Summary of the On-line Forum for Mid-term Evaluation Review of the UN Decade for Human Rights Education

LEGISLATIVE AND POLICY FRAMEWORK

The constitutions of a number of states reference international human rights documents and mechanisms of human rights protection. Some of these constitutions specifically mention education as a means to inform citizens about their rights and responsibilities, especially in newly emerged democracies. An exceptional situation exists in the Philippines where the constitution mandates the inclusion of human rights in the curriculum at all levels and human rights education is integrated into different subject areas.

In many countries, human rights education is a cross-curricular theme in primary and secondary schools (Cambodia, Ecuador, Peru, Philippines) or is mentioned in curricular guidelines (Hungary, Switzerland). Inspired by the Decade, human rights and children's rights have recently been incorporated into attainment targets for primary and secondary education in the Flemish community of Belgium.

In other countries, human rights themes are incorporated into the civics curriculum (Austria, Burkina Faso, Czech Republic, Poland, the Netherlands, United Kingdom) or "Constitution" course (Azerbaijan, Belarus). Human rights education is an important component of the "Civic Culture" curriculum in grades 3, 4, 7 and 8 of primary and secondary schools in Romania.

Secondary school students in Turkey can choose an optional course "Democracy and Human Rights." In Burkina Faso and Kenya, human rights organisations are lobbying the Ministry of Education to incorporate HRE into the secondary school curriculum. In Cambodia a huge effort is underway to train all 71,000 primary and secondary teachers how to best teach human rights, either as a module within approved syllabuses or integrated into other subjects.

Free basic education, programmes for newcomers, anti-bullying programmes, education for children with special needs, attention for social and emotional development, parent and student advisory boards are also mentioned as part of a human rights-based approach in primary and secondary education in various countries.

Universities in most countries offer (optional) courses in human rights and international law, mostly at faculties of law and political science. Few universities, however, offer graduate programmes in human rights.

National Committees for Human Rights Education and National Plans of Action exist in Belarus, Benin, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, Japan, Mali, the Philippines, Romania, Senegal, Thailand and Turkey.

Various activities have been developed. For instance, as part of the national HRE plan in Croatia human rights education will be included in pre-school, primary and secondary schools, both as a cross-curricular theme and as an optional subject. In Turkey, where the action plan became effective in July 1999 and will extend until 2007, the pilot human rights curriculum for 7th and 8th graders will be revised by a working group mandated by the National Commission for HRE and the Ministry of Education.

National plans have not, or only partially, been implemented in Belarus, the Czech Republic, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. The main reasons mentioned are a hostile political environment, lack of HRE materials and training, and a highly centralised implementation of a plan by government agencies, with limited participation from NGOs and civil society. As one member phrased it: "[the government agencies] should just be the conductor of a big orchestra of NGOs, academe, and civil society trying to create a beautiful HRE symphony with their different instruments."

Institutional or "unofficial" national focal points for HRE exist in several countries. Two examples are the HRE Service Centre in Austria and the Platform Human Rights Education in the Netherlands. The HRE Service Centre supports Austrian teachers and schools in introducing human rights education. The Platform HRE (which consists of governmental and non-governmental organisations) is working on a core curriculum document outlining what HRE currently is in the Netherlands and what it should be.

Informal networks of organisations involved in HRE exist in various countries (for example Burkina Faso, Kenya, Venezuela). A successful example of a formal network of HRE organisations is the Peruvian Network of Human Rights Education (Red Nacional de educación en derechos humanos), which has worked in both formal and non-formal education in Peru since 1986.

Neither National Committees for HRE nor National Plans of Action exist in Argentina, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belgium, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Canada, Hungary, India, Kenya, Moldova, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Peru, Poland, Russia, Rwanda, Slovenia, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States.

The most frequently mentioned barriers for setting up national committees or national plans are: the absence of commitment and support by governments and federal government systems; the lack of coordination among NGOs; and the absence of leadership by organisations with an HRE mandate. It seems that in countries where there exists a strong tradition of citizenship education (for example, France, Germany, United Kingdom, the United States) there is less fertile ground for HRE in general. As one participant put it eloquently: "Barriers....? Perhaps just that Citizenship is more 'British' than HRE!"

MAIN ACHIEVEMENTS AND OBSTACLES IN FIRST HALF OF THE UN DECADE FOR HRE

Over the past five years, a large number of countries have incorporated HRE into pre-school, primary and secondary school level curricula, either as a cross-curricular theme, an optional course, or as "attainment targets" in the overall curriculum. In many countries, there is also a continuous stream of activities regarding human rights issues, initiated by human rights NGOs and individual schools and teachers.

For example, as part of the National Plan of Action, the Croatian government, NGOs and teacher training institutes organised a series of seminars for teachers and principals, and developed teaching manuals in order to introduce human rights education as a cross-curricular theme and an optional subject in all kindergartens, primary and secondary schools.

In Austria a special Service Centre for Human Rights Education was established as part of the UN Decade for Human Rights Education, supported by the Austrian government. The HRE Service Centre offers training courses and an advisory service for teachers and others engaged in HRE activities; it also develops educational materials and is actively creating an information network among Austrian teachers.

The 50th anniversary of the UDHR led to numerous media and public awareness campaigns in many countries in 1998. A large number of web sites was created to celebrate and make people aware of the UDHR. Often these activities were not part of a national plan of action.

In Belgium a NGO specialising in HRE was created, specifically to promote the Decade.

In Rosario (Argentina), Nagpur (India) and Thies (Senegal) so-called Sustainable Human Rights Communities were established, in an attempt to create communities world-wide that are guided by human rights in all relevant aspects of life. The entire population undertakes to examine traditional beliefs, collective memory and aspirations as related to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In addition, the community's governing bodies, institutions and local groups learned about human rights as related to their functions to assure that the community's development plans maintain the dignity and serve the well-being of all its members.

A massive human rights education project was initiated in Cambodia by NGOs, in full co-operation with the Ministry of Education and with funding from UN agencies and other donors. The Human Rights Teaching Methodology project aims to train all of Cambodia's 71,000 teachers in how best to teach human rights to their students. The project started in 1995 and by July 2000, 30,000 of the target of 71,000 had been achieved.

In a number of countries, specific human rights trainings were organised for armed forces, judges, police, prison personnel, prosecutors, public officials (Argentina, Belgium, Poland, Rwanda, among others). In most countries, however, human rights trainings of professional groups are not part of a systematic effort to incorporate human rights within the curricula of pre-service training institutes.

Amnesty International’s "First Steps: A Manual for Starting Human Rights Education" was often mentioned as an example of a successful training material. The manual has been translated into many national languages and is widely used in Central and Eastern Europe by both human rights groups and teachers in primary and secondary schools.

In Bangladesh, community education programmes on the Convention of the Rights of the Child have been very successful and resulted in a reduction in child labour in the garments factories.

An example of a successful media campaign are programmes broadcast by the Polish Public Television, which focus on current affairs in Poland as seen from the perspective of human rights and freedoms. The programmes were also broadcast by other TV stations in post-communist countries.

The model of teacher trainings in the Human Rights Teaching Project in Cambodia could be introduced in other countries of South East Asia. The trainings combine international laws and standards with traditional Khmer and Buddhist values, while using participatory learner-centered methods.

An example of successful training of trainers is the Human Rights School in Poland. Graduates of the Human Rights School -- lawyers, judges, doctors, teachers, academic lecturers, psychologists, journalists, public officials, MPs, councilors, police officers, prison officials, and army officials -- carry out educational activities in their professional and local environments.

In Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America there exist networks of law schools that teach human rights through clinical legal education programmes.

Traditions of hierarchical and authoritarian behaviour were seen by various participants as barriers to introducing and sustaining human rights education in the formal education sector. Other barriers are a lack of support from government officials and political leaders and the lack of teacher training (both pre-service and in-service).

Incorporating human rights into school curricula is also hindered due to the fact that HRE is usually not included in teacher training at the university level (pre-service training). Cross-curricular themes or integration of human rights education within attainment targets sometimes also dilutes the essence of HRE because it reduces it to a list of competencies to be added to already packed curriculums. In various countries NGOs and civil society organisations needs assistance in lobbying the government to include HRE in the curriculum.

It was suggested that the UN make education/training materials available for free and for non-commercial purposes.

There appears to be an almost total absence of evaluation of HRE efforts, both of activities within the framework of the Decade and of other HRE programmes.

NEEDS IN THE HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION FIELD

Participants made various suggestions for activities that need to be further developed in the HRE field. At the national level, youth participation and advocacy for children's rights should be encouraged more. Another interesting suggestion was that courses in higher education should focus more on human rights monitoring, not just on theoretical knowledge, in order to better prepare university graduates for work in human rights organisations.

Various members stressed the need for evaluation of HRE initiatives. One member recommended that HRE should not only address what human rights are, but more attention should be given to mechanisms of human rights protection.

Others emphasised the need for a regular exchange of lessons learned and experiences at the regional level (Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America).

Several participants expressed a need for more international advocacy to underline the importance of human rights education. "...our commitment to HRE [should] be addressed with the viciousness (or even more) that world trade terms are being discussed. [...] we should advocate through the UN for the globalization of the HRE effort and for the censure and sanctioning of governments [...] that still stand in the way of human rights and HRE," a participant from Kenya claimed.

Prison personnel, staff of asylum institutions, journalists, border populations and refugees/displaced people were identified as target groups that need to be included more in HRE programming. It was also recommended that religious groups and institutions become more involved in public debates about human rights and the training of community leaders.

The need for trainings is tremendous. Various members identified a huge need for teacher training (both in-service and pre-service). The training of police officers, military personnel and border police/immigration officials was also mentioned by many participants in the discussion. Other areas of need are training in conflict resolution and training of community-based human rights trainers. Many participants underlined the need for the training of trainers at the local, national, regional and international levels.

Participants expressed less of a need for teaching and training materials, although there is a need for building organisations' capacity to develop their own, original materials.

Outside technical assistance is needed with the design of HRE programmes. Various participants expressed their need for technical assistance in evaluating their organisation’s programmes.

Most organisations and initiatives need further funding. It was pointed out that fundraising takes time and resources away from the actual education and training activities. Long-term funding would allow NGOs to plan more than one or two years ahead, which would contribute to the sustainability of programming. HRE should be the responsibility not only of human rights organisations; traditional development organisations have an important role to play as well.

The UN can help the HRE field by supporting international training of trainers workshops. Also, it was suggested that the UN provide learning materials free of charge (including copies of UDHR and main treaties) or give financial support to NGOs to provide such resources. UNICEF should integrate HRE into standard country programmes. Many country offices are currently already active in HRE through child protection, advocacy, or programme communication units, however they do not view themselves as human rights educators.

It was proposed that governments document how they educate their citizens about human rights and responsibilities in order to increase their accountability. The Belgian prime minister, when asked to support the Decade, pointed out that education policies are under the exclusive authorities of the three Belgian Communities; however, the important target groups of the police and military, judges, prison officials, international civil servants, development officers and other government officials are under the jurisdiction of the Belgian federal state. Participants agreed that governments have a large responsibility to facilitate human rights education. As one member put it: "Wealthy states should recognize the importance of human rights education as a long-term method of developing peaceful and productive societies. HRE is an important piece of the peace puzzle. Sound investments in HRE today can prevent these states from having to spend hundreds of millions to combat complex humanitarian emergencies."

Many participants stressed the importance of coordination and cooperation between NGOs involved in HRE activities.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE SECOND HALF OF THE DECADE

ADVOCACY AND POLICY