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4 Hum. Rts. Defender 1 (1995)

handle is hein.journals/hurighdef4 and id is 1 raw text is: rRIGHISc~ THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES Human Ri hts Dfen er University of New South Wales 2052 Australia Vol 4 No 11995 Ph (61 2) 3852807 Fax (61 2) 3137209 email human.rights@unsw.edu.au ISSN 1039-2637 Human Rights money down the drain - AIDAB and HREOC Australia - Philippines project puts the pressure back on AIDAB Under pressure to increase its presence in human rights work, Australia's overseas aid program (AIDAB - The Australian Internation- al Development Assistance Bureau) has found itself picking up the tab for a classic aid flop. The project, a training program that brought 20 staff of the Philippines Hum-an Rights Conmnission to Syd- ney, directly involved Australia's Human Rights and Equal Oppor- tunity Commission (HREOC) as the host and trainer. Despite having no training ex- perience with developing countries, HREOC has been paid $100,000 over a 2-week period to provide occasional lectures based on its own expertise. This is additional to the travel and hotel expenses in Sydney already paid for by AIDAB. HREOC hosted the trainees' visit to Sydney in February. A visit to Can- berra, where they inspected the Parlia- ment House and visited the Attorney-General's Department, was also included. Towards the end of the HREOC has been paid $100,000 over a 2-week period to provide oc- casional lectures program the Philippines delegation attended the Australian Rights Con- gress in Sydney, a conference discuss- ing the pros and cons of an Australian Bill of Rights. The Philippines already has a Bill of Rights in its Constitution and the staff are no strangers to the con- siderable difficulties presented to their work by an active rebel insurgen- cy, endemic poverty, corruption, military coups and other factors that make the experience of HREOC staff appear rather limited. The Philippines Commission even has its own forensic Features in this issue Indian NGOs establish new campaign -Page 3 The Human Rights (Sexual Conduct) Sill --P Page 4 Burma - the fall of Manerplaw - PageS Rwanda - the limits and ambiguity of aid ---- Page 7 World round-up ----------- agesf1,2 Australia Pacific Community Network -----Page14 Human Rights Defender Vol 4 No 1 February unit for exhuming bodies and regular- ly takes on difficult and dangerous cases. HREOC could in fact learn a considerable amount about human rights by visiting the Philippines Commission. HREOC, of course, does a profes- sionaljob in its limited field - applying national anti-discrimination law, and with significant national reports on mental health and street children to its name. So what training, you may well ask, can Australia provide to a group who have a completely different task HREOC could in fact learn a considerable amount ... by visiting the Philippines and who probably have a far wider ex- perience in human rights violations? On investigation it has been revealed that there was in fact no training program worthy of the name. Some staff did provide lectures, about their own work. And there probably has been an interesting exchange of views. Investigation by the Human Rights Defender has revealed that two proposals were discussed by HREOC and AIDAB in the early stages the first being a visit of 2 or 3 persons for a six month period, the second the 20 person visit which eventuated. En- quiries of AIDAB have brought little information to light, a process akin to drawing teeth. The program, according to Ms Nerissa Navarro, a member of the Continued next page 1995 Page 1

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