Blackwell Reference Online

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Comment on this article   Human Rights Education (HRE) is a set of educational and pedagogical learning methods to inform people of, and train them in, their human rights. It provides information about the international or regional human rights norms, standards, and systems and enhances people's skills and attitudes that lead to the protection and support of human rights. Educating people in their human rights should empower them to know and use them to protect themselves and others from their violation. It leads to mutual understanding and respect for human rights and thus HRE contributes to and protects people's dignity. Even though it had its origins decades ago, HRE became a widespread concept in the 1990s with the resolution of the United Nations Organizations (UNO/UN) General Assembly in 1994 on the UN Decade for Human Rights Education from 1995 to 2004. With this decade, all UN member states agreed to undertake measures and activities to promote and incorporate HRE in the formal and non-formal education sectors. Together with dozens of international and hundreds of national non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva and UNESCO helped to organize and coordinate the decade. Toward the end of the UN Decade it was clear that only a few governments had complied with these requests. Instead, most of the promotional ... log in or subscribe to read full text