First two days of a graduate course in human rights, gender mainstreamingand cultural awareness at Link Campus University in Rome. Lecturer Gry Tina Tinde

1. Human rights,
gender
mainstreaming
and cultural
awareness
LINK CAMPUS UNIVERSITY, ROME
21-22 JUNE 2014 – TWO FIRST DAYS OF A 20-HOUR GRADUATE DEGREE COURSE
LECTURER: GRY TINA TINDE, OSLO, NORWAY

2. Introduction
Introduction using stickers to demonstrate exclusion

3. Sticker discrimination game
If someone has a green sticker: this is a person who is very important to you and who you
haven’t seen in ages. You are very happy to see them and greet them very warmly. The green
group could be a metaphor for the highest class or caste/most powerful in society.
• If someone has a yellow sticker: this is someone you pass every day. You want to greet
them, but casually. The yellow group could be a metaphor for the middle class or caste
in society.
• If someone has a red sticker: this is someone you do not want to see or greet as you think
that s/he will cause trouble. The red group could represent the lowest class or caste in
society – they are of little interest to you.

4. COURSE CREDO
“The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House”
Audrey Lorde

5. Course objectives
1. Understand basic concepts and contents of human rights, gender mainstreaming, diversity
and inclusion, and how these issues have evolved over time. Reading of key international
human rights conventions, declarations and other resources.
2. Know how to analyse human rights and diversity policies and interventions by governments,
international organizations and NGOs.
3. Understand the foundations and components of a rights-based approach to development.
4. Understand international efforts where human rights, gender equality and diversity principles
or goals were not integrated. Will have learned how to identify such failings and how to
respond.

6. Course objectives
5. Learn how to detect subtleties in public documents, presentations and media that may serve
to keep women and underrepresented groups away from power and financial benefits.
6. Understand the importance of community-based policies where those closest to the situation
are most likely to have the best analysis and suggestions for solutions. Pitfalls in determining
who key community leaders and participants will be analyzed.

7. Contrasts between theory & practice
OSCE Code of Conduct
http://www.osce.org/secretariat/31781?download=true
vs findings of
Gender Parity in Senior Management at UNICEF, May 2006 report
Management issues/responsibility. Studies at ICRC and UNHCR found
poor management to be the main cause of stress among staff

8. Good practices
The business case for gender parity and other inclusion principles must be known and
understood
Avoid creating parallell informal networks (whiskey after work at UNHCR…)
Ensure fairness when making short lists
Make sure female and male short listed candidates get fair review
Don’t evaluate women/men differently. Adjectives sometimes assume different meanings
when describing women and men.
Don’t evaluate women and men differently on the basis of family status, if they have children
etc.
Don’t reward long hours and unpaid overtime, focus on sound human resources management

9. Poor management culture
Is bad for everybody
Causes attrition
Causes stress
Poor delivery of results
Allows «old boys’ network» to flourish

10. SCENARIOS
In groups, discuss the four scenarios and come up with suggestions based on the OSCE Code of
Conduct and the UN Secretary-General’s Bulletin on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.
SCENARIO 1
You are deputy at an OSCE mission in Central Asia. Security is difficult with curfew every night
from 20:00h to 8:00 in the morning. At a party in your residence, your colleague Igor is getting
too drunk to drive the office car back home, and it’s getting close to 20:00h. A local police officer
is also at the party, and is sober. She offers to take Igor home in the OSCE office car just in time
to make curfew, as she doesn’t have a car herself. Igor has already thrown up in a vase in your
living room and you would love to see him leave. What do you do?

11. SCENARIOS
SCENARIO 2
You’re a social dimension officer at the OSCE office in Vienna. Your boss is a friendly, married
man from Turkey. You have met his wife and two children on social occasions and in the office.
Your boss is very supportive of your work and has already put in a good word for you with
strategically placed managers, as your short-term assignment is coming to an end, and you wish
to continue and advance at the OSCE. One late night at a bar in Vienna you see your boss
cavorting with another woman, who could be a sex worker. As they leave, he has his hands down
her mini skirt and is so sloshed he’s not noticing your presence. What do you do?

12. SCENARIOS
SCENARIO 3
You’re a communications officer at an OSCE mission in Ukraine. As work is intense, you come in
to the office on a Saturday. When you pass the office of the mission chief, a Canadian man, you
hear some huffing and puffing. You’re embarrassed that he may have a visit from his new fiancé,
and walk quickly by. A few minutes later, the cleaning woman rushes by your office, sobbing. As
you walk into the hallway you see her exiting the main door. Your boss sees you and lifts his
finger, pointing at you and saying: “You keep quiet.” What do you do?

13. SCENARIOS
SCENARIO 4
You’re working for the UN in South Sudan. A female colleague from Denmark has started a
relationship with a peacekeeper from the African Union. He often stays overnight in her room at
the guest house where you also are staying. You have learned that everyone in the mission area
is a beneficiary and should be treated as such. This makes you discuss the relationship with
some colleagues. People agree that the relationship must stop in order to maintain the UN’s
integrity. What do you do?

14. LINKS to CoC- S G’s bulletin
UN peacekeepers guilty of sexual abuse and exploitation (SEA)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrQtsdHWx2c
Secretary-General’s Bulletin on SEA
Defines sexual exploitation/abuse as misconduct (rules and regulations).
Applies to all UN staff
Defines staff/managers responsibility in dealing with partners and authorities
Defines a minor. Prohibits sexual relations by UN staff with a minor.
Prohibits all exchange of goods and services with sexual acts.

15. Kathryn Bolkovac – The Whistleblower
International Women’s Day 2012 at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L05fsS4u49c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGOC_Cl5FBE
Kathryn Bolkovac in conversation at Garden Court Chambers (Part 1)

16. Human trafficking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztv-sRo_HkU Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=483sR1Wh1pk Part 2
Madeleine Rees, former High
Commissioner for Human Rights
in Bosnia

17. Resources
http://www.un.org/en/pseataskforce/tools_engage.shtml

18. Day 2:
Lottery of life - Discrimination game
Mention other aspects that may
trigger discrimination
Students are assigned a new identity, with information about sex,
disability status, HIV, sexual orientation, urban/rural, education level,
marital status, ethnic group/minority, employment status and more.
The students start at the back of the room and take one step forward
when the course leader calls out characteristics they have been assigned
Those characteristics are the features that correspond with traditional
norms and privilege, which brings certain people closer to power and benefits.

19. Inclusion of people with disabilities
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsFFSOKfh3s

20. Film –Women and Politics in Sierra Leone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WodVLq8YRv8
Discussion points – quotes from the film:
«Hide inefficiencies»
«I can equally think like a man, if not more than a man»
«There is violence across the district»
«I was shocked when they replaced me with a man»

21. Children with disabilities in school
Since the mid-1970s Italy has had legislation in place to support inclusive education for
all children with disabilities resulting in high inclusion rates and positive educational outcomes.
(…)
Clear policy direction at the national level has enabled a wide range of countries to undertake major
educational reforms – including Italy, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lesotho, and Viet Nam.
(p. 217)
http://who.int/disabilities/world_report/2011/chapter7.pdf

23. Mainstreaming in education in Italy
The inclusive italian model has allowed the disabled children:
 to acquire notions (the first function of school)
 to socialize with their peers (second but not secondary funcion of school)
 prevention (reduction of disabilities)
Reasons of political and cultural choice of mainstreaming:
 inclusion = value, right and richness for everyone
 “school attendance is a value in itself for child development”

24. Gender Gap Report - Italy

25. Gender Gap - Italy
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GenderGap_Report_201
3.pdf Gender Gap Report – nearly 400 pages