Online Course on Human Rights and Transitional Justice for Youth Change-makers in Bangladesh

On May 7 2020, AJAR facilitated an online course on transitional justice and conflict transformation with participants in Bangladesh, as part of AJAR’s efforts to facilitate South-South learning and establish a base of human right leaders in the region.

The online course, which ran for 6 weeks, was attended by 60 youth change-makers from different parts of Bangladesh to learn and discuss issues surrounding human rights and justice in the Asia context. The topics included social analysis, designing legal investigation plans , institutional reform, reparations for victims, researching conflicts and other methodologies for working on conflict transformation.

The aim of the course was to develop understanding on transitional justice and its major elements, share lessons learned in the Asia region, and increase participant’s ability to apply peace building principles and strategies to emerging issues in their own context. Each week, the young leaders presented their findings in weekly classes, applying knowledge and skills gained from experts in the region. The facilitators encouraged participants to extend the theoretical knowledge and speak out for past and present survivors in their field of study or work.  

By the end of the course,  the participants came to their own conclusions that there is no single solution for dealing with past histories of mass human rights violations; transitional justice takes on various forms according to the situation.

To date, Bangladesh has been hosting almost 1 million Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar and now live in the worlds’ largest camp. The AJAR Bangladesh believes education is a key for transformation and will facilitate programs for more young people in Bangladesh to connect in the future.