – to develop knowledge, attitudes, skills and action.
• Practical methods, techniques and exercises for human rights education.

Freedom of religion or belief is a human right. In order to understand FORB, your participants will need to grasp that basics of what human rights are and how the human rights system works. In this module, we present the human rights framework and provide you with tools to help you introduce human rights to participants in ways that help them connect human rights to their needs and daily lives.

Religion is a complex phenomenon that influences the lives of individuals and the development of societies in all kinds of ways. When we work for change then religious ideas, practices, actors and power dynamics are factors that we need to take into account. In this module we introduce the concept of religious literacy and explore different ways of understanding and analysing religion both in general and in specific contexts.

Freedom of religion or belief (FORB) can be a confusing human right to understand, and in most contexts it is controversial. Who or what does FORB protect – religious beliefs, religious institutions or religious people? And what’s meant by belief? What rights do we have and when is the state allowed to limit them?

This module will give you:

• A thorough grounding in the basics of FORB.
• Skills in analysing the legitimacy of limitations to FORB.
• The opportunity to begin reflecting on FORB in your context (continued in module 7).
• Interactive exercises to help you introduce the right and explore it with your parrticipants.
• A tool to help choose key messages on FORB to share with your participants

Freedom of religion or belief is part of the wider framework of human rights. But how does it relate to these other rights and what does it have to do with development, democracy and peace? In this section we’ll explore this both in general terms and with a specific look at the relationship between FORB and women’s rights, freedom of expression and shrinking democratic space.

A vital component of most FORB trainings is to help participants relate the universal human right to FORB to their particular context, developing a FORB context analysis. This can also be one of the trickiest parts. In this module you’ll develop your own FORB context analysis and try out some creative exercises you could use with participants. We’ll also think about the challenges trainers and participants might face – like the impact of propaganda, disinformation and prejudice.

This module focuses on action! In it you’ll find guidance for working with participants to develop strategies and action plans, along with mini-modules that focus on different ways of working to promote FORB such as advocacy, awareness raising and documenting violations.

How do you see your role as a trainer – are you a teacher, lecturer or facilitator? Facilitators work in completely different ways to lecturers and facilitating is something of an art form! It might come to you fairly naturally or you might need some practice in order to feel confident in your role. This module explores the art of facilitation, giving you guidance and help along the way.

When and how do we evaluate and follow up on human rights education? In this module you’ll learn about the cycle of evaluation and follow up, and find concrete tools for evaluation.