Book on human rights training by Caritas South Asia

(September 26, 2011) Caritas officials from South Asia last week introduced a book for human rights education at a training session in Negombo, Sri Lanka. The book entitled, “Human Rights from the Religious Perspective” tackles human rights from different religious perspectives and offers examples of activities and evaluation techniques. “We hope this guidebook serves as a helpful tool for those who are working to promote human rights and respect for the rights of others,” said Father George Sigamoney, national director of Caritas Sri Lanka, the social arm of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference in Sri Lanka. The training course was organised for 70 participants including Buddhist monks, priests, nuns and Caritas officials from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Jesuit Father Marianus Kujur from India told them: “Human rights and religious education should be not in the sense of information, instruction or knowledge but in the sense of a way of life.” The book is “an attempt to reach out to school children at their young age through religious teachers, not limited to teaching of religion, to provide an understanding of human rights and respecting the rights of others through their respective religious teachings,” said Father Sigamoney. The book was funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)