The United Nations Human Rights System 1 LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end of the session, participants will be able to: ¡¡ Identify the key provisions of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment as well as the sources needed for explaining them. SESSION PREPARATIONS ¡¡ This session has been designed to provide you with an example on how you can plan a session focusing on the key provisions or general obligations of an international human rights treaty. ¡¡ In advance of the training: üü Based on the results of your training needs assessment and consultations with relevant resource persons or field colleagues, select the most relevant core international human rights treaty for the context of the training. üü Familiarize yourself with the key provisions and general obligations of the treaty; major implementation concerns in the country, sub-region or region where the training will be taking place; and recommendations or general comments relating to those concerns issued by the respective Treaty Bodies. üü Prepare a “big bang” opener to introduce the subject of the treaty (e.g., short video, quote, question, photo, etc.) to stimulate participants’ interest and reflection on the topic. üü Prepare copies of the text of the treaty for all participants. TIP ÎÎThis session lays the ground for a practical exercise on how to prepare a State party report (i.e., Session 4.2.1 bis). SESSION SEQUENCE Step 1: Interactive presentation (1st part)  Duration 30 minutes a) Introduce the subject of the treaty with the “big bang” opener you have identified. For example, a short video of maximum 5 minutes on torture, available at https://goo.gl/FTlZSl. If you have more time, you can also show the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a short (6-minute) documentary outlining its history, contents and continuous significance: https://youtu.be/5RR4VXNX3jA to place the respective treaty into the bigger context. b) Encourage participants to brainstorm on the key words or elements related to the definition of torture and obligations of State parties to the Convention against Torture which appeared in the video (e.g., severe physical suffering, purpose of punishment, investigation and prosecution) (5 minutes). c) Summarize the outcome of the brainstorming and link it with the actual definition of torture as provided in the Convention as well as with the difference between torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment (20 minutes). TIP ÎÎBrowse the YouTube channel of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights at https://goo.gl/HK6mZi for short videos. 17