Human rights education (HRE) is the learning process that seeks to build knowledge, values, and proficiency in the rights that each person is entitled to acquire. This education teaches students to examine their own experiences from a point of view that enables them to integrate these concepts into their values. Decision-making, and daily situations. According to Amnesty International, human rights education is a way to empower people by training them so that their skills and behaviors promote dignity and equality within their communities, societies, and throughout the world.
The "National Economics and Social Rights Initiative" stated the importance of nondiscrimination in human rights education. Governments must ensure that it is exercised without bias to race, gender, religion, language, national or social origin, political or personal opinion, birth, or any status. All students, parents and communities possess the right to take part in decisions affecting their respective schools and the right to education.
History The "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" states that basic human rights require protection and that every person is entitled to a certain base number of rights and freedoms through it.
The Asia-Pacific Center for Education for International Understanding (APCEIU) and the United Nations Academic Impact mutually organized the 2018 United Nations Global Citizenship Education Seminar at the UN Headquarters in New York City. These seminars help progress human rights education by bringing people together to form new ideas and concepts to improve the movement. Advocates for human rights education believe it is crucial because it imparts and spreads out the human rights vocabulary and provides students with the ability to take a critical approach towards human rights.
Progressing development The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) continues to promote human rights education by supporting national and local initiatives for human rights education within the context of its Technical Cooperation Programs and through the ACT Project which subsidizes the grassroots projects. The ACT or Assisting Communities Together Project is the collaboration between the OHCHR and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to support civil organizations that are implementing human rights activities in local communities. The OHCHR also takes care of coordinating the World Program for Human Rights Education. This is a more adaptable program, unlike the decade-long one. It focuses on a different issue every few years and tries to strengthen human rights education in a different way.
Education The OHCHR developed human rights education training materials and resource tools.
HRE has also started to be offered in the school curriculum. For example, linked subjects like History, Politics and Citizenship incorporated human rights training, as well as specialized courses offered as part of the International Baccalaureate Diploma program for high school students.
Some cities in the world have adopted legislation to stimulate successfully the human rights education in the public schools, as the example of the Municipal Plan of human rights education of the city of São Paulo (Decreto Nº 57.503, DE 6 DE Dezembro de 2016), in Brazil.
Models There are four models that emerged to help categorize human rights education in formal and informal education sectors: values and awareness, accountability, transformation, and socioecoethical. To help guide human rights education in the right direction, they set up "goals, target groups and other practical elements of educational programming, such as content and methodologies."
2. Accountability The Accountability Model is associated with the legal and political approach to human rights in which the learners that the model targets are already involved via professional roles. The model is incorporated by means of training and networking, covering topics such as court cases, codes of ethics, and how to deal with the media. This model is "linked with the individual and his or her professional role" and is, "oriented towards the infusion of human rights education within the training of government personnel so as to help ensure that they respect human rights in carrying out their responsibilities."
3. Transformational This model of education focuses on the psychological and sociological aspects of human rights. The topics towards which this model is effective are those including vulnerable populations and people with personal experiences affected by the topic, such as women and minorities. The model aims to empower the individual, such as those victims of abuse and trauma. The model is geared towards recognizing the abuse of human rights but is also committed to preventing these abuses. The transformational model, "highlights the empowerment of disadvantaged groups for organizing collectively, not only to carry out human rights activism but to carry forward social change more generally." It is, "more accurately described as promoting a goal of social change, incorporating both "activism" including collective action and community development as well as undertaking individual actions to reduce violations in one's personal life and immediate environment."
4. Socioecoethical Model of Human Rights Education Munir Moosa Sadruddin's developed a model to teach human rights. This tripartite model conjoins social, ecological, and ethrical (ethics and critical thinking) elements that interact dialectically for building resilience and supporting HRE practices. Recognizing the importance of sociocultural structures and self-actualization is crucial to embracing and practicing common rights. Similarly, developing an ecological identity through narratives offers insights into personal identity and relationships with social, cultural, political, and economic environments. Ethics, in this context, is an individual pursuit of critical selfdiscovery. While personal values evolve through experience and exposure, they are often rooted in social and relational identities. It requires individuals to take ownership and filter them through a multi-layered lens.
United Nations The United Nations High Commissioner for the Promotion and Protection of all Human Rights functions as coordinator of the UN Education and Public Information Programs in the area of human rights.
The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights it as central to the achievement of the rights enshrined.
Article 26.2 of the Declaration identifies the role of educators in achieving the social order called for by the declaration as the promotion of positive social skills among societal and cultural groups.
Article 29 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child requires nation states to ensure that children are enabled to develop a respect for their own cultural identity, language and values and for the culture, language and values of others.Murphy, Ruane (2003)
The United Nations' Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action of 1993 reaffirmed the importance of human rights, and, as a result. the decade from 1995 to 2004 was declared the UN Decade of Human Rights Education.General Assembly resolution 49/184 of 23 December 1994
UNESCO accepts a responsibility to promote human rights education and was a key organizer of the UN's Decade for Human Rights Education. UNESCO attempts to promote human rights education through various means.
Following the Decade of Human Rights Education, on 10 December 2004, the General Assembly proclaimed the World Programme for Human Rights Education.
Other organizations promoting human rights education
The Arab Organization for Human Rights is an independent Arab non-governmental organization based in Tunisia which aims to promote a culture of civil, political, economic, social and cultural human rights as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as international conventions, and to strengthen the values of democracy and citizenship. It was founded in 1989 and received the UNESCO International Award for Human Rights Education in 1992.
Organizations such as Indian Institute of Human Rights, Amnesty International and Human Rights Education Associates (HREA) promote human rights education with their programmes.Murphy, Ruane (2003) "Human Rights Education is becoming an essential ingredient to all societies in the world in order to encourage respect and tolerance to those around us and build good citizens for the future."
Human rights organizations aim to protect human rights on different levels some being more specific to geographical areas, others are based on governmental influences, others are nonprofit and education based, while others specifically aim to protect a certain group of individuals. The following are organizations with brief descriptions of their aims, targeted audiences, and affiliations.
According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), each submission whether private or public, governmental or NGO is evaluated with regards to the following context: appropriateness, effectiveness, originality, ease of use, adaptability, sustainability, approach, and inclusiveness. Each characteristic of which is detailed in the article Human Rights Education in the School Systems of Europe, Central Asia, and North America: A Compendium of Good Practice."Human Rights Education in the School Systems of Europe, Central Asia, and North America: a Compendium of Good Practice. Warsaw, Poland: OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), 2009. PDF."
African Centre on Democracy and Human Rights Studies"Welch, Claude E. Protecting Human Rights in Africa: Roles and Strategies of Non-governmental Organizations. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1995. PDF."
African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights This commission is in charge of monitoring the protection of humans' rights and ensuring the protection and promotion of these rights. It also is charged with the responsibility of interpreting the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. This commission is limited to the continent of Africa and the countries within it.
Amnesty International One of the largest human rights organizations, Amnesty International includes 2.2 million members from over 150 countries. The organization concerns research as well as action in order to prevent and end human rights abuses. They are also focused on seeking justice for the violations which have already been committed.
The Asian Human Rights Commission The goals of the AHRC are "to protect and promote human rights by monitoring, investigation, and advocating and taking solidarity actions". This commission is limited to the continent of Asia and the countries within it.
The Children's Defense Fund attempts to create policies and programs to ensure equality to all children. They work towards decreasing the child poverty rate as well as protecting children from abuse and neglect. The members of the CDF act as advocates for children to help ensure they are treated equally and have the right to care and education in the future.
Commissioner for Human Rights, Council of Europe The commission is an independent institution which promotes awareness of human rights in the forty-seven Council of Europe Member States. Since it has such a broad area of concern its purpose is more to encourage reform and it takes "wider initiates on the basis of reliable information regarding human rights violations" rather than acting on individual complaints.
European Union Ombudsman This organization exists to investigate grievances about the maladministration that occurs within the institutions and bodies of the European Union.
Facing History and Ourselves