Human Rights Education in the School Systems of Europe, Central Asia and North America: A Compendium of Good Practice

This tool includes descriptions and actual samples of successful education initiatives in the fields of human rights and democratic citizenship education, as well as educational practices aimed at fostering mutual respect and understanding. It covers key elements of successful human rights education, such as normative frameworks, the learning environment, teaching and learning tools, and professional development for educators and evaluation.

Background 

In 2005, the OSCE participating States adopted Ministerial Council Decision No. 11/05 on the promotion of human rights education and training in the OSCE area. It tasked ODIHR to "... produce a compendium of best practices for participating States on enhancing the promotion of human rights education and training, including the promotion of tolerance, mutual respect and understanding, and non-discrimination in the OSCE area." 

What is the Compendium?

Human Rights Education in the School Systems of Europe, Central Asia and North America: A Compendium of Good Practice was developed jointly by ODIHR, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Council of Europe, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and the world-known NGONGO
non-governmental organization Human Rights Education Associates' (HREA).

The tool includes descriptions and actual samples of successful education initiatives in the fields of human rights and democratic citizenship education, as well as educational practices aimed at fostering mutual respect and understanding from Europe, North America and Central Asia. It covers key elements of successful human rights education, such as normative frameworks, the learning environment, teaching and learning tools, and professional development for educators and evaluation.

The Compendium is designed to serve as a tool for educational policy makers and educators in the formal education sector, and thus support the efforts undertaken by participating States in the areas of citizenship and human rights education and education for mutual respect and understanding. In particular, it should help ensure quality teaching in these areas, encourage education authorities and practitioners from the OSCE area to learn from the good practices that exist in other countries, and facilitate networking and the exchange of experiences among institutions and individuals working in human rights education.

The full English interactive online version (which includes examples of nearly all 101 practices from the Compendium) can be downloaded from the link on the right.

To order the publication, click on the "order publication" link at the bottom. When ordering, please specify in the "comment" box of the order form whether you wish to receive the print version, the CD version, or both.