Strengthening a strategic approach to human rights education

The NHRI Network on Human Rights Education has just published the "Guide to a Strategic Approach to Human Rights Education – How NHRIs can benefit from their unique position and set winning priorities". The guide is the collaborated effort of the members of the NHRI Network on Human Rights Education and is edited by The Danish Institute for Human Rights.

The guide aims to support national human rights institutions (NHRIs) in adopting a strategic approach to human rights education, based on guided exercises and reflections on the specific contexts of NHRIs, the challenges they meet and the unique role and responsibilities of NHRIs in the field of human rights education. The guide also suggests common standards for NHRIs work on human rights education.

“Exchange of good practice as well as surveys amongst NHRIs on their human rights education efforts, shows that many NHRIs tend to focus on own face-to-face training activities and development of educational material. While these activities can yield numerous results, the NHRI Network on Human Rights Education argues in the guide, that if NHRIs are to be more effective in their human rights education efforts, they need to work across mandate areas and not solely focus on their own educational activities,” says Cecilia Decara, Senior Adviser at the Danish Institute for Human Rights.

In other words, NHRIs need to set priorities, which allow them to do strategic planning and work on human rights education not only through the development of own educational programmes but across the core NHRI mandate areas, for instance through the monitoring of human rights education and follow-up with duty bearers or through a strengthening of human rights education in the reporting to the UN treaty bodies.

"Because it is the combination of implementing own educational programmes while at the same time also working towards changing the formal structures for human rights education, that will allow NHRIs to have a greater reach in their human rights education work and to create a more sustainable impact on the education sector,” Cecilia Decara concludes.

The ‘Guide to a Strategic Approach to Human Rights Education – How NHRIs can benefit from their unique position and set winning priorities’ can be downloaded here.