Civic Education Advancement and Mobilizing Participation

Ethiopian civil society organizations work in the area of civic education and mobilizing community participation to promote human right, democracy and good governance. Their activities are carried out the through the dissemination of civic education, promoting democratic culture and values and enlightening the public about their constitutional rights (Gebre-Egziabher 2002:7). The CSOs work is related to raising public awareness about child rights, women’s rights, the rights of PLWHA, rights of persons with disability, democracy, corruption, voter education, pastoralist issues, access to justice and so on. CSOs use different strategies to raise public awareness on various issues of governance. CSOs produce publication and disseminate IEC materials like posters, leaflets, brochures, and other documents including the FDRE Constitution and the translated version of international human rights instruments. They conduct voter education to sensitize and mobilize the public to participate in elections, in relation to that they organize debate forums among contending parties to ensure access to information to the public on the programs and plans of action of different parties. Organizing training workshops on various issues of human rights and democracy to different sections of the society as well as publishing articles on different governance issues are among the public awareness interventions. In addition, reformed by the CSOs they run radio programs to raise awareness and to sensitize the public on various governance and human rights issues with the objective of building legal literacy of the people in connection with the constitution, the revised Penal Code, Family Law, particularly issued focusing related vulnerable and marginalized social groups including women, children, people with disability and PLWHA(Rahmato et al. 2008:81-82).

The Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association (EWLA), Action Professional Association for the People (APAP), Forum on Street Children Ethiopia (FSCE) and Society for the Advancement of Human Rights Education in Ethiopia (SAHRE), Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO), Ye Ethiopia Goji Limadawi Diritoch Aswogaj Mahiber (EGLDAM),Integrated Family Service Organization (IFSO) and Ethiopian Pastoralist Agricultural Research Development (EPARD) are amongst the organizations working in human rights education and civic education in Ethiopia.

EWLA is established with the objective of eliminating all forms of legal and traditionally sanctioned discrimination against women, ensuring the equal treatment of women and men in education, employment, access to public services and benefits. It advocates for remedial and affirmative measures for women to redress the accumulated consequences of discrimination. It carries out three interrelated programs namely research, legal reform and advocacy program, public education program, and legal aid. In its public education activity it uses cases entertained in the legal aid program. The human rights education activity falls under the public education program. The aim of the latter program includes creating awareness among women regarding their rights and making them assertive in defending their rights.

FSCE as a children-oriented organization aims at raising public awareness on the rights of children in general and urban disadvantaged children in particular. Its activities mainly focus on increasing the involvement of concerned government organs and the public at large in the protection of the rights of children, and lobbying among top policy makers to introduce new policy and legislation that would create conditions that are more favorable for the realization of the rights of children in Ethiopia. Currently the organization implements advocacy and child protection programs, prevention and support program for the sexually abused and exploited children, child resource development centres, research, training and information network programs. FSCE awareness raising on the right of children and targets different segments of society and it is a cross cutting sub-program of all the programs.

SAHRE has the objective of disseminating human right education, promoting principles, culture and values of democracy. It works on enlightening the public about their constitutional rights, inspiring political awareness in youth for active participation in community life and political processes. Towards that ends it conducts community empowerment /democratization program, schools democracy education program, civil society democratization program, and citizenship orientation programs.

APAP carries out human right education and training program, community level voluntary institution support program, research advocacy and publication program.

The human rights education and training program of the organization aims at raising the awareness level of community level institution leaders, low level judiciary, administrative and law enforcement official as well as the public at large about the promotion and the protection of human rights, the rights of women and children and the principle of accountability and transparency(Retta 2002:39-41).

The aims of the program carried out by above-mentioned CSOs shows that most of the organizations are mainly concerned with raising the awareness of the public and certain specific groups. The objectives of these CSOs goes further for example, encouraging women to be assertive, and changing traditional and cultural harmful practices (EWLA), the public actively participating in the political process and other affairs (SAHRE), and being active in fighting corruption that is becoming an impediment to the realization of some of the fundamental rights in Ethiopia (APAP).

As far as NGOs involved in human rights education are concerned, the subjects of human rights education in their intervention are significantly related to human rights. EWLA, which is mainly concerned with women issues, deals with harmful traditional practices and attitudes, discrimination and violence against women in relation to the human rights of women. EWLA cover issues like ‘assertiveness’,

‘self-defense’ and ‘communication skills’ in one of its public education programs organized for female students and employees in raising their capability in defending their rights (Retta 2002:43).

APAP works on human rights education activities including human rights in general and the rights of women and children in particular. ‘Corruption’ was taken as a common societal problem by APAP and it was working related to that. In its human rights workshops organized for community leaders, skill-oriented subjects such as report writing, conflict resolution mechanisms such as negotiation, mediation and arbitration, and workshop organization skills are incorporated with the aim of equipping participants with the relevant skills so that they may engage in the promotion and protection of human rights in their locality. The issue of women and children is also incorporated in every type of educational activity.

FSCE focuses entirely on the Convention of the Right of the Child and specifically on juvenile justice administration while targeting the police. SAHRE works on issues such as community self-governance, conflict resolution and domestic violence prevention, gender equality in communities and families, rights of the

disabled and protection of the environment. It is also actively involved in schools provides civic education (Ibid).

A number of CSOs in Ethiopia conduct research and produce publications on various issues. Some attempt to get their research used as a basis for informing policy. They have sponsored forums and published data and opinions. Almost all CSOs produce and disseminate newsletters, pamphlets, posters, and the like. As a component of human rights education activity, the CSOs have produced quite a number of publications. EWLA, has a quarterly publication "dimtsachen" produced with the aim of disseminating human rights issues focusing on women and annual journal "birchi". SAHRE has produced a publications touching up on a range of issues targeting every reader or to be used by other actors for similar purposes. It has published and distributed books namely "Self governance", "Dissemination of the Constitution of the FDRE", "National Networking Guideline on Ethics, Laws and Human Rights Issues", "A change from special to inclusion education to ensure equal opportunities and full participation", "what do you know about inclusive education" and "HIV/AIDS and human rights". It has also published "Community Centered Civic Education" which is meant to be a reference book for civic educators. APAP on the other hand issues bi-annual magazine called "Justice for All" with the aim of creating awareness about human rights and the law. There are also street law materials, (seven booklets,) focusing on law and human rights, and

"Bells of Freedom", ‘Interlinking Human Rights and Development’ (human rights training manuals), to be used in its educational programs and to be distributed to interested individuals and other actors. Leaflets and posters are regularly used by APAP and EWLA focusing on human rights and specifically on the human rights of women in the case of the latter. HUNDEE and Forum on Street Children Ethiopia (FSCE) also promote such activities as a component of their larger program.(Gebre-Egziabher 2002:7)Professional associations and research think tanks like Ethiopian Economics Associations, Ethiopian Public Health Association, Ethiopian Statistical Association, Forum for Social Studies and others also publish various studies which contribute for policy advice and governance.

Some NGOs like Panos and EWLA use radio and television to broadcast on gender issues. (Spring & Groelsema 2004: 11) International NGOs such as Save the Children Norway work in the preparation and transmission of a series of weekly radio programmes on HTPs in partnership with the Department of Labour and

Social Affairs (DOLSA). Through these programs they promote listening to the radio and encourage the discussions on Harmful Traditional Practices (HTP).

(Rahmato et al. 2008:82)

International NGOs like Action aid Ethiopia initiated anti-corruption forums in the Tigray Regional State and the SNNPRS. In the SNNPRS Action aid initiated forums in partnership with the Regional Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission. This forum is becoming a big social movement and has mobilized members of the youth and women associations in twenty-two major towns of the region. (ibid :83)

Despite the fact that opportunities for CSOs to have meaningful policy dialogue with government on issues of poverty reduction or rights are limited, there have been new initiatives over the last year for example the formation of the Poverty Action Network of Ethiopia (PANE) and televised debates in 2005 around election topics that are an indication of a shift towards more openness and a slightly improved environment. More than twenty CSOs were involved in voter education campaign in 2005. Civil society organizations sponsored a series of televised debates on public policy issues, including critical issues such as land and foreign policy. Few CSOs, mainly EHRCO, IAG and Chamber of Commerce, are involved in election monitoring, conducting civic education programs and organising debate forums among contending parties to ensure access to information to the public on the programs and plans of action of different parties. Their role in this case is not only contributing to fair and democratic elections but also contributing towards the development of a democratic culture based on dialogue, accommodation and tolerance at local level of administration (Lyons 2005:3).

Apart from raising public awareness, the tasks performed by the CSOs includes mobilizing, empowering and promoting the participation of grassroots, religious, community and mass based organizations in democracy, human rights, peace building and governance process. In this respect they support traditional institutions in the conflict management, fighting HTPs, and environmental management. For example, in the South Omo zone of SNNP region traditional structures of elders strengthened by EPaRDA to be a principal actor in the prevention and management of inter-clan conflicts. In Borana, successful model and approaches applied by SOS Sahel and AFD have empowered Gada elders in natural resources management, fighting HTPs in general and Violence Against Women (VAW) in particular. The

strengthened Gada System has been used by the NGOs working in the Oromia region to implement programmes related to child rights promotion, girls education and eradication of VAW. Additionally, traditional system of administrative structures, informal self-help associations like Idirs and other community-based organizations have been mobilized and supported by a number of CSOs to participate in various human rights and governance issues (Rahmato et.al 2008:83).

CSOs like ANPPCAN, EGLDAM, FSCE, EWLA, IFSO and CHADET initiated and supported the establishment of the school clubs on child rights, HTPs/FGM, civic education, environment, violence against girls, corporal punishment and other issues that have now been officially recognized extra-curricular structures in primary schools across Ethiopia. The establishment of children’s participation structures in the community (outside the schools) such as networks of children's rights clubs, children’s councils and children’s parliaments has been initiated and supported from the early stages by child focused CSOs like ANPPCAN-Ethiopia (Ibid).