Resources

The World Conference on Human Rights (Vienna, 1993) took the position that human rights education, training and public information were essential in order to create and promote stable and harmonious relations among different communities and to foster mutual understanding, tolerance and peace.

UNESCO has prepared this Manual for Human Rights Education as a contribution to the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December 1998 and to the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education (1995–2004). While intended mainly for educators, it may also be useful to secondary-school students and in the context of non-formal education.

The Manual is the result of teamwork, with participation by numerous educators and experts from various regions of the world. A preliminary version was submitted to the delegates of UNESCO Member States at the 29th session of the Organization’s General Conference and has since been tested in several schools throughout the world.

The Manual is addressed to primary- and secondary-school teachers and to instructors in non-formal education for children and adults. It is a teaching aid providing both theory and practical advice. However, parts of it can be used directly, without any teacher, by young people from the age of 14 upwards.

Part 1 sets out an approach to the concepts essential if human rights education is to be rigorous, have a scientific basis, expand knowledge and promote thought. This part is to be read by teachers who wish to impart human rights education. It can be understood by secondary students aged 14 and over. It incorporates the basic components of the Declaration and Integrated Framework of Action on Education for Peace, Human Rights and Democracy (1994).

Part 2 is addressed to schoolteachers and those in positions of responsibility. It is essentially a tool for teaching. It opens up avenues, makes suggestions and gives advice on how all educational disciplines can embrace the objectives inherent in human rights education. Obviously all teachers are free, in the light of their own cultures and individual pedagogical choices, to invent and create approaches and situations different from those suggested here.

Part 3 presents a number of pedagogical examples that have been tried out and that provide an approach for educational work concerning a specific right. The plan follows that of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is quoted and referred to at length. This part may be regarded as an educational demonstration of the features of this declaration, the fiftieth anniversary of which is being celebrated by UNESCO and the United Nations in 1998.

All teachers and organizers can be guided by the experiments presented here to encourage information, training and reflection. There is no need to follow any particular order. As the need arises, a particular right (such as the right to health care or the right to live in a well-balanced environment) can be introduced before or after another right, or the focus may be on a single right.

The Manual does not seek to be exhaustive but rather to propose material which can be developed and supplemented in an ongoing process. It will be for educators and learners, in their own cultural contexts, to discover how human rights can acquire meaning in their daily lives.