Web resource gathers human rights education commitments of States in one place

The UN Human Rights Office launches a new resource, making available all the human rights education provisions of treaties and other instruments in one place.

The web resource “The Right to Human Rights Education”, launched during a side event at the 27th session of the Human Rights Council, outlines in one place all the existing commitments by Member States -- made at the United Nations and at the regional level -- to undertake and promote human rights education.

In her opening remarks during the event, Jane Connors, Director of the UN Human Rights Office Research and Right to Development Division, said it was important to remember that human rights education is an essential prerequisite for realizing all human rights.

“If we don’t know what human rights are and how to protect them, how can we claim them or enforce them?” she said. “Effective human rights education is relevant to our daily lives. It engenders a discussion on how human rights norms can be translated into social, economic, cultural and political reality.”

The resource is aimed at governments, national human rights institutions, intergovernmental organizations and civil society. It is intended to serve as a guidance and advocacy tool for all these stakeholders.

The resource was three years in the making, and brought together a partnership of numerous groups including the International Contact Group on Citizenship and Human Rights Education, other intergovernmental organizations and civil society. It replaces a publication of the same name issued by the Human Rights Office in 1999 in printed form. Being web-based means the resource is easily updatable and more easily accessible to a much wider audience.

 22 September 2014