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This collection of best practices in human rights education in Central Africa and Ethiopia was prepared in order to respond to UNESCO’s demand to promote such initiatives and to ensure a multiplier effect considering human rights education in the region. The objective is to support the concept of UNESCO’s ‘Global Citizenship Education’ in the field of human rights education in identifying its best practices.
 
In order to identify the best practices, UNESCO’s activities in the field of human rights education in the region were mapped out. This mapping out has shown big differences in implementing the initiatives focused on achieving global citizenship education through human rights education, particularly in primary and secondary education, as indicated in the first phase of the World Programme for human rights education. Nevertheless, various initiatives collected are either conducted/supported by UNESCO or not, in terms of three themes: citizenship education, intercultural dialogue, and the peace and security which are considered to be relevant to Africa in general and particularly to Central Africa, in order to address the main theme of global citizenship education. The selected best practices deal with the tertiary level and are in line with the second phase of the World Programme for human rights education, covering the period between 2009 and 2014 and focusing on higher and vocational education. The practices include 1) citizenship education which supports the principles set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and which is reiterated in the two phases of the World Programme for human rights education, 2) the intercultural dialogue which supports education for understanding and evaluating unity in diversity, and which fits well with the objectives of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development proclaimed by the UN General Assembly and managed by UNESCO, and 3) education for peace and security.

It is obvious that many linkages exist among the three subjects mentioned above. Therefore, the examples presented in this collection can affect one or several problems. Each example is presented with the following sequence: identification, background, implementation, and results.