General Principles for Implementing HRE
International human rights conventions and committments create obligations for governments to implement HRE. The World Programme on HRE was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 2004 at the close of the UN Decade for Human Rights Education 1995 – 2004.
The World Programme recognises the need to ensure that human rights education remains a priority in the international community and provides a framework for promoting and implementing HRE beyond the decade. The World Programme began on 1 January 2005 and is structured in consecutive phases. The Plan of Action for the first phase (2005 – 2007)
- Promote the interdependence, indivisibility and universality of human rights, including civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights and the right to development;
- Foster respect for and appreciation of differences, and opposition to discrimination, on the basis of race, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, physical or mental condition, etc.;
- Encourage analysis of chronic and emerging human rights problems (including poverty, violent conflicts and discrimination), which would lead to solutions consistent with human rights standards;
- Empower communities and individuals to identify their human rights needs and to ensure that they are met;
- Build in the human rights principles embedded within the different cultural contexts, and take into account historical and social developments in each country;
- Foster knowledge of and skills to use local, national, regional and international human rights instruments and mechanisms for the protection of human rights;
- Make use of participatory pedagogies that include knowledge, critical analysis and skills for action furthering human rights;
- Foster teaching and learning environments free from want and fear that encourage participation, enjoyment of human rights and the full development of the human personality;
- Be relevant to the daily life of the learners, engaging them in a dialogue about ways and means of transforming human rights from the expression of abstract norms to the reality of their social, economic, cultural and political conditions.