From Front Line - The International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

Security training. Taking security seriously
*Security and Women Human Rights Defenders - Proposed workshop. *

Front Line will be sponsoring a workshop for selected Women Human Rights Defenders over 2 days immediately prior to the International Consultation. The workshop will be led by Cecilia Jimenez and will seek to develop an appropriate methodology and resource materials for addressing the specific needs of women human rights defenders. The workshop will draw heavily on the input from the participants and will also consider a number of case studies. There will be a written evaluation report after the workshop.

The workshop will also draw on the Protection Manual for Human Rights Defenders which has been written and researched by Enrique Eguren of Peace Brigades International and was published by Front Line in June 2005. The development of the manual involved the research and systemization of experience on protection and security/safety management practices. The manual places great emphasis on the importance of human rights organizations developing their own security plans on the basis of their own specific political and cultural context. It includes chapters on risk analysis, reacting to security incidents, developing a security plan, communications and security and physical security of an office.

The aim is that the participants will identify some practical tools to try to manage the situation with regard to their own security which take into account the context in which they operate and the difficulty of prioritising security procedures in overstretched and largely voluntary organizations. They will have a clearer understanding of how they can tackle the issue of their own personal security after these workshops and what they need to put in place to minimise the risks to their safety.

As the proposed workshop is still being developed, the format and/or the materials used and/or the time taken for the training may be adjusted by Front Line as the proposal develops.