14 February 2018
The new joint publication of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and UNESCO "World Programme for Human Rights Education: Third Phase" includes a plan of action to strengthen implementation of the first two phases and promote human rights training for media professionals and journalists.
The first step to solving many of the world’s crises and chronic problems lies in more, and better, human rights education. From climate change to poverty, conflict, discrimination, disease and beyond, our progress must be grounded in the knowledge that we all belong to one human family and that we share important principles, values and rights.Human rights education that is participatory and learner-centred develops knowledge and important skills for critical analysis and action. It helps people to identify their rights and claim them effectively, and it assists officials and others who are responsible for protecting and fulfilling rights to understand how important it is to meet those obligations. It is essential to ensuring that people can fully participate in all the decision-making processes that affect their lives—political, economic, social, cultural and environmental—and the prevention of violations, violence and conflict.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a beacon of hope for our world and human rights education will play a major role in its implementation.
It is both a specific constituent of the Agenda’s Goal 4 and a key force for realizing all other Sustainable Development Goals, which are driven by the urgent need to realize human rights for all people, leaving no one behind.
To give impetus to human rights education programming at the national level, in both formal and non-formal settings, United Nations Member States have launched the third phase (2015-2019) of the World Programme for Human Rights Education. In addition to consolidating the work undertaken in previous years, this new phase focuses specifically on human rights training for media professionals, in recognition of the vital role of free, independent and pluralistic media in promoting justice, non-discrimination, respect and human rights.
The plan of action for the third phase is contained in this booklet. Our offices will continue to contribute to human rights education work by all stakeholders and we hope to expand that support. The evaluation report of the second phase (A/HRC/30/24) has shown that, in many countries, human rights education programmes are increasingly integrated into institutions, with improved availability of related tools, resources and methodologies, and growing cooperation within government departments and among Governments, academia, national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations.
- 55 pages
- This work is available under open access by complying with the Creative Commons license created for inter-governmental organizations.
- Publication code: HR/PUB/17/2
- Copyright © 2017 United Nations and UNESCO
Permanent link: http://en.unesco.kz/world-programme-for-human-rights-education-third-phase