TERMS OF REFERENCE

Co-creation Workshop on Human Rights-based Approach Integration into

Course Modules
Manila, 11-13 September 2023

A. Background

The Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (RWI) is an
independent academic institution, founded in 1984 and affiliated with Lund University in
Sweden. The vision of the Institute is just and inclusive societies with effective realisation
of human rights for all. Considering this, the Institute contributes to strengthening
structures, systems and mechanisms for the promotion and protection of human rights at
all levels in society. RWI’s global thematic focus areas are: i) Human Rights and
Environment; ii) Inclusion and Non-discrimination; iii) Access to Justice; and iv) Human
Rights and Business. One of the initiatives under Human Rights and Environment theme is
on Climate Change and Human Mobility, which concerns on the importance of integrating
human rights-based approach (HRBA) into disaster displacement discourse and practice.
The inclusion of HRBA into development discourse, including in the context of disaster
displacement, is a relatively recent trend which started in 1970s through the debate on the
right to development1. The concept of right to development was advocated to call for a just
international redistribution of resources and acted as a counter-narrative against the
political and civil human right insistence by First World countries. In a nutshell, HRBA
encourages a redefinition of the nature of the problem in the development sector and
emphasizes that the processes by which development aims to pursue should respect and
fulfil human rights2.
Furthermore, HRBA is usually positioned by development scholars and practitioners as a
catalyst to transform the development practice, from a focus on identifying and the needs
of the people, to enabling people to recognize and claim their rights3. Therefore, the

1
Cornwall, A., Eade, D. and Uvin, P. (2010) “From the right to development to the rights-based approach: how
‘human rights’ entered development,” in Deconstructing Development Discourse: Buzzwords and Fuzzwords.
Warwickshire: Practical Action Publishing, pp. 163–174.
2
Seppanen, S. (2017) “From substance to absence: argumentative strategies in the implementation of the
human rights-based approaches to development,” New York University Journal of International Law and
Politics, 49(2), pp. 389–442.
3
Nyamu-Musembi, C. and Cornwall, A. (2004) What is the “rights-based approach” all about? Perspectives
from international development agencies. working paper. Brighton, Sussex: IDS.

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 inclusion of HRBA into development programmes usually takes in a form of capacity
building activities with duty-bearers (i.e., the state) and other relevant stakeholders, to
strengthen their capacity to respond and be accountable in protecting, respecting, and
fulfilling human rights.
Therefore, since 2018 RWI has worked with various stakeholders, including governments
and academia, to enhance their capacity in protecting, respecting, and fulfilling human
rights in the context of disaster displacement. For instance, RWI conducted the Asia Pacific
Conference on the Climate Change, Human Mobility, and Human Rights Nexus in 2022, to
facilitate the knowledge sharing and network building among Asia Pacific scholars, through
the reactivation of the Asia Pacific Academic Network on Disaster Displacement (APANDD).
One of the recommendations from that conference is to call for a more institutional
collaboration for course modules/curricula improvement. This is important because higher
education institutions/universities have a prominent role to play in advancing the goal of a
sustainable and just society, since they could shape the values and behaviours of the
students4. The significance of universities’ role in expediting the achievement of a more
sustainable and just society is also recognized by the United Nations, through Goal 17 in
the Sustainable Development Goals5. Thus, universities need to have course
modules/curricula that will enable students to formulate ways to protect and uphold
human rights principles.
Responding to the abovementioned needs, RWI will conduct an intensive co-creation
workshop to support teaching staff at universities to improve their course
modules/curricula to better integrate human rights-based approach (HRBA) in the context
of climate change and human mobility (including disaster displacement). This workshop
will be targeting at APANDD members who attended the Asia Pacific Conference on the
Climate Change, Human Mobility, and Human Rights Nexus.

B. Objectives

The objectives of the co-creation workshop are to:

1. Enhance the knowledge of universities’ teaching staff on HRBA in the context of
climate change and human mobility;

4
Deshmukh, V. (2017) “Achieving Resiliency through Sustainable Literacy,” Handbook of Theory and Practice of
Sustainable Development in Higher Education, pp. 3–13.
5
Algraini, S. and McIntyre-Mills, J.J. (2022) “Transformative education: Employing the balanced scorecard for
regenerative development,” Transformative Education for Regeneration and Wellbeing, pp. 141–153.

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 2. Enhance the skill of universities’ teaching staff to integrate HRBA into teaching
materials and/or course modules; and
3. Facilitate experience and knowledge sharing between universities’ teaching staff on
designing and delivering teaching materials and/or course modules that integrate
HRBA principles.

C. Methodology

The workshop is planned to be conducted for 3 days, targeting at a team of teaching staff
(3-4 people) from 4 universities in the Asia Pacific region, with at least one university from
Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Pacific sub-region. The workshop will be delivered with
adult learning and andragogy method, to enable active engagement from participants.
Furthermore, the workshop will facilitate a co-creation process among participants in
creating teaching materials and/or course modules draft that integrate HRBA principles. In
addition, participants will also receive virtual coaching session(s) after the workshop, to
ensure the follow up actions and how to move forward with the teaching materials and/or
course modules that were developed during the workshop.

D. Tentative Outline

III. Module Sessions

Session 1 Introduction to Human Rights

A. What are human rights?

1. Activity: Human Rights Concepts and Principles and their Place in the
Human Rights System
- Discussion of the Concepts, What they know and how they know it
- Discussion of the relationship of the concepts and principles

2. Presentation on Human Rights

(Prof. Michael T. Tiu, Jr., University of the Philippines)

a. History and Philosophical Bases

b. Principles
c. Sources and Content
d. Rights Holders and Duty Bearers

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 Synthesis of the Results of the Activity and the Conclusions in the
Presentation
Session 2 Introduction to the Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA)

A. What is HRBA?

1. Activity: Case Scenario to Diagnose Participants’ Idea about how to do

HRBA (without them knowing it first)

2. Presentation on HRBA
(Dr. Matthew Scott, RWI)

- General Considerations
- Specific Context

B. Strategies in using HRBA

1. Framework for integrating rights and equality (FIRE)

2. Other Strategies
Session 3 Review of Climate Change and its Effects

A. What is climate change?

1. Presentation on Climate Change

(Local Expert)

- Discussion of concept, phenomenon, system, and effects

- Discussion on mitigation and adaptation

2. Activity: Identifying Climate Change Impacts in Local Context

Session 4 Climate Change and Human Rights

A. How does climate change affect human rights?

1. Presentation on Climate Change and Human Rights

(Prof. Michael T. Tiu, Jr., University of the Philippines)

- Emphasis on vulnerability and vulnerable groups

- General and specific rights affected by climate change
- How mitigation and adaptation affect human rights

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 2. Activity: Placing experiences under categories of rights affected –
specific examples of impact

3. Synthesis on the rights most vulnerable to climate change impacts (will

identify human mobility and introduce basic concepts on displacement)
Session 5 Climate Change, Internal Displacement, and Human Mobility

A. What are the relationships of climate change, internal displacement,

and human mobility?

1. Presentation on Climate Change, Internal Displacement, and Human

Mobility
(Dr. Matthew Scott, RWI)

- Framework-building
- Identifying intersections and impact
- Zoning in on the specific human rights related to human mobility

To answer these questions:

a. What are the relevant documents and frameworks

b. What is human mobility?

c. What is Disaster Risk Reduction?

2. Activity: Small group work to construct scenarios to be used for

teaching in which the relationships in the presentation are accounted for

Participants will exchange these cases for comments.

Session 6 Applying HRBA

This session will present a complex case (climate change, human rights,
and human mobility) with multiple factors and interests at play, calling for
the application of HRBA

Group will present their analyses to demonstrate understanding and use

of HRBA
Session 7 Teaching Human Rights

A. How are human rights and the HRBA taught?

Presentation on pedagogy and human rights education

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 (Dr. Teresa Cappiali, RWI)

B. Activity: Identification of Commonalities and Gaps in the Presentation

and the Actual Teaching Methods of the Participants

Participants will develop a checklist of items to account for in module

development
Session 8 Building a Model Module on Integrating HRBA in Climate Change-Related
Courses

Facilitated by Prof. Michael T. Tiu, Jr., University of the Philippines

This will integrate the components of the previous sessions. Participants

will develop a course module outline using HRBA and use the checklist
they have developed and the content of the previous sessions to flesh out
the part of the module.

Presentation of the Model Module as Conclusion.