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Human Rights Education
Rule of Law and Accountability

Handa Center Trains Cambodian Professors in Interactive Teaching Methodologies

Cambodian professors stand by a paper hanging on a wall covered in post-its as they workshop interactive teaching methodologies.

Legal Training in Cambodia

The Handa Center held an intensive workshop on interactive methodologies for teaching human rights and criminal justice in Cambodian law schools November 21-25, 2016 in Battambang Province. The program, initiated in 2013 to train professors how to teach the curriculum in English-language law schools, is currently expanding the course to Khmer-language classrooms. This workshop introduced 14 teachers from leading Cambodian universities to innovative teaching and learning methodologies. Trainees focused on fair trial rights, specifically the rights of the Accused, under both the Cambodian Code of Criminal Procedural and international human rights law.

Some of those who participated in the first English-language training took part in this workshop as trainers of the new cohort. Participants worked through interactive activities in the new Khmer-language teaching handbook and on their final day were given the chance to gain practical experience teaching students from a local law university in Battambang Province.

Participants will continue to receive pedagogical support in monthly “community of practice” meetings arranged by the Handa Center. These will provide teachers with the opportunity to learn from visiting professors, scholars and researchers, give them space to discuss successes and challenges they have faced in the classroom and also share interactive learning strategies.

The training initiative is a collaborative effort of the Handa Center and East-West Center, with support from the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives.