We began work in July 2007 with ten territories around the world that have chosen to remain part of the United Kingdom on a four-year project to help civil society groups and local public officials to better understand and address human rights issues.
These territories are Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Montserrat, and Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean, Pitcairn in the South Pacific and Falkland Islands, St Helena and Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic. Ascension Island in the South Atlantic joined the project later on.
In recent years, all have adopted, or are soon to adopt, new constitutions containing human rights. We are helping governments to improve their implementation of human rights through a range of training workshops and through specialist assistance and advice. We are also working with civil society in particular looking at their role in the protection of human rights. As in other parts of the world, civil society plays a growing role in promoting rights within their own Territories.
Boosting the role of civil society
Partnering with the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and the Commonwealth Legal Education Association, our work aims to boost advocacy skills among local civil society groups and to increase a wider/deeper understanding about human rights. The partnership has rolled out a programme of training workshops which have included the role of civil society in the protection and promotion of rights as well as training on how rights work in practice. We also have an initiative to develop networks between civil society in the Territories with international institutions and non-governmental organisations.
In order to facilitate civil society’s work in human rights, we established a ‘challenge fund’, a small grant fund to enable civil society to develop and implement their own grass roots project within their own Territory. Civil Society have used this in a variety of ways, from developing booklets in plain English explaining the rights in their Constitution, to training trainers whose work assists victims of domestic violence.
Supporting Governments
Working with the Commonwealth Legal Education Association, we provide support to government offices in reviewing legislation and improving compliance with human rights treaties so that appropriate new policies, processes and institutions can be put in place as well as providing assistance on their reporting obligations and the reporting process to UN Treaty Bodies,( the reporting system established by these UN treaties to monitor a country’s compliance with UN human rights treaties). With the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, we have supported governments in helping them with the impact of rights on individual matters by providing specialist/technical assistance.
Primary funding for the project comes from UK’s Department for International Development.