Dear all, The following are brief remarks on the fourth session of the UN Human Rights Council (12-30 March, 2007) and human rights education, as well as activities made by the NGO Working Group on Human Rights Education & Learning (NGO WG on HREL), Geneva, to share with you. STATEMENTS BY STATES DELEGATES (High Level Segment, plenary meetings, and interactive dialogues at the plenary with mandate holders of the UN Special Procedures on Human Rights.) During the session, including the first week of the High Level Segment, some states delegates referred to human rights education. Not exclusively though, the following states were noted at least: Tunisia: It has reformed their education system and introduced HR education. Philippines: Human rights education, capacity building, and technical assistance program should be formulated with full cooperation of the concerned countries, keeping in mind special needs of developing countries. Costa Rica: Overall, mentioned on the importance of human rights education. Argentina: It stated that it has a wish to develop human rights education. Morocco: It has developed several reforms to better foster education, and adopted measures to promote human rights in the education system. It also established a central human rights observation centre; (i) to promote human rights and equality planning, (ii) to revise school textbooks according to principles of human rights, and (iii) to reform curricula accordingly. It also indicated a need for an international convention on training and education in human rights. Republic of Korea: It emphasised that human rights education in primary and secondary schools was important. Uzbekistan: It informed that many schools and universities in the country included a course on human rights. Australia on behalf of Canada, New Zealand and itself: It stated that human rights education was a key area for these 3 countries, as a lasting way to prevent discrimination and promote religious tolerance and that the three countries are very active in promotion of human rights education and awareness-raising of religious tolerance. SUBMISSION OF A NGO JOINT WRITTEN STATEMENT The NGO WG on HREL, Geneva, produced a joint NGO written statement and submitted it to the fourth session of the UN Human Rights Council with co-signatures of 23 NGOs for endorsement. The statement is entitled "Human rights education and learning in the institution-building of the Human Rights Council" (A/HRC/4/NGO/90) which is accessible within the OHCHR website on the list of NGO documents at: http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/sdpage_e.aspx?b=10&se=67&t=7 or directly at: http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G07/115/33/PDF/G0711533.pdf?OpenElement Following the submission of the joint NGO written statement, a joint NGO oral statement in the name of 3 NGOs, Soka Gakkai International, OIDEL and Pax Romana - three facilitating organisations of the NGO Working Group on HREL, Geneva - was also read out on 15 March during the interactive dialogue with the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the plenary meeting of the Council. The statement called for attention to the above-mentioned NGO joint written statement, with citation from the High Commissioner’s Report on the World Programme for Human Rights Education (A/HRC/4/85), "(…) one of the primary responsibilities of the Council would be to promote human rights education and learning". PANEL DISCUSSION IN PARALLEL TO THE COUNCIL On 20 March, the NGO WG on HREL organised a panel discussion on "The UN World Programme for Human Rights Education and the Right to Education". Panellists included Thérèse Björk, representative of OHCHR (Education, Training and Methodology Unit), Ingeborg Breines, Director of UNESCO Liaison Office in Geneva, El Baghdadi Abdelfattah, representative of the Conceil consultatif des droits de l'homme of Morocco, Alfred Fernandez, President of OIDEL, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to Education, Vernor Muñoz Villalobos. The meeting was attended by some 60 persons from 35 organisations. Including an overview of the World Programme (WPHRE), the following points were reported and shared. - Information on the current situation of implementation of WPHRE including examples of good practices. - Inter-relation between WPHRE and the right to education. - Ministries of Education in each country as primarily responsible for implementation of the Plan of Action for the first phase of WPHRE, and all actors indicated in the Plan of Action are equally important to participate. - UNESCO's involvement with WPHRE with attention to the needs of NGOs and civil society for information and participation. - Example of national initiatives in practice in Morocco. - An NGO view on insufficient time left for conclusion of the first phase of the WPHRE, and example practice by an NGO of human rights training at the international level. An interactive discussion with the public also took place on several aspects including: - A right-based approach to human rights education. - Access to education in emergency situation as in refugee camps. - The role of human rights education to reduce violence at schools. - Need of helping teachers to help them implement human rights education at schools. - Media's potential to promote human rights education. - Etc. The NGO WG on HREL will refer to what was learned from the meeting in the further strategy-building and its activities in trying its best to ensure the NGO participation in global policy-making processes on human rights education and learning in relation to the UN institutions, particularly the UN Human Rights Council. At any point of time, any comment or suggestion will be more than welcome and we are counting on it. Even though I cannot reply to all individually, I eventually never miss reading them all carefully. Sincerely yours, Kazunari Fujii Chair NGO WG on HREL, Geneva ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SGI UN Liaison Office Geneva ======== Global Human Rights Education listserv ======= Send mail intended for the list to < >. Archives of the list can be found at: http://www.hrea.org/lists/hr-education/ **You are welcome to reprint, copy, archive, quote or re-post this item, but please retain the original and listserv source.
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