PHA-Exchange> Online Course on the Right to Food

[Claudio]

From: "George Kent" <kent at hawaii.edu>


Online Course on the Right to Food
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March 19 - June 19, 2007

This description of the spring 2007 TPU course on the Human
Right to Food is also available online at:
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~kent/TPU%20Spring%202007%20The%20Human%20Right%20to%20Food.doc

Please forward this version or the website address to others who
may be interested.

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The Human Right to Food
Course director: George Kent
Minimum number of participants: 5


ONLINE COURSE: The Human Right to Food

Over the last half-century human rights advocates have
emphasized civil and political rights, but work on economic and
social rights is now progressing rapidly. The human right to
adequate food has been clarified under initiatives led by the
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and others. Many
agencies at both national and global levels are recognizing the
right and are working to assure its realization.

This course is designed to support those who would like to teach
about the right to food. The teaching that is contemplated may
be formal or informal, with people living in poor communities,
elementary school students, university courses, government
officials, nongovernmental policy advocates, or other kinds of
groups. Participants are asked to design their own specific
teaching plans. These plans may be based on on-site face-to-face
teaching, on-line teaching using the Internet, or a mixture of
the two.

The core text will be George Kent, Freedom from Want: The Human
Right to Adequate Food, published by Georgetown University
Press. (See http://www2.hawaii.edu/~kent/flKent.pdf ) It can be
purchased from the publisher or through book dealers such as
Amazon.com All other reading materials will be available on-line
at no cost. We will use recently developed teaching materials
from the Right to Food Unit of the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations. The entire course will be
conducted in close coordination with that unit.

Participants in this course should gain an understanding of
recent developments relating to the human right to adequate
food, and also develop skill in applying it in specific
contexts. Goals include learning about the nature of rights
systems generally; the content and character of the
international human rights system, in the framework of
international law; the historical foundations of the human right
to adequate food; the meaning of the human right to adequate
food as it has been clarified since the World Food Summit of
1996; the application of the human right to adequate food in
various contexts, e.g., in specific countries, and in relation
to refugees, infants, drinking water, prisons, etc. With these
foundations, participants should become capable of working with
others to enhance our shared understanding of the meaning and
uses of the right to food. This work should also build skills in
formulating proposals for policy and legislation to assure
realization of the human right to adequate food in specific
contexts.

This will be an on-line course, using the Yahoo! Groups
software. We will also use Skype to conduct online chats. All
participants must have regular access to the Internet, including
both email and the Worldwide Web. Written assignments are to be
prepared with the Microsoft word processing program.

The course director, George Kent, is a professor in the
Department of Political Science at the University of Hawai'i.
His approach centers on finding remedies for social problems,
especially finding ways to strengthen the weak in the face of
the strong. He works on human rights, international relations,
peace, development, and environmental issues, with a special
focus on nutrition and children.

The course will run from March 19 to June 19, 2007. It will be
offered on-line through TRANSCEND Peace University. For
participants from developed countries, the cost for taking this
course will be 300 Euros, and for those from developing
countries, the cost will be 150 Euros. Information about TPU and
its registration procedures is available at
http://transcend.org/tpu/index.shtml

The course will be divided into three phases: fundamentals of
the right to food, tools for teaching and learning about the
right to food, and sharing our teaching ideas and plans. Each of
the twelve weeks of the course will focus on a particular theme.
There will assigned readings for each week. In most weeks, there
will be written assignments, to be submitted by the end of the
day on Fridays. There will also be weekly one-hour chats on
Saturdays.

Our activities will be based on the following tentative
schedule. Further details will be provided to participants
before the class begins.


CALENDAR

Week 1:
Theme: Foundations of the Right to Food
Read: Freedom from Want, Part I
Assignment:
A. Autobiography.
B. Commentary on reading.


Week 2:
Theme: Human Rights Systems
Read: Freedom from Want, Part II.
General Comment 12.
Assignment:
C. Commentary on reading


Week 3:
Theme: Applications
Read: Freedom from Want, Part III.
Voluntary Guidelines . . .
Assignment:
D. Commentary on reading


Week 4:
Theme: Localized rights systems.
Read: Kent, School Meals as Entitlements.

This week will be devoted to on-line discussion of ways in which
the right to food might be strengthened through work on a local
(sub- national) basis. What should the rights-holders themselves
do? What should local government officials do? What should
interested NGOs do?


Week 5:
Theme: Case Studies, Part I
Read: Selected Case Study
Assignment
E. Commentary on reading.


Week 6:
Theme: Case Studies, Part II
Read: Your own research materials
Assignment
F. Update Selected Case Study


Week 7:
Theme: Survey of Teaching/Learning Tools, Part I
Read: FAO teaching materials, and others, to be specified.
Assignment:
G. Commentary on reading.


Week 8:
Theme: Survey of Teaching/Learning Tools, Part II
Read: FAO teaching materials, and others, to be specified
Assignment:
H. Propose a specific learning activity based on the FAO
teaching materials.


Week 9:
Theme: Pedagogy of Empowerment
Read: Lohrenscheit, "Dialogue and Dignity­Linking Human Rights
Education" with Paulo Freire's "Education for Liberation"


Week 10:
Theme: Teaching Strategies
This week will be devoted to on-line discussion of ways in which
method of teaching should be designed to suit particular
contexts and particular kinds of participants.
Assignment:
I. Draft Teaching Plan.


Week 11:
Theme: Sharing Teaching Insights
Read: Read other participants' Draft Teaching Plans
Assignment:
J. Commentary on anotherâ?Ts Draft Teaching Plan


Week 12:
Theme: Teaching/Learning as Political Tools
Assignment:
K. Final Teaching Plan.