Mission

To empower people through human rights education to engage in social transformation and promote a culture of human rights for all.

Vision

HREIB envisions a society where human rights education is institutionalized as a potent tool for building a peaceful, tolerant and democratic Burma that respects and promotes all aspects of human rights for all.

Goals

To facilitate gender equitable, skills-based trainings on human rights at the grassroots level

To strengthen the knowledge of the people of Burma by creating a clear understanding of international human rights laws and mechanisms, including the UN and key human rights treaties: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Social, Cultural, and Economic Rights (ICSCER), the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Refugee Convention, the Rome Statute, and the Genocide Convention

To raise awareness of gender issues and how they relate to human rights and development throughout the various HREIB programs.

To facilitate Training of Trainers (TOT) programs to build capacity in community organizations so that a pool of skilled trainers will be educating communities throughout Burma and in the border areas

To produce accessible training materials, guides and other publications which further the mission of HREIB

Background

Burma is a deeply wounded country. In rural areas, there is an ongoing civil war currently in its sixth decade. Greatly fuelled by successive dictatorships since 1962, the military targets women and ethnic minority peoples who suffer from systematic human rights violations including rape, murder, torture and slavery. Following the 1988 democratic uprising and brutal crackdown, the pro-democracy movement was taken to the border areas by many young people fleeing arrest and vowing to continue the struggle. As a result of the dictatorship's brutal campaign against ethnic minority groups, hundreds of thousands have fled to Thailand with similar numbers in India and Bangladesh. Education is a basic right denied to the people of Burma.

Due to these factors and the dictatorship's tight control of information, there has been no material about human rights in any of Burma's various languages. Human rights activities were introduced to the people following the 1988 uprising. However, most of the human rights education papers are written in English and best suited for people with an international education level. Common people from Burma have great difficulty reading English and understanding the complex language of human rights writing. Furthermore, before 1988, the military in Burma also strictly controlled all foreign published papers and censored all local publications. Thus, the people of Burma have been blocked from gaining knowledge about human rights. Human rights education was not used much as an educational tool for the grassroots people until the end of the 1990s, even though an increasing number of people were interested in human rights. However, the human rights papers of international organizations were the main resources available and generally were only effective in raising awareness among the intellectual people.

There is now an urgent need to provide practical human rights education and capacity building initiatives to grassroots organizations and community leaders. The HREIB was formed to fill this void. We are the first organization with a primary focus on human rights and democratic leadership training. Since HREIB's formation in 2000, the courses offered have been in high demand.

The HREIB has introduced the informal, learner-centered pedagogy of human rights since 1999. This methodology is essential for empowering participants to gain mastery over their own lives by knowing and using their human rights. In order to reach to Burma 's diverse ethnic groups, HREIB has published educational materials in Burmese and other ethnic languages.