| Cambridge, 20 July 2009 -- HREA's Director Felisa Tibbitts presented at a high-level United Nations meeting about human rights education last week. The purpose of the expert seminar was to give input on the draft "Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training", which the Human Rights Council, the highest United Nations (UN) human rights body, is currently preparing. Eighty participants from UN member states, members of the Drafting Group of the Advisory Committee of the Human Rights Council, specific Special Rapporteurs and members of human rights treaty bodies, and representatives of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN agencies, regional and international organisations, academics, national human rights institutions and NGOs attended the seminar, which took place in Marrakech (Morocco) on 16-17 July 2009.
The seminar was intended to gather possible elements for the draft Declaration in order to assist the work of the Advisory Committee of the Human Rights Council, which is responsible for drafting the Declaration. Seminar sessions were organised on possible sections of the Declaration: the principles and general vision of the Declaration; the responsibility of governments; the role of different stakeholders; and the role of the UN system and human rights mechanisms. "The inputs and discussions collectively reaffirmed the necessity of having a declaration on human rights education and training as complementary to the World Programme on Human Rights Education and in order to further encourage governments to carry out such programming", said Tibbitts. "At the same time, many details of the declaration will need to be determined and it will be important to see how specific the Declaration will be in relation to specifying the responsibilities of governments in carrying out human rights education and training", she continued, adding that it is important to also define the roles of other stakeholders, and how the declaration guidelines might link up with other UN treaty bodies and human rights mechanisms.
Felisa Tibbitts' presentation on the "Role of NGOs" in the workshop "Role of Other Stakeholders in a Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training" is available in PDF format.
| |
