Training on human rights at international borders: exploring new technologies, their risks and opportunities

This three-day training course aims to enable human rights defenders working in Central, Northern and Eastern Europe to understand the human rights implications of border technologies and to improve their skills in collecting and verifying information through various means, including new technologies, for effective human rights monitoring at borders.

Topics addressed during the training will include:

• What are the new technologies used in border control and migration management?
• How to assess the human rights implications of the use of these technologies?
• How can human rights defenders monitor the human rights implications of the use of these technologies at borders?
• What is the psychosocial impact of the use of these technologies on people on the move and on human rights defenders?
• How can human rights defenders use various methods to better collect and verify information at borders, including by using new technologies?

The training is based on interactive learning methods and requires full-time presence and a high level of active participation. Participants should be aware that they will be unable to perform other work-related activities during the training sessions. The course will be conducted in English by experienced trainers with proven gender and cultural sensitivity. The costs of training materials, travel and full board accommodation are covered by ODIHR. 

WHO

Twenty-five participants will be selected, in a competitive process, according to the following criteria:

• Working in one of the following OSCE participating States: Austria, Belarus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Russian Federation, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine (the citizenship of the applicant is not decisive);
• Proven experience and high motivation to carry out human rights-related activities in the migration and refugee context;
• Experience with monitoring and/or analysing the human rights implications of technologies used in border control, asylum and migration management (surveillance, biometrics, automated decision-making, at borders, in refugee camps and/or in immigration detention) is an advantage.
• Willingness to use various methods, including new technologies, to collect and verify information for human right monitoring at borders;
• Relevance of the training for applicants’ current and potential future human rights activities in the region and readiness to put the obtained knowledge into practice;
• Ability to participate actively in English;
• Availability to attend the training for its full duration and readiness to set aside other work activities during the three days;
• Priority will be given to members of civil society organizations, grassroots activists and the media (usually one person per organization) who demonstrate the capacity to share the knowledge obtained during the training with colleagues.

ODIHR recognizes as a human rights defender any person promoting and striving for the realization of human rights regardless of profession, age or other status. Human rights defenders carry out their human rights activities individually or jointly with others, as part of an informal group or as a non-governmental organization, and act in a voluntary or professional capacity. The key characteristic that defines human rights defenders is not who they are, but what they do and the principles they stand for.

APPLICATION

Applicants should complete the application form and upload their CV (PDF or DOC) by 24 May 2024. ODIHR will strive to ensure a geographical and gender balance among participants. By 31 May 2024, successful candidates (only) will be informed about the outcome of the selection process.

For any questions about the content of the training or the selection procedure, please contact lola.girard@odihr.pl and veronica.grazzi@odihr.pl.