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Geneva, 11 December 2000




Human Rights Education

Speech at Panel of UN Agency Heads, Geneva, 11 December, 2000

Mary Robinson, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights





Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

This year we are marking Human Rights Day in Geneva with an event which falls into two complementary parts. The morning discussion focused on the culture of peace and drew together themes arising from discussions over recent days on the subject. The focus of this afternoon’s meeting is human rights education and how it can contribute to a culture of peace.

I welcome everyone to the discussion. I welcome Vladimir Petrovsky the head of the United Nations Office in Geneva. I welcome Juan Somavia, Rubens Ricupero and Marcel Boisard, and the representatives of different UN agencies and departments who will participate in the debate. I welcome Heads of Mission and representatives of non-governmental organisations. After my introductory remarks we will hear from the heads of UN agencies, then there will be a dialogue between heads of agencies and experts from the culture of peace forum. I invite all present to participate in the proceedings.

At the outset I would like to stress my belief that respecting human rights is the surest basis on which to build a culture of peace and that I consider human rights education to be an indispensable means of ensuring respect for human rights.

The importance of human rights education has long been recognised. The prominence accorded to it at the Vienna World Conference and the fact that the United Nations decided to establish the International Decade for Human Rights Education are evidence of this.

Why is it so important? In the first place, the right to education is itself a fundamental right. And human rights provide the essence of a quality education.

At the most basic level it is clear that knowledge of one’s rights is a prerequisite to establishing and defending those rights. But human rights education is more than that. In the words of the General Assembly Resolution establishing the Decade, human rights education is intended to be “a life-long process by which people at all levels of development and in all strata of society learn respect for the dignity of others and the means of ensuring that respect in all societies.”

The key word there is “life-long”: the educational process is not confined to one phase of our lives but continues throughout our existence.

It is important that the need to respect the dignity and rights of every individual be understood as early as possible. Children should be the focus of particular attention. Children tend to have an open mind about the world, for example they will play and live with children of a different race or colour without attaching importance to difference. Prejudice and intolerance are not natural to children, they are learned. So it is vital to convey the importance of human rights to children in the classroom, in the home, in all of their activities. Learning by example is as important as the civics class: children derive many of their attitudes from parents and friends. So all of us have a part to play.

Young people have great reserves of energy, creativity and enthusiasm which should be drawn on. Texts and materials which are geared to childrens’ needs are essential. My Office, UNESCO and other agencies and NGOs have made big advances in this field and we should continue to do all we can to get the message across. I might mention that the Universal Declaration has been translated into over 300 languages and that we have even been awarded a Guinness World Record on that account! But we must remember that there are many competing demands on childrens’ attention, especially these days through computers and the Internet. Human rights education must be able to compete in the high tech stakes.

In adult life the need for human rights education is also great. This takes on a special urgency in societies in conflict and in societies where gross violations have been committed. I have been to many such societies and what has greatly impressed me is the thirst for information about human rights that I encounter. Whether it is the Democratic Republic of Congo, East Timor or Colombia, the urge to know more about human rights and how they can be meaningful in people’s lives is very strong. The message I constantly get is that ordinary people, especially those caught up in conflict situations, see human rights as a basis on which to build a better life.

In spite of the many benefits of human rights education, governments have not been putting as much emphasis on it as I would like, nor have they been directing adequate resources to this area. The results of a mid-term review of the International Decade for Human Rights Education, carried out by my Office, were disappointing. If it were a school report card it would read “Considerable room for improvement”. It may be that governments harbour residual fears that human rights are threatening. That would be a very shortsighted approach. All the evidence shows that human rights, by empowering people, strengthen democracy and social cohesion and greatly benefit societies. Governments have nothing to fear from human rights education, quite the reverse.

Multilateral agencies, too, should not be afraid of the rights-based approach and I am happy to see more and more of them embracing it.

Anyone familiar with human rights knows that it is a complex subject and growing even more complex by the day. The array of covenants, conventions, protocols and other treaties is formidable, the literature on the subject vast. This is another reason why human rights education – which should translate those documents into people’s daily lives - plays such an important role.

Human rights education operates at different levels. At the local level the objective is to provide individuals with practical knowledge about human rights and mechanisms for their protection. At the national and international levels, human rights education promotes values, beliefs and attitudes that inspire action in upholding human rights. Human rights education thus encourages all – from the individual to the international community – to take action to defend human rights and prevent abuses.

There are many ways in which action at the national level can be assisted by my office and other UN agencies. We can assist human rights education, training and public information efforts by providing materials, fellowships and scholarships. We can and do urge the drawing up of national plans with the involvement of as wide a range of civil society as possible. We have provided guidelines for such plans. We can lend support and advice to national human rights institutions which serve as good focal points for all sorts of local education projects. We can organise seminars and workshops focusing on specific aspects of human rights and demonstrating how international norms can be implemented domestically.

An area of particular importance is the training of those engaged in careers where human rights play a central or especially sensitive role. Judges, lawyers and other members of the legal community fall into that category and the need for human rights training geared to their particular duties is clear. That is true also of law enforcement agents and immigration officials, as well as professionals involved in health and social services. My Office has worked on the preparation of training materials for many different professions including police, social workers, judges, lawyers and prison officials.

But we should remember that human rights issues arise for people in many walks of life, for example, local administrators who deal with members of minority communities.

An encouraging development is the expansion of interest in human rights seminars and workshops. To give an example, independent national human rights institutions have held a series of meetings on specific topics over the past year, ranging from the annual meeting of national institutions in the Asia Pacific region in New Zealand which looked at strategies for realizing economic and social rights to a meeting in June of the recently-formed Carribean Ombudsmans’ Association where the role of independent institutions in promoting accountability, good governance and sustainable development was discussed.

One workshop that sticks in my mind took place during my visit to Mongolia in August and had as its focus the role of parliaments in protecting human rights.

Individual support projects can be helpful too. One such is the Assisting Communities Together or ACT programme, an initiative of OHCHR which we implement in partnership with UNDP. ACT gives financial support – usually on a modest scale - to human rights initiatives conceived and implemented at the grass-roots level.

In Croatia, for example, the Centre for Peace, Legal Advice and Psychological Assistance in Vukovar prepared 16 radio programmes on international human rights standards with a focus on women’s and children’s rights which proved to be very popular and provoked a large number of phone-ins. Many of those who called wanted more information on their rights, and victims of human rights violations felt encouraged to communicate. This, in turn, spurred on the local NGOs to learn more themselves about the promotion and protection of human rights.

In Togo, the NGO Amis des Enfants, created theater plays which addressed issues such as the exploitation of children, violence against children, trafficking of children and the promotion of the status of the girl-child. 400 children were expected to attend the performances but, in the event, more than 1800 came.

These are just two examples of the impact which can be made with even a small amount of funding – and further proof of the demand for information on human rights.

Next year’s World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban provides an excellent opportunity to step up our efforts to educate about human rights. The World Conference has the potential to be a powerful mechanism for prevention of human rights violations and for addressing the root causes of such violations. As governments, international agencies and NGOs make their preparations, we must not forget the role of young people. The World Conference is an occasion to educate in a very real sense about the evils of racism and discrimination and the great benefits which come from tolerance and respect for diversity.

I intend to involve children and young people closely in the World Conference against Racism and would appeal to all present to contribute to this effort. Governments can do a lot at the national level and some countries are already active. In order to get the message home, it is my intention to write to every Minister of Education in the world to seek their support for the objective of engaging young people with the World Conference. I hope that UNESCO will join me in this initiative so that it will be a joint approach, just as we had a joint approach to Heads of Government this year on the mid-term review of the International Decade for Human Rights Education.

I appeal to Heads of Mission here today to urge your governments to get young people involved in the World Conference so that it has a real meaning for them. And I ask the representatives of NGOs to make a special effort in this regard. The vital role of NGOs in promoting human rights education is explicitly recognised in the relevant Resolutions: for you, as for governments, the World Conference provides the opportunity to make a valuable contribution.

Four years remain of the International Decade for Human Rights Education. Progress has been made in some respects but much more could be done. What is required is the will and the focus to do it and the responsibility rests with all of us.

I look forward to hearing your views.