The EarthRights School Mekong's curriculum can vary from year to year, but the following core courses are taught most years.
During the 5th month of ERSM training, students return to their home countries for a month to put their new skills to work in field research. They each engage in field-based fact finding on an EarthRights issue, and use their research to compile reports and make tangible recommendations on how to safeguard local communities and the environments on which they depend.
On December 1st, 2009, lawyers with EarthRights International’s Mekong Legal Advocacy Institute (MLAI) and the Cambodian Samreth Law Group submitted an in-depth legal analysis to the Mekong River Commission (MRC) regarding proposals to build up to 11 dams on the lower mainstream of the Mekong River.
Mekong Alumni from Thailand, Lao PDR, Vietnam, and Burma attended several workshops focusing on Women and Climate Change in Bangkok from September 27-October 8th. The workshops were planned to coincide with the UNFCC Inter-sessional Conference, International Climate and Strategy Conference and Regional Workshop on Power Alternatives. At the workshops, Mekong alumni took part in developing strategies for action and cooperation between women’s groups throughout Asia.
From October 14 through October 20, over a dozen EarthRights School Mekong staff and alumni joined the ASEAN Youth Forum and ASEAN Peoples’ Forum (APF), a mass gathering of civil society organizations and individuals from the ten ASEAN countries, in Cha-Am, Thailand.
EarthRights International's training activities, in addition to the EarthRights Schools, often include special training sessions and workshops. These trainings are facilitated with various partners on the ground on an as-needed basis. Topics vary regionally as well as according to partners’ needs; past topics have included video advocacy trainings, legal workshops, and skills-sharing sessions.
The Amazon School for Human Rights and Environment was inaugurated with a 1-month pilot course in November 2001, in Macas, Ecuador for nine indigenous and mestizo students from Ecuador and Colombia. The intensive course included workshops in contemporary Amazon environment and development issues, economic, social and cultural rights, strategic campaigning and advocacy, media messaging, and internet use.
As in other regions of the world, public interest law in Southeast Asia is growing. We regularly hear of new and encouraging court decisions that lay the mantle of accountability on corporations and government agencies, while providing real benefits to local victims and survivors of injustice. Yet as governments and corporations continue to enter into regional partnerships, often without respect for national laws or local input, lawyers and community leaders must develop new tools and cross-border strategies to address harms occurring in the name of development.
EarthRights International's EarthRights School Mekong (ERSM), inaugurated in June 2006, is a unique training program for civil society advocates from the Mekong Region (China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam) who are working on environmental and human rights issues. The seven month-long training program focuses on the impacts of large-scale infrastructure projects, particularly hydropower dams, and how citizens are engaged in advocating for more equitable development in the Mekong region.
