Building local capacity to protect public health and promote social justice through online peer education

Walsh, Christopher S.; Lasky, Bruce A. and Morrish, Wendy J. (2011). Building local capacity to protect public health and promote social justice through online peer education. In: IADIS International Conference e-Democracy, Equity and Social Justice 2011, part of the IADIS Multi Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems 2011, 20-22 Jul 2011, Rome, Italy.

URL: http://www.edemocracy-conf.org/

Abstract

Building local capacity to protect public health and promote social justice with stigmatised populations
disproportionately at risk of HIV infection is difficult regardless of context. There is need for a non-colonising approach that respects local knowledge and expertise in ways that strengthen community-based initiatives to HIV prevention alongside education about human and legal rights. Building local capacity means coming together in partnership and standing in solidarity with marginalized groups and listening to and responding to their needs. This paper documents an international collaboration’s approaches to integrate sexual rights and community legal education into a new HIV/AIDS online outreach and prevention programme (OPOP). Paramount to this process was actively listening to and including the voices of key stakeholders in the community. We report on the collaboration, research and authoring of a sexual, human and legal rights manual to be used by OPOP workers at a local grassroots community-based HIV/AIDS prevention organization in Chiang Mai Thailand. We highlight how a legal internship programme can provide an opportunity for law students to make an authentic contribution to assisting others, very different from themselves, in overcoming legal injustices in Thailand. We argue this critical experience provides a productive framework for future lawyers to achieve a greater understanding of the dynamic relationship between academic knowledge and its practical application to the legal and justice issues that will arise in the diverse communities they may work in the future. Furthermore we also argue, that the technology is part of a suite of resources when it comes to HIV prevention and promoting human, legal and sexual rights, it is not simply the solution.

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About

• Item ORO ID
• 29175
• Item Type
• Conference or Workshop Item
• Extra Information
• Published in the Proceedings of the IADIS International Conferences ICT, Society and Human Beings 2011 [and] e-Democracy, Equity and Social Justice 2011 / edited by Gunilla Bradley, Diane Whitehouse and Gurmit Singh. Published by IADIS (International Association for Development of the Information Society, ISBN 978-972-8939-36-6
• Keywords
• human rights; HIV/AIDS; online peer outreach and prevention (OPOP); legal rights
• Academic Unit or School
• Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies (WELS) > Education, Childhood, Youth and Sport
  Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies (WELS)
• Copyright Holders
• © 2011 IADIS
• Depositing User
• Christopher Walsh