Mid-term Review of the UN Decade for Human Rights Education

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) prepared an analytical report on progress made towards the achievement of the objectives of the UN Decade for Human Rights Education, including accomplishments, remaining shortcomings and needs, and recommendations for action for the five remaining years. In order to ensure broad input into the mid-term evaluation, the OHCHR asked Human Rights Education Associates (HREA) to organise an on-line forum from 11 July-5 August 2000.

Agenda

The forum had the following agenda for discussion:

11-15 July: Legislative and policy framework for the Decade for HRE
17-22 July: Main achievements and obstacles in the first half of the Decade
24-29 July: Needs in the human rights education field
31 July-5 August: Recommendations for action/activities in the second half of the Decade

Government agencies, inter-governmental organisations, NGOs, and all others involved in education and learning about and for human rights were invited to share their experience and expertise. Contributions in any language were welcome, although the main working language of the list is English. A total of over 1800 organisations and individuals from approximately 140 countries participated in the forum via the Global Human Rights Education listserv. For the occasion of this unique forum, messages were translated from French, Russian and Spanish into English, the main working language.

Results

All messages distributed during the on-line mid-term evaluation are archived on HREA's web site. A summary with lessons learned and recommendations is also available.

The full report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which mentions the important role of the on-line forum in the evaluation, was presented to the United Nations General Assembly on 7 September 2000.