AU WATCH

Our Resource Centre

““A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special…. It is not beyond our power to create a world in which all children have access to a good education. Those who do not believe this have small imaginations.”

Anonymous

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Vision Statement

We dream of an Africa where every child, woman and man can read and write, where universal human rights education means exactly that. We envision an Africa where every child, woman and man understands his or her rights and can claim it

Mission Statement

The Centre’s mission is to support a rights-based approach to education in Africa by creating, storing and distributing Human Rights Education (HRE) resources via electronic and print media. We also produce news, entertainment, in-depth documentaries, expert analysis, commentary, interviews, reports and training for the media.

Tasked with producing the most innovative work in the field, the unit addresses important gaps in scholarship and provides analysis of the work of the AU.

About the Human Rights Resource Centre

The Human Rights Resource Centre is an integral part of the Judicial and Human Rights Department of AU Watch. It works in partnership with AU Watch Institute For AU Studies and Legacy Universityin The Gambia to:

  • Create, store and distribute Human Rights Education (HRE) resources via electronic and print media. We also provide unique images and stories about human rights across the Africa;
  • Design human rights curriculums and syllabuses for primary and secondary schools;
  • Train activists, professionals, and students as human rights educators;
  • Build advocacy networks to encourage effective practices in human rights education;
  • We provide spokespeople for television, radio and press concerning the range of training and pedagogical work covered by the AU. Whether it’s social and economic policy analysis, human rights, conflict and peace, development, security, education governance and more we have the experts who can articulate the issues clearly;
  • Exhibitions and awards are also distinctive elements of our work. We shall promote (young) human rights activists, and annually award our prestigious Young Persons Inspirational Prize. Our scholarship programs help young human rights journalists by offering them projects specifically geared to their needs. We award prize for excellent in local human rights journalism.
  • We also engage with a broad-range of local, national and international organizations, think tanks, by organizing events and hosting face-to-face briefings, interviews and lectures. Our conferences and eventsattract people who ‘have something to say’. In countries where there is an AU organ, we offer more thousands of events per year which attract hundreds of thousands of participants;
  • We Influence people and Institutions.AU Watch believes that education is the key to the future of Africa. Too many of Africa’s youths cannot read and write. The Centre works to achieve universal reading, writing and IT proficiency for all our youths. The Centre is collaborating with school of AU Studies to rum the “No Child Left Behind” program to get Africa’s youth into the 21st We offer every student hands-on computer science and math classes that make them job-ready on day one This includes helping them to engage solidly with the Fourth Industrial Revolution that is now with us.

Our publications and advocacy are another plank in the armory of AU Watch to ensure accountability of our state’s manager. We produce:

  • Documentaries
  • Short films
  • News briefs
  • On-line commentaries
  • On-line articles on topical issues
  • On-line news letter
  • Collaborative work / publications with organizations like:

   -The Court
   -The Commission
   -Other sub-regional bodies / recs
   -AUC
   -UN etc
   -ICC
   -Ecowas

  • Print and Publications Unit. Access to relevant, accurate information is a vital complement to our work especially our litigation and training work. We work with AU Watch’s Print Unit to produce and disseminate a range ofpublications, keeping lawyers, judges and NGOs abreast of developments in ‘AU law’ which affect their work. These are both hard copy and online publications.
  • Develop and roll out a regional program for Human Rights Educationacross Africa:

-Phase 1 (2020-2022): Human Rights Education in the Primary and Secondary School Systems;

-Phase 2 (2023-2025): Human Rights Education in Higher Education, Training for Civil Servants, Law Enforcement, Military and Correction Officers.         

Human rights are universal, that is, they are the same for all human beings in every country. They are inalienable, indivisible and interdependent, that is, they cannot be taken away – ever; all rights are equally important and they are complementary, for instance the right to participate in government and in free elections depends on freedom of speech.

Looking For Something Else?

Human Rights Education Materials
HRE Training and Field Opportunities
HRE Advocacy Materials and Networks

Key Regional Instruments Of The AU

    1. African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights “Banjul Charter” (1981)
    2. African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (1990)
    3. Resolution on the Promotion of Human Rights in Africa (1992)
    4. Resolution on the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (1993)
    5. Resolution on Human Rights Education (1993)
Capacity Building

6. Resolution on the Promotion and the Respect of International Humanitarian Law and Human and Peoples’ rights (1993)

7. Resolution on the Role of Lawyers and Judges in the Integration of the Charter and the Enhancement of the Commission’s work in National and Sub-Regional Systems (1996)

8. Constitutive Act of the African Union (2000)

9 Declaration on Democracy, Political, Economic and Corporate Governance (2002)

Media Education

10 OAU/AU Declaration on the Principles Governing Democratic Elections in Africa (2002)

11 Protocol relating to the Establishment of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union (2002)

12 Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (2003)

13. Pretoria Declaration on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Africa (2004)

Research at the Centre
Peace and Security

The Archive for AU Studies and Politics researches and studies the history of the AU. We work in collaboration with the Institute of AU Studies. Interested readers will profit from an enormous number of documents, modern media, and a library containing more than xxx publications on politics of the AU and its contemporary history.

Human Rights, Good Governance and Rule of Law
Sustainable and Rural Development

For more information on the Centre’ s work – fact sheets, briefings reports, position and research papers, articles, news reports, op eds, TV and radio broadcast schedules and times, communiqués, press statements and releases, legislative briefs, current laws, soft laws and hard laws, cases and general information on the history and organs of the AU and what you can do to assist the media team, please email [email protected].

Adaptation to Climate Change