The British Council
www.britishcouncil.org

The British Council is the United Kingdom's international organisation for educational and cultural relations. Its purpose is to enhance the UK's reputation in the world as a valued partner. This is done by creating opportunities for people worldwide with programmes in education, English language teaching, the arts, science, governance and information through a network of 234 offices and teaching centres in 110 countries.

Few people are aware that the British Council has an extensive range of innovative programmes in human rights. This includes many initiatives run in partnership with local NGOs, government institutions and civil society bodies, in areas such as children's rights, women's rights, media and rights, rule of law and human rights.

There are already many local, national and international organisations around the world that work to promote children's rights, so what is unique about the Council's work? As a well-established organisation working in educational, cultural and technical co-operation, the Council is valued by governments and civil society alike as a trusted partner, and can work with all sectors of society to facilitate joint initiatives in these areas. With extensive contacts in the UK, and programmes in 110 countries, the Council links a unique network of people and organisations working in human rights. This network is not a one-way street but enables the sharing of ideas and best practices between the UK and individual countries.

In summary, the Council works to:

• Bring together people who are working to promote human rights and good governance;
  
• Strengthen organisations which promote and protect human rights;
  
• Support key individuals and organisations overseas to promote human rights and good governance in policy and planning processes;
  
• Develop projects with local partners to promote these rights;
  
• Disseminate information on important and innovative human rights initiatives.

The Council not only works directly in human rights: its work in arts and education is a means of reaching a wider audience who might otherwise be excluded from access to justice and human rights.

Foreign & Commonwealth Office
www.fco.gov.uk

The mission of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) is to promote the national interests of the United Kingdom and to contribute to a strong world community.

The FCO set up the Human Rights Project Fund (HRPF) to promote and demonstrate their commitment to human rights in their Foreign Policy. HRPF is the FCO's dedicated fund for human rights projects. Since its inception in April 1998, the Fund has supported over 400 projects and allocated more than £15 million in 90 countries around the world.

HRPF is primarily used to fund one-off seed-corn projects. The Fund encourages projects that focus on promoting equality of opportunity and empowering individuals to realise their human rights.

FCO's approach is one of shared values and partnership, and the Fund supports work, either with state authorities or with indigenous NGOs, to promote human rights on the ground. The Fund is administered by the FCO's Human Rights Policy Department (HRPD).

One of FCO's key focus areas is freedom of expression and association, including the development of independent media and promoting the rights of vulnerable groups, such as children and the disabled.

The manual Press and People is a unique product of one such initiative supported by the FCO through the Human Rights Reporting & Press Project, which endeavours to raises awareness of human rights using the print media.

The Thomson Foundation
www.thomsonfoundation.co.uk

Set up by the late Lord Thomson of Fleet in 1962, the Thomson Foundation is a non-profit organisation offering highly practical training and consultancy assistance to media in developing countries and the new democracies born of the collapse of the Soviet Empire. With a history going back nearly 40 years, the Foundation is the oldest of the organisations that focus on providing training for journalists and broadcasters in other countries. It is still one of the world leaders in this field.

The Foundation has sent its training teams to more than 100 countries since it began work, and taken some 3,000 journalists and broadcasters to Britain for intensive mid-career training. It conducts more than 100 overseas workshops every year, mainly with British trainers but increasingly recruiting local journalists as trainers too. Foundation staff and freelance trainers all have sound professional backgrounds in newspapers, radio or television, as journalists, managers or technical experts.

India was one of the first countries to claim Thomson Foundation attention. Nearly 200 Indian journalists have been to the UK for TF training, and hundreds more have been trained in workshops carried out within India. There are strong links between the Foundation and some of India's leading media organisations, such as Doordarshan, All India Radio, The Indian Express, The Hindu, Malayala Manorama and other papers, and the Foundation was instrumental in the establishment of the Asian College of Journalism.

Press Institute of India
www.pressasia.org/PFA/members/india.html
www.reportingpeople.org


Founded in 1963, the Press Institute of India (PII) is an independent non-profit trust, with no government funding. The first of its kind in South and Southeast Asia, it was established in response to the need to create and sustain the high and responsible standards of journalism required by a developing country committed to democratic functioning.

PII was set up by major Indian newspapers as a professional body, and has an ambitious, positive programme aimed at all sections of the Indian press - journalists, executives, technologists, publishers and educators. It seeks to evaluate performance, disseminate new ideas, peer into the future and prepare people for it. It strives to impress on the press its responsibilities to Indian society, to journalists and to all others connected with the media. It publishes a quarterly Vidura to project this message.

It also sets out to raise professional standards of people working in the press by holding basic courses, refresher courses, workshops, seminars, discussion meetings and in-plant training. It has trained in the past 35 years more than 4,000 professionals, in both editorial and management sectors, not only from India, but also from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and other parts of Asia.

PII lays particular emphasis on promoting coverage of human development and human rights. A monthly publication Grassroots is devoted to this objective. The Grassroots Feature Network distributes material to a wide range of newspapers.