MINELRES: Human Rights Tools: Jobs, blogs, tools and funding

[minelres@lists.microlink.lv]

Original sender: Daniel D'Esposito <editors@humanrightstools.org>


Dear readers,

This issue is about jobs, blogs, tools and funding. What more could you
want? We hope
you'll enjoy it.


Table of contents

1. New job service for human rights professionals
2. Do you blog about human rights?
3. New or noteworthy tools and resources
- Brookings: Guide to International Human Rights Mechanisms for IDPs and
Their Advocates
- ICHRP: Human Rights Standards: Learning from Experience
- OHCHR: collection of rule-of-law tools for post-conflict states
4. Funding opportunity: Echoing Green Fellowship
________________________________________________


1. NEW JOB SERVICE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS PROFESSIONALS

We consulted our website statistics and discovered that the most popular
section was our Career Center, and in particular the links to the human
rights job listings.

We also realized that visitors to Human Rights Tools (in other words:
you) are a very valuable group of people for human rights recruiters.
This is because our visitors (again: you) are primarily human rights
professionals looking for tools and resources. They are passionate about
their jobs, curious, and want to keep themselves up to date. They are
not necessarily actively looking for a job - and of course, tend to be
exactly the type of person that recruiters are trying to reach.

So we decided to improve the Career Center, and have just finished
setting up a brand new job section, which lists job announcements for
human rights professionals:
http://jobs.humanrightstools.org/

Click on the link below to get email alerts of every job announcement
the minute it is published:
http://jobs.humanrightstools.org/jt/contacts/accept_invite.php

We also strongly explore the lists of links on the left side of the
page. They don't look like much, but through them you will access all
the best job announcements, coming from websites dedicated exclusively
to human rights, but also civil society jobs listings or United Nations
vacancy pages. If you are currently on the search for your next
challenge, make sure to bookmark this page so you can return to it
easily.

Please also forward this email to your friends and colleagues. Even if
they are not looking for a job right now, they will appreciate to see
what jobs are currently on offer and what skills are in demand.

Also please send it to your human resources department, as they may also
want to post their vacancies on our jobs bulletin board.


2. DO YOU BLOG ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS?

If you have a human rights blog, please let us know. We will list it on
a special page called "Human Rights Bloggers Community", and add it to
our public Bloglines account. All blogs are welcome, personal or
institutional. Even if your blog is not 100% about human rights, send it
anyway. Simply reply to this email with your URL!

Our friends at Aidworkers.net have given us this idea (thanks Tom!), and
its a great one:
http://www.aidworkers.net/?q=blogs


3. NEW OR NOTEWORTHY TOOLS AND RESOURCES

ICHRP: Human Rights Standards: Learning from Experience
http://www.ichrp.org/public/publications.php?id_projet=19&lang=AN
This latest ICHRP report, fresh off the press, provides a guide for NGOs
and advocates wishing to pursue new human rights standards.  It makes
the useful distinction between the three types of protection gap which
make new standards desirable: "normative", "application" and
"supervisory". It takes us through the roles of the different actors,
the different bodies and organisations where standard-setting takes
place, and the work processes. However the most useful part, from a
practical point of view, is the collection of strategically and tactical
advice given in the the conclusion : from developing a bottom-up
approach to building a long-term political strategy. The timing of the
report is quite good too: the Human Rights Council is beginning its
work, and it is useful to learn from past experiences in order to see
how to improve in the future. 


Brookings: Guide to International Human Rights Mechanisms for IDPs and
Their Advocates
http://www.brook.edu/fp/projects/idp/2006_guidebook.htm
Intended for those who advocate for rights of internally displaced
persons (IDPs), this 240-page Guide provides a comprehensive reference
to the rights of IDPs, conveniently organized by theme. It also covers
all the mechanisms available to advance IDPs rights, from the UN Human
Rights Council, to the World Bank.


OHCHR: collection of rule-of-law tools for post-conflict states
A collection of five manuals:
- Vetting: an operational framework:
http://www.ohchr.org/english/about/publications/docs/ruleoflaw-Vetting_en.pdf
- Monitoring legal systems:
http://www.ohchr.org/english/about/publications/docs/ruleoflaw-Monitoring_en.pdf
- Truth commissions:
http://www.ohchr.org/english/about/publications/docs/ruleoflaw-
TruthCommissions_en.pdf
- Mapping the justice sector:
http://www.ohchr.org/english/about/publications/docs/ruleoflaw-Mapping_en.pdf
- Prosecution initiatives:
http://www.ohchr.org/english/about/publications/docs/ruleoflaw-
Prosecutions_en.pdf
Congratulations to OHCHR for a very good set of tools. Written by
different authors, we found all to be of excellent quality. They answer
the key questions: for example, the "Prosecution initiatives" helps with
the following dilemmas: Whom to prosecute when faced with a myriad of
suspects? How to deal with the impunity gap? They are practical concise
and oriented towards the practitioner. If you are involved in reforming
state institutions, you will no doubt want to download this collection.


4. FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: ECHOING GREEN FELLOWSHIP

Are you a social entrepreneur with an wonderful idea to realize? By
applying for an Echoing Green Fellowship, you could receive up to
$90,000 in seed funding and support to launch a new organization that
turns your idea into action. You will find details on their website,
here:
http://www.echoinggreen.org/

But are you an entrepreneur? Do you have the personality traits? Read
this page to see what a social entrepreneur really looks like:
http://www.echoinggreen.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageId=162
(OK, they forgot to mention the over-sized ego!)

Not every applicant will receive a grant of course! To put all the
chances on your side, Jeremy Schifeling, who wrote to us about this
fellowship, says its really important to put the time and effort into
crafting the best application you can. A good way to start is by doing
their online pre-application questionnaire, which will give you a pretty
good idea of what they are looking for:
http://www.echoinggreen.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageID=688

And while you're visiting, be sure to browse through their case study
section, you can be sure to find some useful tips and advice, on
fundraising in particular. And read about the work of previous
Fellowship recipients, they will also inspire you.
http://www.echoinggreen.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageId=48
http://www.echoinggreen.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageID=658

Even if you don't get the fellowship, you will not regret having put in
the effort, because it will have forced you to clarify your thinking
about your dream project, and hopefully you will have produced some good
quality text which you can use in other applications. Initial ideas
always sound great when we talk about them, but its only when we try to
put them into writing that we can work out the inconsistencies and
produce something that really holds water.

In fact, even of you don't apply this website will still be useful to
you. Most of us are going through their strategic planning exercises
right now. Well if you are planning a weekend retreat with your
colleagues to strategize about the future of your organization (what
fun!), then the application form will give ten very interesting
questions to explore. Management consultants will make you pay a lot for
these questions - Echoing Green gives them to us for free:
http://www.echoinggreen.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageID=169

If you apply, don't wait until the last minute - start preparing now
(deadline 1 December).


So what�s coming in the next issue? Well, we could be looking for the
actor that lies in all of us. Or we may build a human rights house
together - with either bricks or bytes. That�s all we're saying for now,
you will just have to wait and see!


Some final notes:

TO SUBSCRIBE: if you have received this newsletter from a friend and
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course.
http://www.humanrightstools.org/news/newsletter.htm

SHARE YOUR COMMENTS: you will find this newsletter online on our
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link which you can use to share your comments about this newsletter:
your opinion about the resources presented, similar resources that ought
to be mentioned, and your own experiences as well. We appreciate your
feedback, as do your fellow readers!
http://www.humanrightstools.org/news/news/archive.htm

SHARE YOUR TOOLS OR EXPERIENCE: if your are producing a new tool or
resource, or would like to share an experience which would be of
interest to the wider human rights community, please write to us - we
can profile it in an upcoming newsletter. Simply respond to this email
to let us know.

TRANSLATING THIS NEWSLETTER: if you want to translate this newsletter
into your language and post it on your mailing list, you are welcome to
do so! Just let us know if you do so (to avoid duplication), and please
acknowledge Human Rights Tools as source.


Best regards and good luck in your efforts!

Daniel D'Esposito,
editor

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