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This is a fairly good overview of what has been defined as human rights by the UN. The second half of the video delves into human rights law and not human rights education, but knowing agreed upon human rights provides a basis for human rights education.

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What are the universal human rights? - Benedetta Berti

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-Human Rights Education promotes the universal respect and observance of all human rights (United Nations Human Rights Council, 2011)

-focus has been on proving knowledge, skills and the understanding that promotes universal culture of human rights as part of developing empowerment (United Nations Human Rights Council, 2011)

-Created as a result of the UN General Assembly in 2011 and was created as part of the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education (1995-2004)

-Ultimate goal is to helping people to work together to provide justice, dignity and increase control of people's decisions in their own lives (United Nations Human Rights Council, 2011)

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- Framed as a solution to human rights problems. Human rights educates about human rights, advocating for human rights, and encourages students to take action to improve human rights ("About Human Rights Education", 2017; United Nations Human Rights Council, 2011).

-  Education has the ability to alleviate social inequalities (gender, racial, income, ethnic, religious) ("About Human Rights Education", 2017; United Nations Human Rights Council, 2011)

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- Corresponds to the goal of democratic equality as described by Labaree (1997).
Education is a human right that should be provided to everyone = Equal Access/Opportunity/ Treatment;
Citizenship Training -- As a world citizen;
Seeks to equalize society by attempting to curb inequalities;
Promotes civic virtues -- Everyone deserves basic human rights

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- Overlapping commonalities with Goyette (2017).
Some aspects of functionalism like moral achievement and sharing common values;
Lots of conflict paradigm -- the world is unequal, "conflict ridden and divisive" (p. 35) therefore we should educate about this and seek to remedy it through education

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- Education is meant to help social inequalities -- What about how social inequalities contribute to educational achievement (or lack thereof)?

- Doesn't consider the role of the workforce to reduce inequalities. The goal is not to educate in order for students to find a job in the workforce. How can you alleviate income inequality without considering that having a job is necessary to reduce this inequality?

- What other human rights will we find necessary as technology becomes more important (internet access, cell service, etc.)? How do we maneuver these changes?

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About Human Rights Education. (2017, April 30). Retrieved May 4, 2020, from https://hreusa.org/hre-guide/about-hre/#Rationale for HRE

Goyette, K.A. (2017).  What Does Education Do: Paradigms and Theories

about How Education Works. In Education in America (pp. 29-49). University of

California Press.

Labaree, D. F. (1997). Public Goods, Private Goods: The American Struggle Over Educational

Goals. American Educational Research Journal, 34(1), 39–81.

Report of the Human Rights Council on its seventeenth session. (2011, May 24). Human Rights Council: UN General Assemby.

What is human rights education? (n.d.). In The Advocates for Human Rights. Retrieved from https://www.theadvocatesforhumanrights.org/what_is_human_rights_education

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The United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training defines human rights education as comprising "all educational, training, information, awareness-raising and learning activities aimed at promoting universal respect for and observance of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and thus contributing to, inter alia, the prevention of human rights violations and abuses by providing persons with knowledge, skills and understanding and developing their attitudes and behaviors, to empower them to contribute to the building and promotion of a universal culture of human rights." (United Nations Human Rights Council 2011) This Declaration was adopted by the UN General Assembly on Dec. 19, 2011.

The lessons and related materials available here are consistent with the philosophical rationale and goals of this international declaration.
>> Return to Table of Contents
Rationale for Human Rights Education

Source: Nancy Flowers, Human Rights Educators' Network, Amnesty International USA and Kristi Rudelius-Palmer, Partners in Human Rights Education. (Modified by Human Rights Educators USA-NJ, 12-2015, and used with permission of the University of Minnesota Human Rights Resource Center)

Why Human Rights Education?

Human rights is not a subject that can be studied at a distance. Students should not just learn about the Universal Declaration, about racial injustice, or about homelessness without also being challenged to think about what it all means for them personally. As human rights educators, we must ask our students and ourselves, "How does this all relate to the way we live our lives?" The answers to this question will tell us much about how effectively we have taught our students. David Shiman, "Introduction" in David Shiman, Teaching Human Rights. Denver CO: Center for Teaching International Relations-University of Denver, 1993: page 1.

HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION declares a commitment to those human rights expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, the UN Covenants, UN Human Rights Conventions and Treaties, and the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights. It asserts the responsibility to respect, protect, and promote the rights of all people.

HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION promotes democratic principles. It examines human rights issues without bias and from diverse perspectives through a variety of educational practices.

HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION helps to develop the communication skills and informed critical thinking essential to a democracy. It provides multicultural and historical perspectives on the universal struggle for justice and dignity.

HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION engages the heart as well as the mind. It challenges students to ask what human rights mean to them personally and encourages them to translate caring into informed, nonviolent action.

HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION affirms the interdependence of the human family. It promotes understanding of the complex global forces that create abuses, as well as the ways in which abuses can be abolished and avoided.

Human Rights Educators' Network Amnesty International USA January 1991 (Slightly modified by HRE USA NJ Educators, 12-2015)

What is Human Rights Education?

Simply put, human rights education is all learning that develops the knowledge, skills, and values of human rights. The United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education (1995-2004) defined 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 which are directed to:

1. The strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms;

2. The full development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity;

3. The promotion of understanding, respect, gender equality, and friendship among all nations, indigenous peoples and racial, national, ethnic, religious and linguistic groups;

4. The enabling of all persons to participate effectively in a free society;

5. The furtherance of the activities of the United Nations for the Maintenance of Peace." (Adapted from the Plan of Action of the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education (1995-2004), paragraph 2)

Subsequent to the UN Decade for Human Rights Education, the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training (December 2011) strengthened this commitment and listed the three interrelated areas of focus for human rights education.

1. Education about human rights, which includes providing knowledge and understanding of human rights norms and principles, the values that underpin them and the mechanisms for their protection;

2. Education through human rights, which includes learning and teaching in a way that respects the rights of both educators and learners;

3. Education for human rights, which includes empowering persons to enjoy and exercise their rights and to respect and uphold the rights of others. (United Nations General Assembly, Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training, Dec. 2011)

Human Rights Education as a Human Right

Education in human rights is itself a fundamental human right and also a responsibility: the Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) exhorts "every individual and every organ of society" to "strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms." The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) declares that a government "may not stand in the way of people learning about [their rights]." Although news reports refer to human rights every day, "human rights literacy" is not widespread in the United States. Students of law and international relations or political science may study human rights in a university setting, but most people receive no education, formally or informally, about human rights. Even human rights activists usually acquire their knowledge and skills by self-teaching and direct experience.

When Americans say, "I've got my rights," they usually think of those civil and political rights defined in the US Bill of Rights, which includes freedom of assembly, freedom of worship, and the right to a fair trial. Few, however, realize that social, economic, and cultural rights such as health care, housing, or a living wage, are also human rights guaranteed in the UDHR. People who do not know their rights are more vulnerable to having them abused and often lack the language and conceptual framework to effectively advocate for them. Growing consensus around the world recognizes education for and about human rights as essential. It can contribute to the building of free, just, and peaceful societies. Human rights education is also increasingly recognized as an effective strategy to prevent human rights abuses.

Rights, Responsibilities, and Action

Integral to learning about one's human rights is learning about the responsibilities that accompany all rights. Just as human rights belong to both individuals and society as a whole, the responsibility to respect, defend, and promote human rights is both individual and collective. The Preamble of the UDHR, for example, calls not only on governments to promote human rights, but also on "every individual and every organ of society." Human rights education provides the knowledge and awareness needed to meet this responsibility. The responsibilities of all citizens in a democratic society are inseparable from the responsibility to promote human rights. To flourish, both democracy and human rights require people's active participation. Human rights education includes learning the skills of advocacy - to speak and act every day in the name of human rights.

Human rights education also provides a basis for conflict resolution and the promotion of social order. Rights themselves often clash, such as when one person's commitment to public safety conflicts with another's freedom of expression. As a value system based on respect and the equality and dignity of all people, human rights can create a framework for analyzing and resolving such differences. Human rights education also teaches the skills of negotiation, mediation, and consensus building.

The Goals of Human Rights Education

Human rights education teaches about human rights, through human rights and for human rights. Its goal is to help people understand human rights, value human rights, and take responsibility for respecting, defending, and promoting human rights. An important outcome of human rights education is empowerment, a process through which people and communities increase their control of their own lives and the decisions that affect them. The ultimate goal of human rights education is people working together to bring about human rights, justice, and dignity for all.

A. Education about human rights provides people with information about human rights. It includes learning -

about the inherent dignity of all people and their right to be treated with respect

about human rights principles, such as the universality, indivisibility, and interdependence of human rights

about how human rights promote participation in decision making and the peaceful resolution of conflicts

about the history and continuing development of human rights

about international law, like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the Convention on the Rights of the Child

about regional, national, state, and local law that reinforces international human rights law

about using human rights law to protect human rights and to call violators to account for their actions

about human rights violations such as torture, genocide, or violence against women and the social, economic, political, ethnic, and gender forces which cause them

about the persons and agencies that are responsible for promoting, protecting, and respecting human rights.

B. Education through human rights also gives people a sense of responsibility for respecting and defending human rights as they learn about them, and empowers them through skill development to take appropriate action.

Classroom study through human rights requires that a culture of mutual respect and compassion is engendered where teachers and learners can exchange ideas in a thoughtful and respectful manner, where conflicts are addressed in a comprehensive and peaceful manner, where multiple perspectives are encouraged and shared in a supportive classroom climate, and where conclusions are developed that are tentative and which remain open to reconsideration in light of new ideas and evidence.

Skill development in education through human rights includes:

recognizing that human rights may be promoted and defended on an individual, collective, and institutional level

developing critical understanding of life situations

analyzing situations in moral terms

realizing that unjust situations can be improved

recognizing a personal and social stake in the defense of human rights

analyzing factors that cause human rights violations

knowing about and being able to use global, regional, national, and local human rights instruments and mechanisms for the protection of human rights

strategizing appropriate responses to injustice

acting to promote and defend human rights

C. Education for human rights helps people feel the importance of human rights, internalize human rights values, and integrate them into the way they live. These human rights values and attitudes include -

"strengthening respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms" (UDHR Article 30.2)

nurturing respect for others, self-esteem, and hope

understanding the nature of human dignity and respecting the dignity of others

empathizing with those whose rights are violated and feeling a sense of solidarity with them

recognizing that the enjoyment of human rights by all citizens is a precondition to a just and humane society

perceiving the human rights dimension of civil, social, political, economic, and cultural issues and conflicts both in the US and other countries

valuing non-violence and believing that cooperation is better than conflict

Who Needs Human Rights Education?

Human rights should be part of everyone's education. However, certain groups have a particular need for human rights education: some because they are especially vulnerable to human rights abuses, others because they hold official positions and upholding human rights is their responsibility, still others because of their ability to influence and educate. Among these groups are the following:

Administrators of Justice:

law enforcement personnel, including police and security forces

prison officials

lawyers, judges, and prosecutors

Other Government and Legislative Officials:

members of the legislature

public officials, elected and appointed

members of the military

Other Professionals:

educators

social workers

health professionals

journalists and media representatives

Organizations, Associations, and Groups

women's organizations

community activists and civic leaders

minority groups

members of the business community

trade unionists

indigenous peoples

religious leaders and others with a special interest in social justice issues

children and youth, and students at all levels of education

refugees and displaced persons

people of all sexual orientations

poor people, whether in cities or rural areas

people with disabilities

migrant workers

Source: Nancy Flowers, Human Rights Educators' Network, Amnesty International USA and Kristi Rudelius-Palmer, Partners in Human Rights Education. (Modified by Human Rights Educators USA-NJ, 12-2015, and used with permission of the University of Minnesota Human Rights Resource Center) >> Return to Table of Contents

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Definition of Human Rights Education Rationale for Human Rights Education Definition of Human Rights Education The United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training defines human rights education as comprising "all educational, training, information, awareness-raising and learning activities aimed at promoting universal respect for and observance of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and...

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United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training 

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United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training 

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It may not look like it, but the link does work if you click on it.

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There is an end-user problem. If you have reached this site from a web link, - Through your internet options, adjust your privacy settings to allow cookies or - Check your security settings and make sure this site has not been blocked or - You are probably using a very slow link that may not work well with this application.

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Amnesty International Human Rights Education

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Amnesty International Human Rights Education

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Empower yourself and others to develop the skills and attitudes that promote equality, dignity and respect in your community

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Disabled Afghani women who seek help come face-to-face with the very people who are supposed to help them.

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Women with Disabilities Abused in Afghanistan

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Human rights is not a subject that can be studied at a distance. Students should not just learn about the Universal Declaration, about racial injustice, or about homelessness without also being challenged to think about what it all means for them personally. As human rights educators, we must ask ourselves, “How does this all relate to the way we live our lives?”
David Shiman, ”Introduction” in David Shiman, Teaching Human Rights. Denver CO:  Center for Teaching International Relations-University of Denver, 1993: page 1.

HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION declares a commitment to those human rights expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, the UN Covenants, UN Human Rights Conventions and Treaties, and the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights. It asserts the responsibility to respect, protect, and promote the rights of all people.

HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION promotes democratic principles. It examines human rights issues without bias and from diverse perspectives through a variety of educational practices.

HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION helps to develop the communication skills and informed critical thinking essential to a democracy. It provides multicultural and historical perspectives on the universal struggle for justice and dignity.

HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION engages the heart as well as the mind. It challenges students to ask what human rights mean to them personally and encourages them to translate caring into informed, nonviolent action.

HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION affirms the interdependence of the human family. It promotes understanding of the complex global forces that create abuses, as well as the ways in which abuses can be abolished and avoided.

Human Rights Educators’ Network Amnesty International USA January 1991 (Slightly modified by HRE USA NJ Educators, 12-2015)

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Article on Current HR Violations in China:  COVID-The Interruption of Everything!"

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Article on Current HR Violations in China:  COVID-The Interruption of Everything!"

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China: Covid-19 Discrimination Against Africans

Forced Quarantines, Evictions, Refused Services in Guangzhou

(New York) – May 2, 2020

Human Rights Watch has called upon the Chinese government to end the discriminatory treatment of Africans” due to the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Forcible Evictions, Refused Services

“In early April 2020, Chinese authorities began a campaign to forcibly test Africans for the coronavirus, and ordered them to self-isolate or to quarantine in designated hotels. Landlords then evicted African residents, forcing many to sleep on the street, and hotels, shops, and restaurants refused African customers. Other foreign groups have generally not been subjected to similar treatment.”

In practice, Africans were forcibly tested and quarantined. Chinese authorities “visited homes of African residents, ordered them to self-isolate at home with surveillance cameras or alarms installed outside of their apartments.”

Whys is this allowed to continue? Economics! “In the past two decades, China has become Africa’s most important economic partner.” China has many investments in Africa that boosts Africa’s economy”

“Africans in China have long experienced racial discrimination. Some jobs exclude “heiren,” or blacks.” Many “are being paid less than their white colleagues for the same job.”
Educational Implications for black Teacher’s of Color teaching abroad…

“A Cameroonian national teaching in Wuhan, said the school where he taught had not paid him since the coronavirus outbreak but that he knew at least two white teachers at the school who continued to receive their monthly salary: ‘African teachers feel discriminated against. We don’t know what to do, we don’t know where to go to, we have no money, nobody wants to talk about it.’”

What’s worse? Being violated for a disease you didn’t cause or feeling violated like your country doesn’t care about you. Feeling expendable and abandoned. I think, “All of the above!”

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HR: The Whole picture. The Socio-physio-educational impact of long-time war on PTSD societies.

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HR: The Whole picture. The Socio-physio-educational impact of long-time war on PTSD societies.

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“Disability Is Not Weakness”
Discrimination and Barriers Facing Women and Girls with Disabilities in Afghanistan
April 28, 2020
(C) 2020 John Holmes for Human Rights Watch

The schools do not want girls [with disabilities] to go to the classes. Usually they argue that they are not normal people so they cannot sit in the classrooms and learn like other students.  –Disability rights activist, Kabul, April 2018

Afghanistan has one of the largest populations per capita of persons with disabilities in the world. At least one in five Afghan households includes an adult or child with a serious physical, sensory, intellectual, or psychosocial disability.

War has taken its toll and help is virtually non-existent.

More than 40 years of war have left more than one million Afghans with amputated limbs and other mobility, visual, or hearing disabilities. Many Afghans have psychosocial disabilities (mental health conditions) such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress, which are often a direct result of the protracted conflict. Other Afghans have pre-existing disabilities not directly related to the conflict, such as those caused by polio.

Violent changes of power, long periods of contested government, endemic poverty, and widespread lawlessness, insecurity, and hostilities have undermined even minimal efforts by successive governments to conceive, adopt, or enforce policies to address the needs of persons with disabilities, even as this population has continued to increase.

The massive internationally funded reconstruction effort that began in Afghanistan in 2002 offered a new opportunity to address this long-standing deficiency. The government has drafted important legislation and ratified core international human rights conventions. Donor funding has led to improvements in roads and other infrastructure, but reconstruction efforts have proceeded with little planning for the needs of persons with disabilities. Major urban areas have both public and private transportation in the form of bus systems, but these have no modified services or accessible vehicles for persons with disabilities. Most public buildings lack ramps, elevators, and wheelchair-accessible toilets.
Entrenched discrimination means that persons with disabilities face significant obstacles to education, employment, and health care, rights guaranteed under the Afghan constitution and international human rights law.

War and corresponding insecurity have greatly undermined efforts to deliver services, particularly outside urban areas. While a number of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have provided services to Afghans with disabilities, they have reached only a fraction of the population in need. Donor fatigue with funding social services, as well as the withdrawal of most international forces has led to reduced support for programs and services.

The everyday barriers that Afghan women and girls with disabilities face in one of the world’s poorest countries” is abysmal.  Obtaining access to health care, education, and employment, along with other basic rights, is particularly difficult for Afghan women and girls with disabilities, who face both gender discrimination and stigma and barriers associated with their disability.

Indeed, Afghan women with disabilities face intersecting forms of discrimination in a society where gender bias and violence against women are endemic. Women with disabilities are generally seen as unfit for marriage.

Whether married or single, women with disabilities are often seen as a burden on their families and are at increased risk of violence both in and out of the home.

Afghan women who already face significant obstacles in finding work outside the home find those difficulties are compounded if they have a disability. As our research shows, Afghan women with disabilities who have sought government assistance or employment are at increased risk of sexual harassment within government institutions.[1]

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Is Education framed as a "problem" or as a “solution to another problem”? 

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Is Education framed as a "problem" or as a “solution to another problem”? 

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Education is always a solution even when it is a problem.  Education is usually a solution to another problem.  These problems can be social, political or religious.  As global education and economies become synchronous, “the globalization and internationalization of education have led to greater similarities across schools worldwide” (Goyette, 2017, p.156).

Schools and education are designed to structure its citizens to the ways of society.  According to Goyette (2017), “While primary schooling is nearly universal for the world's young children, secondary school is fast approaching this ideal. The next frontier in school expansion is at the tertiary level. Access to postsecondary schooling is growing at a faster rate than primary.” Globalization and internationalization can create and eliminate inequality.  Whereas the overall goal is to promote equalities, when political and social faction are omnipresent, inequalities will emerge.  We see them daily around the world when looking at gender, sexuality, race, class, religion and politics. While tests are used as a type of barometer or thermometer on well education is working, tests become a type of litmus for quality and inequality.  Results are based upon social, racial and physical factors and controlled by political factors. While noted scholar, Linda Darling Hammond, suggest that these test scores reflect both educational quality and educational inequality (p. 157), it is duly noted that globalization and internationalization promotes a decrease in gender gaps.

“As education systems become less national and more international in character, struggles between social classes within nations have less force to shape education than the powerful international and institutional ideology of meritocracy” (Goyette, 2017).  One last note: Goyette (2017) writes, “A high degree of centralization occurs when one institution, usually the national government, has strict control over the functioning of schools in a country.” America, however, has a decentralized national government. Concerning education, states have more control.  This control leads to more fluctuations than cohesion.

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Although this represents a Human Rights violation (albeit not in education), this photo bemoans exposure to the maltreatment of prisoners in ElSalvador due to Covid-19.

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by: Veronica Black
music by: Jessica Hermann

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“What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal!” Albert Pikes,

As I begin to develop my thoughts as an advocate in Human Rights Education, I've taken the time to explore my beliefs.

I will briefly share two concepts that I have come to embrace: “Gemeinschaftgefühl und Gesellschaftgefühl.” Both are of importance. Having a feeling, connectedness and commonality with one’s community (gemeinschaftgefühl) and having a feeling, connectedness and social relationship with society (gesellschaftgefühl) is what most people strive for. Although one is personal and the other is impersonal, both are essential for “fictional finalism.” “Fictional finalism” is a term coined by Alfred Adler to describe the belief systems everyone employs to guide individuals towards superiority. It is my belief that this level of superiority should not be supercilious but “teleological” and enlightened because of the experiences we have that shape its absoluteness. My enlightenment comes with the elemental universality of time on this earth as well as opportunity.  -veb