Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
by Maria Hirtenlehner
edited by Nancy L. Pearson
Copyediting
Karlynn Fronek
Layout
Jennifer Meelberg
3 Introduction
4
Police Human Rights Training in Austria
15 Evaluation
16 Challenges
1
TANDEM® International: for information on language learning through the pairing methodology
http://www.tandem-fundazioa.info, http://www.tandemcity.info, http://www.tandem-schools.com/
2
In this notebook, the term “migrant” refers to persons who have entered Austria for reasons ranging from personal
choice, work, reunion of the family, climatic or natural disasters, to the United Nations definition of a refugee—
having fled one’s own country based on persecution of one’s race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular
social group or political opinion.
4
August 2006
Dear Friend,
Welcome to the New Tactics in Human Rights Tactical Notebook Series! In each notebook a human rights practitioner
describes an innovative tactic that was used successfully in advancing human rights. The authors are part of the broad
and diverse human rights movement including non-government and government perspectives, educators, law en-
forcement personnel, truth and reconciliation processes, women’s rights and mental health advocates. They have both
adapted and pioneered tactics that have contributed to human rights in their home countries. In addition, they have
utilized tactics that when adapted can be applied in other countries and other situations to address a variety of issues.
Each notebook contains detailed information on how the author and his or her organization achieved what they did.
We want to inspire other human rights practitioners to think tactically – and to broaden the realm of tactics considered
to effectively advance human rights.
This notebook shows how the International Centre for Cultures and Languages (ICCL) in Vienna adapted the
“TANDEM®” program—originally created for language learning— to human rights education with police and
migrant populations in a unique and profound way called “Intercultural-TANDEM®” to provide a unique and
applicable model to improve intercultural understanding. The program currently operates as part of a larger police
training course. Although the Austrian program benefits from its affiliation with the police training course, this
model could be adapted, implemented and succeed independently.
The entire series of Tactical Notebooks is available online at www.newtactics.org. Additional notebooks are already
available and others will continue to be added over time. On our web site you will also find other tools, including a
searchable database of tactics, a discussion forum for human rights practitioners and information about our workshops
and symposium. To subscribe to the New Tactics newsletter, please send an e-mail to: newtactics@cvt.org
The New Tactics in Human Rights Project is an international initiative led by a diverse group of organizations and
practitioners from around the world. The project is coordinated by the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) and grew
out of our experiences as a creator of new tactics and as a treatment center that also advocates for the protection of
human rights from a unique position—one of healing and reclaiming civic leadership.
We hope that you will find these notebooks informational and thought provoking.
Sincerely,
Nancy Pearson
The result has been “Tandem® Learning” a cultural This notebook provides
contact program that improves intercultural under- a unique and applicable
standing. The Intercultural-Tandem® program involves model to a problem that oc-
a series of interactions between 20 to 25 high level curs worldwide. The challenges in adapting it to
police ofcers and an equal number of migrants from different contexts will relate to how and where Tan-
other countries. The interactions occur mainly in dem® program is implemented, the corresponding
structured group settings and in one-on-one Tandem® degree of support needed from the police hierarchy,
pair relationships. To date, over 150 high level police the availability of funding, and the ability to recruit
ofcers and about the same number of migrants have enough participants from the police and particularly
participated in this life changing intercultural experi- the migrant community to participate.
ence. The program was designed by the ICCL in Vienna
in response to several violent interactions between the Background on the Tandem® Project
police and migrants in Austria. The pattern of immigration to Austria is similar to
that of many other countries. In the 1970s there was
In Austria, the Tandem® program currently an organized migration, where people were invited
operates as part of a larger police-train- to come to ll jobs. Originally, most of these guest
ing course. Officers must apply for workers came from Turkey and the former Yugoslavia.
participation in the program, which Since the 1980s there has been a big change; more
consists of seven four-hour training of the migrant populations have come from Eastern
“It’s been a journey into sessions augmented by several in- Europe as well as from Africa and Asia. Many migrants
another world.” formal activities involving the tan- from Africa and Asia have entered Austria as asylum
dem pairs. Although the program seekers, because there is almost no other way to get
—Police officer, Interculture- benets from its afliation with into the country legally. When these new migrants
TANDEM® participant the police training course, this arrive, they face even greater discrimination than
model could also be implemented earlier “guest workers”.
and succeed independently.
By the early 1990s there was greater interest by police
The program began in 1999 and inter- for training in social skills, but training about human
est in it continues to grow. Last year, the rights was still focused on legal issues. Consciousness
program received at least 80 applications from and awareness building were not on the agenda at
high-level police ofcers from all over Austria for 25 that time. This changed after several confrontations
available positions for each program offered. The between the police and migrant communities, which
program has documented improvements in attitudes shocked the entire country—such as an asylum-seeker
of both police and migrant participants. from Nigeria who died in 1999 during his deporta-
tion by the Austrian Police. The problem was clearly
From a police ofcer participant perspective: not with the laws—as the European Human Rights
“Since I have been in the course, I am much more Convention is part of Austria’s legal system—but
interested and more open minded towards clients of something else. The ICCL responded with the idea to
the police who look “foreign.” I start talking to them, incorporate an approach used in language training
even if it takes more time. A colleague, who observed to teach human rights values to police ofcers and
this many times, started doing the same. Before the migrants.
course I did not personally know any migrants.”
The Tandem ® program
A migrant participant perspective: methodology pairs each
“I have learned much by Tandem®. I was invited to police officer in the
the police station on the border where my Tandem® program with a mi- “This training course was a further
partner is the superior. He showed me the station and grant person now step in my personal development.”
I have seen how the controls are done, how they check living in the com-
—Police Officer
Interculture-TANDEM®
6 participant
munity. The pair works and learns together over a speaking persons learned Italian. The concept relies
seven-month period using a mutually chosen project, on the premise that each person is a student and a
plus attending regular meetings called “seminars.” teacher at the same time.
The seminars provide experiential activities and group
discussions in a transforming environment in which The tandem-pairing idea was extended beyond lan-
the police and their migrant partners explore a broad guage training in Spain with a group of migrants and
range of topics, including culture, identity, racism, a group of local people interested in knowing people
communication as well as conict styles and patterns from other countries. There are other examples but
in order to build understanding, empathy, and cultural it was a new idea to use the concept to create under-
competency. standing and empathy between police ofcers and
migrants.
As noted earlier, Tandem® program in Vienna is part of
a broader human rights training course for high level
police ofcers, giving the tactic a broad impact not
only in the lives of individual police ofcers but with
their relationships with their colleagues and in their
communities. Currently in its eighth year, the course
has gained respect and interest due to this Tandem®
component.
8
work and everyday life. Each seminar allows a cooking project. They met at a café, talked
the participants to reect on their daily experi- about their ideas, went to a market, shopped
ences and challenges, to gain knowledge and for the ingredients, and cooked the meal and
to widen their competencies for action. The ate together. As part of their project they made
overall training course is designed to become a video of the process of cooking together. A
an opportunity for exchange, for collective person from the Ministry of the Interior lmed
development of strategies and theories. the process for documentation.
• A police ofcer and a Chinese woman painted
The police training program includes senior ofcers together. She is a very accomplished water-
from different parts of police and constabulary work, colour artist (owers and calligraphy) and a
such as aliens’ police, state police, criminal investiga- painting teacher. The ofcer was interested in
tors, border control police, etc. Participation is volun- painting and in learning her style. They made a
tary and based on interest and a need for someone to series of photos of their work together. He also
deal with those topics. The Austrian Federal Ministry learned how to write his name in Chinese let-
of the Interior Affairs accepts the applications and ters.
makes the nal selections. The integration of the • A police ofcer and a Kurdish painter created
Tandem® program within the larger police training a painting exhibition. The police ofcer came
curriculum has been positive and has gained the at- from a small town in the countryside. He shared
tention and participation of a large number of leaders stories about his town, brought old photo-
and future leaders among police ofcers. Even as a graphs, and the Kurdish painter painted his
separate, stand-alone program, it would have merit. impressions of all this. Meanwhile the police of-
Recruitment of police ofcers as participants and se- cer prepared for the exhibit in his old town—
curing stable funding might be more difcult, but the arranging an exhibition room, frames, buffet,
program content would be equally relevant. invitations, funding etc). When the exhibit took
place in Kaindorf it was very successful. The lo-
The Tandem® Process–Learning cal city council purchased a painting (Istanbul
in Cultural Contact Greets Kaindorf) which hangs in city hall. The
The Tandem® program portion of the course—the police ofcer was very proud to present his new
police ofcers and migrants working together on in- Kurdish friend in his town.
tercultural understanding—involves seven four-hour • A police ofcer and a Pakistani translated infor-
evening sessions with the migrant partners. As noted mation sheets for asylum seekers in Punjabi and
earlier, the entire Tandem® experience lasts for the full Urdu. Those leaets are the rst information
seven-month period of the police training course. In asylum seekers are given when they cross the
addition to the other course requirements, the police border and enter Austria.
participate in all Tandem® program seminars as well as
a project they undertake with their migrant partner. Although the Tandem® program is a very important
Partners are paired at the very beginning and also part of the overall police course in Vienna, it could
meet outside of these seminars. The ICCL course co- be operated as a freestanding program. Police of-
ordinators stay in touch with each Tandem® pair. The ficers have often had very negative experiences
pairs are also encouraged to contact ICCL if there are with migrants in the course of their job experience.
difculties in connecting with each other. During the Tandem® program, they have the oppor-
tunity to meet ordinary people from other countries,
The Tandem® pairs meet and do things together like such as Ivory Coast, Turkey, Romania, India, Pakistan
go together to a restaurant, football match, walking, and Hungary. They meet people, many of who have
etc. More importantly, the pairs develop a project to- families, are employed and sometimes well educated.
gether. They decide together what to do and can basi- Harmful stereotypes disappear, as the police ofcers
cally do whatever they want—within reason. The role learn how these migrants live lives not very different
of the ICCL coordinators is to make this process happen from their own.
as well as to ensure the projects are appropriate.
The police ofcers are often astonished about this. For
Some Tandem® pair projects are focused on “private example, some police ofcers entered the program
interests” like cooking or painting while others con- with the stereotype that Africans are drug dealers.
cern broader public interest, for example: During the Tandem® experience they meet people
who do not match the stereotypes and their attitudes
• A police ofcer and a Kurd from Turkey discov- change. At the beginning of this project, we thought
ered they both liked to cook and decided to do that migrants would help train police ofcers. But
Use of language and racism, for example the term “nigger”, has
been discussed and why it’s bad to call others this name. Migrants
will also talk about why they are being arrested—just because of
the colour of their skin. The Intercultural-TANDEM® seminars
facilitate exchanges based on equal rights and provide the possi-
bility to role play, talk and sit together to explore and understand
both common and different human experiences.
10
enced the trials of immigration. Migrant participants The coordinating team must pay close attention to
should also have a knowledge of German, a residence classroom management in order to create conditions
permit for Austria, be in good standing with the law, for a reective learning process. The team has de-
be self-condent and willing to discuss and share their signed activities to enhance awareness of one’s own
personal life experiences. They should have the ability frame of reference, and to build curiosity in other’s
to reect on problems in a general way. Notication cultural background, tolerance, respect, and empa-
for each Tandem® partner is given in advance. thy. Activity experiences help participants deal with
cultural difference and conicts. This skill building
Each year there are migrants from former trainings as creates a growing intercultural expertise.
well as new participants. ICCL staff meets with all the
people who have made a commitment to participate Another important aspect of classroom-manage-
prior to the rst joint session with the police ofcers. ment is building a comfortable and trusting space.
The migrants hear from each other about the expe- Participants sit in a big circle. For the activities they
riences of previous trainings. It is very important to are often divided into small groups (4 to 8 persons
meet with the migrant partners to prepare them for each). There are drinks and biscuits in the room to
their police partner as well as assure them that staff facilitate informal interaction. It is also important to
are available at all times for consultation and support. reserve time for the breaks. Experience has shown
ICCL facilitators meet with them again in the middle of that the informal conversations that occur during
the course. Program staff has found that participating the breaks are important for the whole process and
migrants provide more feedback when they have an the intercultural connections the program seeks to
opportunity to speak with them directly. foster.
12
have a topic-relevant experience with each other and origins, their families etc. “When I filled out the
then discuss how it felt. Participants also learn form for my asylum application,
about different rules re- the officer asked for my family name.”
garding how names are “I don’t have one.” — “Everybody has
given or why names can one.” — “Not me.” — “What’s the name
be confusing from one of your father?” — “Mohammad Azam
culture to another. For Khan.” — “Then Khan is your
example, many Nigeri- family name.”3
ans have the same name.
Often police ofcers thought
documents from Nigerians are
forged because of this. Others have
names that refer to their ethnic or geo-
graphic origins.
lehner, Herbert Langthaler, “The president and the ambassador.” Mandelbaum Verlag. Wien 2006 (See photo of the book
cover above).
ceptions of identity. The following are some examples 5) Role-play activities: Role-play activities are incor-
of these exercises: porated into many of the sessions. For example,
we discuss terms such as integration, discrimina-
1) Identity activity: Participants are asked to reect tion, prejudice, racism, sexism, the use of scape-
upon the different roles they are called upon to goats, etc. We provide a denition to each small
play. For example, a participant might be a man, group, just one term per group, and ask them
a police ofcer, a father, a husband, a friend, and to discuss the term. Then we ask each group to
brother. Each person thinks about these roles think about how to perform this term and to
and then draws a circle indicating how large prepare to play it. The remaining participants
each of these roles is in their life to get a sense watch the role-play to identify and discuss the
of who they are. term being presented.
2) Communication activity: Participants are asked
how to say hello to each other in their own Experiences of the individually organized meetings
language and culture. Each person gets a piece and projects
of paper with a different mandate such as “in The Tandem® program pairs are encouraged to con-
your culture it is polite to shake hands” or “in duct projects together. At the end of each session,
your culture it is appropriate to touch someone’s participants are reminded to continue to work on their
head.” They then go around the room greeting projects together—they may need to again exchange
people according to the mandate. This activity phone numbers and x a time to meet with each other
generates awareness but also a lot of laughter between the sessions.
and friendliness.
3) Perception activity: In small groups, participants The pairs can decide together what they want to
look at pictures that have been provided and do—within reason. The coordinators ensure that the
describe what they see. The group discusses the projects are appropriate, respectful, and safe. There
differences and similarities of how people inter- have been a wide variety of interesting examples in
pret the pictures. This exercise shows how much the last few years. In addition to previously named
people read into a situation based on their per- examples, others include:
sonal background, prejudices, and experiences.
4) Cooperation activity: We give a questionnaire • The translation of information sheets for asylum
about general cultural knowledge. For example, seekers into many different languages
a singer might be very well known in one coun- • A photo exhibit on the topic “Home”
try and completely unknown in another. Nobody • A quiz on languages
can answer all the questions alone. The par- • A lm reecting the idea of “border”
ticipants must move around and nd who can • A comparison of the home countries of the par-
answer each question in the group. With this ex- ticipants
ercise participants understand the relativity and • When there was the Tsunami in Asia, we had
ethnocentrism of knowledge. two participants from Indonesia. These two
pairs decided to hold a charity event for Indo-
nesia. Finally the whole group joined them. The
result was a big cultural event with nearly 200
people where a signicant amount of money
was collected for the relief effort. One police
ofcer created a wood sculpture called “the
wave” which was donated to the Indonesian
Embassy in Germany.
• A police ofcer invited his partner to the po-
lice school to give a lecture, which meant the
partner had to travel overnight by train to get
there. He then spent several days together with
the police ofcer and his family. A police col-
league reported about this on the police web-
site.
• Two different pairs got in contact with Radio
Africa. They had a meeting and made an inter-
Communication activity: Participants are asked how to say view for the radio.
hello to each other, each with a different “language and culture”
14
At the end of the Tandem® program, the results ings with their Tandem® group. This is a clear sign
of the projects are presented at the end-of-course of the meaningful nature of the experience and the
party. This is a very important part of the course. connections made. During the recent session, while
Participants show their products/outcomes to their the seminars were running, nearly the whole group
colleagues and a small invited public. Among them, asked to organize another seminar in the future. New
ofcials attend from the Ministry of the Interior, the police participants have reported that their colleagues
UNHCR, the European Monitoring Center on Racism recommended the course to them or that they applied
and Xenophobia, as well as local and national press. repeatedly before being accepted.
The representative from the Ministry of the Interior
gives a speech highlighting the ofcial interest in the As mentioned before, we hoped migrants would help
accomplishments of the police ofcers and their Tan- train police. As it turns out, migrants have learned
dem® partners. The ICCL treats the group to a music a lot—about police, other migrants, about them-
program—for example in 2005 Roma musicians from selves—through the meetings. We’ve come to realize
Serbia and Romania were featured. In addition a that it’s a training and integration program for both
special buffet is provided featuring interesting food. police ofcers and migrants. For both groups these
Certicates are handed out. kinds of exercises are new and often result in changed
perspectives.
EVALUATION
Participants provide both written and oral feedback For the migrants, it’s also very interesting for them
to the program facilitators regarding their Tandem® to get to know people from so many other countries.
program experience. But very important to the evalu- They are very often isolated or have contacts just
ation process is the informal, mainly oral, feedback. within their own close community. For example, a
Because people don’t often like to speak about their doctor from India and a Roma from Romania became
profound experiences in an organised setting, infor- friends during the Tandem® experience. The Indian
mal situations where we can get oral feedback are was vegetarian and very conscious about food and
important. In the beginning of our program, we or- health in general. The Roma was quite careless about
ganised a supervision meeting at the end. The trainer, a healthy lifestyle, especially regarding food. He liked
a professional and highly experienced supervisor, did to eat a lot of meat, which is still considered in his
not succeed in getting the group to speak about their culture a sign of better status, and did not like veg-
personal transformation experiences. They were not etables, a cultural sign of poverty. One day his wife
familiar with giving this kind of feedback in this kind told us that he has changed his nutrition habits since
of setting. It was not successful. becoming friends with the Indian partner. He started
to eat vegetables and became conscious of having a
More recently, participants from former courses have healthy diet.
contacted ICCL and have asked for follow-up meet-
Because of the positive impact of the course, migrants
reveal that they lose what has been a pervasive fear
of the police—even when they need help. We get
reports that migrants even avoid going to the police
One police ofcer reported a signicant change when they need help because of this profound fear.
in a colleague who also went through the course. Those that have had bad experiences in their home
countries are often frightened by police and have
“I’m in the course because my colleague was here last year. great difculty overcoming this fear. When a number
You know, since he has been here, he has changed completely. of migrants from the community come to know one or
And that’s why I thought this must be a good course. We had more police ofcers they learn about the problems of
to do many deportations together. In former times we often police and their institutional culture. These migrants
had difficulties. Since he has been to this course, he succeeds can help their communities begin to overcome this
in being friendly to the deported people and can say good-bye fear of police and have an impact on their communi-
to them in a correct and friendly way by handshake.” ties’ behaviour towards the police.
A police ofcer:
Police ofcers are mostly confronted with negative
aspects of migration. Generally they don’t get to
know the positive impacts. The Tandem® experience is
one.“ As a superior—with 316 policemen in 16 police
stations–I try to have a positive inuence on my col-
16
the migrant changes—a new job, a change in living It is possible that this tactic of Tandem® program
circumstances, etc. The lives of the police ofcers are pairing would be applicable to other cross-cultural
much more stable and according to plan. In addition, groups that don’t include police ofcers, such as youth
the police ofcers get a professional development and elders, doctors and patients, businessmen and
certicate for taking the course, and therefore it is workers, landowners and tenants, women and men,
very important to acknowledge the migrant partner’s etc., to gain understanding and familiarity. It may be
investment in the program. broadly applicable to many issues that have an impact
on human rights.
Project Management and Facilitation: It is important
to have an effective project coordinator and stable The concept has been presented in some other Euro-
trainers that are experienced in dealing with diverse pean countries such as Spain in the Catalonian Police
populations and fostering intercultural understanding. School in Barcelona, in Italy for NGOS and members
The project leaders must be aware of the signicant of the National and Regional Police, in the Nether-
amount of time that is required to recruit the partici- lands for NGOS and police, in England for the staff
pants, especially the migrant participants, to keep in of a University and in Austria with different groups
touch with them, to plan and conduct the seminar like teachers, an older persons association, peace
sessions, to oversee and assist the pairs in their project organisation etc.
work, and to secure the funding necessary to carry out
the program. In these activities, the stability of the Last year ICCL coordinated with a Hungarian NGO
management team is important as is their exibility in who invited the Hungarian police to make a study
responding to new and unanticipated situations. visit to Vienna to learn about this approach. A group
of four people—one NGO representative, a represen-
Providing Informal Learning Situations: Not all the tative from the Hungarian Ministry, and two police
learning occurs in formal sessions. The breaks at the ofcers—came to Vienna to visit the ICCL and the
bar and the Tandem® pair projects are essential parts Austrian Ministry of Interiors to get detailed informa-
of the learning and relationship-building process. The tion about the project.
rst long break is important to establish a personal
contact with a partner. Partners feel responsible to We held three meetings, each over a two day pe-
each other or to be a “good partner.” It’s exciting to riod—two were hosted in Budapest and one in Vi-
watch how all those pairs are interacting in the bar. enna—between the Hungarian police, migrants and
We at rst did not suggest doing projects. However, refugees living in Hungary along with experienced
our experiences have proven that these projects help Tandem® program pairs from Austria. It was a very
to establish and keep contact—it gives people a com- effective exchange. The result was the start of a Hun-
mon task, a common effort. The idea of projects came garian Tandem® program. Their activities differed
originally from the participants themselves, they just from our Austrian model, because they met a lot in
did a project on their own and presented it. We then small groups and less in pairs. This was due to their
realized that it was helpful to give a structure to fu- difculties nding willing migrant participants and in
ture projects. communicating the idea. For the Hungarian partners
the idea of cooperation between police and an NGO
TRANSPLANTING THE TACTIC was a new experience.
In the last several years, there has been a big interest
in this tactic within Austria and in Europe. ICCL experi-
ences suggest that it can be transplanted, but it is very
important to check the different conditions in which
it is embedded so that the activities are sensitive to
each local context.
There were a number of important highlights during A book was recently published in the spring of 2006,
the exchange between Austria and Hungary. A Pales- the title is “Tandem®. Police ofcers meet migrants.
tinian refugee artist, quite isolated in Hungary, created Literary protocols.” In this book seven portraits of
an exhibit with the Hungarian group. The NGO found “old” Tandem® program pairs are featured by well
a gallery and the police transported the artwork in known writers. In addition, there are portrait photo-
police cars. There were two other signicant highlights graphs. In March of 2006, a one-hour report about one
in this project with Hungary: The Hungarian partners participant was featured on national radio.
organised a tandem bicycle race through Budapest
The participants themselves get engaged and make
contacts with the press or a national police magazine
to share their stories.
Remarks from police ofcers about the impact of
their Tandem® experience
18
NOTES
Online you will also nd a searchable database of tactics and other valuable tools
and resources, and forums for discussion with other human rights practitioners.