Faith, Rights and Societal Interaction

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Workshop on Faith for Rights: Faith, Rights and Societal Interaction
 
(Day 2 of a series of 3 days standalone workshops pilot project)
Day workshop for big city and town communities (in Scotland)
 
Concept Note
 
BOOK HERE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/un-faith-for-rights-faith-rights-and-societal-interaction-tickets-428491267917

I.              Introduction
 
Participants will examine areas where faith and human rights work together in the arena of societal interaction focussing on areas of civil and political rights, gender rights and community cohesion. This session will introduce 26 ordained faith and belief leaders or equivalent and/or community faith builders to the Faith for Rights principles and how they can be used in their communities. The workshop will have 26 participants and 4 trainers / facilitators.
 
II.            National context
 
The UK has an established interfaith tradition that has played a strong role in bringing communities together and no more so than in Scotland which has developed programmes to counter-sectarianism and promote good community relations on a Scottish nationwide basis and locally, especially in the major conurbations of Edinburgh and Glasgow.  This work is usually carried out by the ordained clergy and by interfaith professionals from the three main funded interfaith bodies working with and between their membership / community members/ congregants / followers. Many faith and belief adherents want to see a bridge between human rights and faith and to promote human rights aligned with their own belief systems (and certainly not contrary to it). This session will look at both community cohesion and gender, faith and rights. Gender rights and faith is a priority for communities across Scotland. This session will look at how the Faith4Rigths toolkit could prove useful in this area of human rights.
 
We want to train up 26 ordained leaders to utilise the Faith4Rights principles (and toolkit) in their work and in their own communities to bridge faith concepts with human rights and vice versa. This day is the second day of a series of three days standalone workshops in a pilot programme. All days can be attended as a stand-alone workshop. We hope that 5-6 leaders will be able to attend the entire programme with 18-19 others coming to this residential workshop as a stand-alone experience.
 
III.          Objectives of the workshop
 
To introduce ordained clergy / equivalent / senior interfaith workers  (ordained or equivalent or interfaith / community educators who lead congregations, membership bodies, assemblies, university faith societies and have a leadership position in an established community and could be able to deliver the F4R toolkit) to the Faith 4 Rights toolkit and to train them in the use of the Faith 4 Rights methodology within their own sphere of influence. This will be accomplished via taught sessions, peer-to-peer learning and a form of Faith for Rights scriptural reasoning. The topics of discussion during Day 2 include the following
 
-       Extended introduction to 18 Principles / 5 Commitments F4R / SDGs
-       Faith, rights and societal interaction
-       Minortiy Rights and faith leaders response
-       Lunch
-       Track A: Faith, Rights and Gender
-       Track B: Faith, Rights and Community Tension
 
 
IV.          Outputs
 
-       26 ordained clergy or equivalents, faith leaders and interfaith activists coming from a communal organisation / congregation /institution are introduced to F4R and the toolkit
-       Ordained clergy to take the toolkit back to 15 communities and their Scottish national communal bodies who are in turn aligned to both the Edinburgh Interfaith Assocation within the communities in the Scotland’s capital and Interfaith Scotland nationally.
-       Develop a new understanding for partipants of ways of teaching and utilising the concepts of faith and human rights together and having the confidence to do so within 5-6 national faith and belief identity groups
-       Test new introduction to Constructive Reading and Human Rights Scriptural Reasoning to a new audience
-       Widen the pool of those that can participate by having this as a rural retreat.
 
V.            Panellists
 
Facilitators
 
-       Rabbi Alex Goldberg
-       Dr Thiago Pinto
-       Sughra Ahmed
-       EIFA Facilitator (Iain Stewart) tbc
 
VI.          Format and participation
 
This is an in-person day workshop from 9am to 5pm. The aim is for 20-26 participants and 4 facilitators /panellists (total of 30 in the room). The workshop will be done both in plenary and breakout. The location is central Edinburgh and participants will be coming across the metropolis and the central belt of Scotland on an affordable transit and train systems so no travel expenses will be required.
 
-       Welcome
-       Intro to F4R
-       Minority Rights and Faith leaders
-       Lunch
-       Two tracks in the afternoon looking at:
o   Track A: Faith, Rights and Gender
o   Track B: Faith, Rights and Community Tension
 
VII.        Methodology
 
The workshop will pilot new materials (video, F4R sourcebook for clergy, new exercises) and have participants work through a number of modules from the existing F4R toolkit. The aim is to take the participants through a guided tour of the F4R principles using taught sessions, new materials and peer-to-peer learning. The pilot will utilise a Human Rights focussed scriptural reasoning exercise (a methodology increasingly used within the clergy community in the UK). In addition, there will be a topic-related fireside chat in the evening related to faith, rights and humanitarian issues.
 

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Faith for Rights originated as a project of the UN OHCHR