This Sunday, 10 December 2006 (Human Rights Day) will be the occasion to consider the situation of human rights throughout the world, to assess successes and failures, and to reflect on possible solutions to existing challenges.

Proclaimed in 1950, Human Rights Day commemorates the adoption on 10 December 1948 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an instrument that has become a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations. The purpose of this Day is to give further impetus to efforts to make human rights a reality for all.

Since 1978, every two years the Organization awards the UNESCO Prize for Human Rights Education. The Prize will be awarded in 2006 for the fifteenth time. The name of the prizewinner will be announced on 10 December 2006. More …

On Human Rights Day 2006, several awareness-raising activities are being organized in UNESCO Member States:

In Bangladesh, the National Association of UNESCO Clubs (NAUCB) is organizing a photographic exhibition on key human rights issues in the country. A seminar entitled “Protection of Human Rights in Bangladesh” will also take place as well as a discussion on the situation with regard to human rights in Bangladesh.

In Mali, the UNESCO Bamako Office, in partnership with the Ministry of Defence, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the UNESCO Chair for the Culture of Peace and Human Rights at the University of Mali and the NGO Peoples Decade for Human Rights Education (PDHRE), is holding a training seminar on human rights for the armed forces and civil society. This seminar will familiarize participants with the main instruments on humanitarian law, inform them of management techniques of conflicts affecting civilians and contribute to building cooperation with humanitarian agencies operating in the field.

In the Russian Federation, the UNESCO Moscow Office in cooperation with the Moscow School of Human Rights, the Russian Federation President’s Council on Assistance to Development of Civil Society Institutions and the Russian State University for the Humanities is organizing in Moscow, on 7 and 8 December 2006, an International Scientific Conference on “Education for Democratic Citizenship: Problems of Formal and Informal Education”. This conference will bring together over 150 participants from various countries of Central and Eastern Europe, including representatives of the academic community, teachers and educators, human rights practitioners and governmental officials dealing with education for human rights and democracy. The aim of the Conference is to examine to what extent and how human rights education, as an integral part of education and a human right in itself, is integrated into the different levels of formal education (primary, secondary, higher). Participants will also discuss obstacles, priorities and good practices in civic and human rights non-formal education at national, regional and international levels. More ....

In South Africa, the UNESCO Chair in Human Rights “Oliver Tambo” at the University of Fort Hare is organizing a series of conferences and other awareness-raising events specifically targeting students and academic staff.