Awareness on civil and social rights raised in China

When China adopted its first national action plan on human rights in 2009, the foundation for increased awareness on human rights was laid. The national action plan explicitly says that China will carry out extensive human rights education and training in various forms and publicise human rights knowledge throughout the Chinese society.

Promoting human rights education in China since 1999

Based on the action plan and to secure human rights presence in schools, the Nankai University Research Centre for Human Rights (NUC) has developed the country’s first human rights education materials.

The development was supported by the Institute that has been engaged in human rights work in China since 1999. Human rights education has been a priority from the beginning, as it is an effective tool to increase awareness of and respect to human rights. Given that it is equally important for educators to be capacitated to teach human rights, NUC has organised a training of trainers for school teachers and partly school instructors on human rights education. The programme focused on teaching methodologies and techniques for human rights education of school students and civil servants.

Eight human rights education and training centres established

Today eight national human rights education and training bases have been established all over China, following the national action plans on human rights. The educational materials will be disseminated to national human rights research centres and administration institutes, and trainings on human rights education methodology will be conducted for human rights instructors and school teachers.