During regional breakout sessions at the inaugural World Justice Forum in Vienna in July 2008, leaders from various disciplines from Latin America discussed strategies for strengthening the rule of law across the region.  After the Forum several members of this breakout session collaborated on what became the GE Foundation-funded Opportunity Fund Program "Growing Up with the Rule of Law."  This project is led by Ms. Sandra Elena of Foro de Estudios sobre la Administración de Justicia (FORES) in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  It seeks to incorporate the Rule of Law, human rights, and civic duties into student curricula in elementary and secondary schools.

Activities

FORES is targeting 25 schools for the project.  The following activities will take place in these schools, which are evenly divided between low income and middle income neighborhoods.

• The creation and dissemination of two sets of brochures and a rule of law curriculum that are being developed by political scientists, educators and legal experts in Argentina: one for 10-11 year olds and one for 16-17 year olds.  Between 30,000 and 40,000 of these brochures will be distributed to teachers and students at the 25 selected schools.
• FORES experts will introduce the rule of law curriculum into classrooms in all 25 schools during July and August, 2009.  All of the students participating in these sessions will receive a rule of law brochure.
• FORES is working with colleagues they met at the World Justice Forum to create Spanish language software and on-line resources modeled on www.tryjudging.ca to complement the brochures.
• Teachers from all 25 schools will be invited to attend one of four training sessions during which the FORES team will discuss how the teachers should use the FORES-developed rule of law materials in their classrooms.

Outcomes

"It is our hope that once children and teens know that they have rights and that they can exercise their rights, they will become involved members of their communities, civil society and political parties.  For the younger children, it is our goal that they will know that they have a right to open and clean schools; a right to not be beaten or abused; and an understanding of where to go-and who to talk to-to secure these rights." Sandra Elena, Director, Growing Up With the Rule of Law

All of the teachers who participate in the training sessions and all of the students and teachers who participate in the FORES-led classes will be asked to fill out a questionnaire after their session is completed.  This questionnaire will provide FORES with immediate feedback regarding the effectiveness of its rule of law curriculum.

FORES is interested in doing a longitudinal study of the impact of the training on a sub-set of the students reached this year.  It has therefore presented its "Growing up with the Rule of Law" Project to several of its Argentine funders in hopes of securing additional sources of funding for the future.

"During preliminary meetings in poor communities several school principals voiced concerns about the number of students who were abused or beaten by members of their extended families within the community.  We need to stress to the students that this abuse is unacceptable.  That it isn't normal.  We need to show students how the law can protect them from this abuse." Sandra Elena, Director, Growing Up With the Rule of Law

Program Lessons Learned to Date

Although the training sessions with teachers and in schools have not yet occurred, the FORES team has learned several valuable lessons:

• There is a lack of priority for this work from government offices, which are pleased by the work that FORES is doing, but do not have time to partner. This has made forming the necessary partnerships very time consuming.
• The scholarly team is having a hard time working professionally within poor communities because student attendance and school curricula are in flux and many of the overall needs within the schools are so basic.
• Teachers need to stress responsibility-that the rule of law is about both rights and responsibilities. Students need to take responsibility for supporting and protecting their rights.

Replicability

FORES plans to continue the Program next year with new funding from a variety of Argentine sources and expand into northwestern and northeastern Argentina-both of which are much poorer than Buenos Aires and include indigenous populations.  The brochures and online materials are all in Spanish, and preliminary discussions are already underway to expand the project to similar countries in Latin America such as Paraguay.