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Summary: Discussion at the fourth session of the UN Human Rights Council, with the participation of the Special Rapporteur on Education, Vernor Munoz
A session on the UN World Programme for Human Rights Education highlighted the need to integrate human rights education into primary, secondary and university-level schools. The UN World Programme has a “Plan of Action” of four stages Children not only need to read about human rights but also understand it and take part in it There are five components to integrating human rights into education 1. education about policies Example: Ingeborg Breines (Director, UNESCO Liason Office, Geneva) “Its not only about learning about human rights but practicing human rights” Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education- Mr. Munoz The first phase requires us to work to achieve the main issues related to Human Rights Education. Despite initiatives undertaken in many countries, most still see human rights education as an “outside issue” not a mandatory implementation in schools’ curriculum. “Everybody has the right to education and the right to learn”, he said
1. Assess the human rights situation in the current system
2. Set priorities in countries and develop national implementation strategies
3. Implement strategy
4. Review/Evaluate it
2. policies need to be implemented (enough resources, etc)
3. learning environment (practice HR in daily lives in school community)
4. teaching and learning processes and tools (textbooks, curriculum
5. education and professional development of school personell
Burundi
Burundi has taken the first step by implementing initiatives but they have not truly integrated the policies. Problems include: 1) policies are not compulsory 2) there is a lack of political will and teachers are not trained.