OHCHR Minorities Fellowship Programme

The Minorities Fellowship Programme (MFP) was incorporated by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in 2005. The MFP is held annually and currently has two linguistic versions: The English language programme has been running since 2005 and the Arabic language programme started in 2007. The Arabic language component began as a two-week pilot and gradually expanded to five weeks in 2011. The duration of the programmes varied until 2011, when both programmes were decided to last 5 weeks and coincide with the session of the Forum on Minority Issues.

Through MFP, OHCHR emphasizes to give persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities’ opportunity to gain knowledge on the UN system and mechanisms dealing with international human rights in general and minority rights in particular. The MFP is intended to assist organizations and communities in protecting and promoting the rights of minorities the fellows belong to. The Fellows are based at the OHCHR Geneva, Switzerland. The MFP is interactive and comprises briefings on different topics (e.g. the UN system, OHCHR work, human rights mechanisms and instruments), fellows also undertake individual and group assignments.

At the end of the MFP, the fellows should have a general knowledge of the United Nations system, international human rights instruments and mechanisms in general and those relevant to minorities in particular and be capable of further training their communities/organizations.

Deadline: 20 February 2012

For further information, visit the link: http://socialgoodguide.com/2012/02/09/minorities-fellowship-programme-by-the-office-of-the-high-commissioner-for-human-rights/