HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION By Felisa Tibbitts, HREA 1 I. DEFINITION Human rights education (HRE) is an international movement to promote awareness about the rights accorded by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related human rights conventions, and the procedures that exist for the redress of violations of these rights (Amnesty International, 2005; Tibbitts, 1996; Reardon, 1995). Decades ago, the United Nations and its specialized agencies formally recognized the right of citizens to be informed about the rights and freedoms contained in the documents ratified by their countries – the right to human rights education itself (UNESCO, 2005). Since then, numerous policy documents developed by United Nations UN)- affiliated agencies, international policymaking bodies, regional human rights bodies and national human rights agencies have referenced HRE, proposing specifically that the treatment of human rights themes should be present in schooling (Pearse, 1987). 2 The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights defines human rights education as “training, dissemination and information efforts aimed at the building of a universal culture of human rights through the imparting of knowledge and skills and the molding of attitudes directed to: (a) the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms (b) the full development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity (c) the promotion of understanding, tolerance, gender equality and friendship among all nations, indigenous peoples and racial, national, ethnic, religious and linguistic groups (d) the enabling of all persons to participate effectively in a free society. (United Nations, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 1997). This definition is not specific to the schooling sector and, in fact, the United Nations proposes human rights education for all sectors of society as well as part of a “lifelong learning” process for individuals (United Nations, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 1997). The human rights referred to cover a broad range, including those contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as related treaties and covenants, such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1 Tibbitts, F. (2008) “Human Rights Education”. In Bajaj, M. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Peace Education. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. 2 During the 1990s, several important international documents on human rights education were elaborated. These were the World Plan of Action on Education for Human Rights and Democracy (Montreal, 1993), the Declaration and Integrated Framework of Action on Education for Peace, Human Rights and Democracy (UNESCO, Paris, 1995), the World Conference on Human Rights (Vienna, 1993), Guidelines for Plans of Action for the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education 1995-2004 (1995). These refer to the relevant education articles of international treaties and place informal pressure on national governments to co-operate.