Siem Reap, Cambodia
Ten researchers from China and Cambodia are participating in a hands-on workshop to develop skills for human rights research. This is the third time that RWI has brought together academics from different countries in Asia in order to promote human rights research and cross-border exchanges.
The researchers – focusing on human rights topics ranging from LGBT rights to labour standards – are getting to grips with the practical tools of human rights research and learning how it can add value to their work. Resource persons from RWI and Lund University are contributing with research experiences and tips. Working on their own research abstracts during the course of the 1-year project, the participants will produce English-language papers for presentation at national, regional or international conferences.
Li Xuehui, a doctoral candidate at China’s Fudan University, is undertaking a critical analysis of employment discrimination against blind people in China. The great majority of China’s blind people who work are employed as masseurs. Li would like his research to raise awareness of this discrimination as a human rights problem, and for it to contribute to the wider debate about the plight of vulnerable groups. He emphasises that the starting point has to be the employment experiences and aspirations of blind people themselves.
Andreas Inghammar, Associate Professor of Law at Lund University’s School of Economics and Management, is participating as a resource person for this project for the second time. “It’s fascinating to discuss these human rights challenges in an international setting with fellow academics from such a wide variety of backgrounds and disciplines. It’s a real honour to work with them on building the skills needed to bring their knowledge and insights to the international research community,” he says.
This workshop was a joint effort of the Regional Asia, China, and Cambodia programmes.