On 12 June 2014, HREA organised a roundtable discussion on “The Role of National Human Rights Institutions in Advancing Human Rights Education.” The recording of this event is now available.
Click here to view the recording
This event brought together experts from a range of sectors including representatives of national human rights institutions (NHRIs), civil society, academia, and inter-governmental organisations who presented their understanding and experiences related to the role and mandate that NHRIs have to promote human rights education. “NHRIs have a unique space between the government and civil society. The mandate to deliver human rights education is an ideal tool to bridge the gap between these groups”, according to Fiona Murphy of the Irish Human Rights Commission. “The human rights education we are currently doing in the prison service in Ireland is a bespoke training that creates the golden thread between human rights, professional competency and ethics. It enables staff to deal with people in custody, but also the families and the wider community”.
“From an international perspective, we have a strong basis for human rights education in NHRIs”, said Prof. dr. Claudia Lohrenscheit, Faculty of Social Work and Health of Coburg University of Applied Sciences. “This strong basis needs to be transferred to the national level and grounded within the education sector through national norms, regulations and standards”, added Lohrenscheit, who used to work for the German Institute for Human Rights.
Panelist André Keet (Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice, University of the Free State): “When reflecting on my time working for the South Africa Human Rights Commission, I consider whether we should have employed more education practitioners at the Commission.” Prof. Keet concluded: “In the human rights field we must remember that reading the Universal Declaration for Human Rights does not make someone a human rights educator. The human rights education field is complex and the sector needs to be professionalized.”
HREA will issue a policy brief in July that will include some of the findings and recommendations from the roundtable.