Duration: 2 weeks

Purpose:

To present techniques used in teaching human rights and in the integration of this instruction to military training. The students will learn to use the concepts and methods of the human rights teachings in their battalion units in their home countries. The students can retain some of their course materials, including a video about human rights, a brochure with relevant lectures, and a computerized training packet in order to help them distribute the training.

Scope:

The course has been designed to prepare instructors in human rights at the battalion level and facilitate the integration of this material into battalion training. Thorough discussions of important themes followed by practical exercises are included in this course. These themes involve the historic development, laws, documents and principles, and the relationship between human rights and armed conflict. The systematic focus permits instruction of a personal character, aids the apprenticeship, teaches evidence preparation, and offers presentation techniques. Additional instruction is offered which includes a seminar of themes related to human rights and practical exercises which focus on situations close to a center of operations environment in crisis cases. All exercises end with critiques and exhaustive post-evaluations.

Prerequisites:

To be a training officer at the battalion level or a noncommissioned officer of high rank in a position that would have the authority to implement a structured training program about human rights. This course is recommended to be followed by another course.

Objectives:

Physical conditioning: To teach the student the norms of the United States Army Physical Fitness Program and interest him in this training.

Training Techniques in Human Rights: To convey the theory and the practice of the concepts, methods, techniques, and technology of human rights training in battalion units.

Development of Human Rights Scenarios: To discuss and develop human rights scenarios that will be used in the training plans at the battalion level.

Human Rights and the Law of Armed Conflict: To give consideration to the relations that exist between human rights and the law of ground warfare.

(Copied from School of the Americas website, February 1998.)