Human Rights Education A Manual for National Human Rights Institutions The preamble to the Declaration appeals to States to strengthen their efforts and commitment to human rights education and training. The 14 articles in the Declaration set out: • the right to human rights education and training • the scope of human rights education and training • the principles that underpin human rights education and training • the responsibilities on States and others, as well as key roles to take action • guidelines on implementation, including by the international community. 2.1.2. Definitions of human rights education Although there are many definitions of human rights education, they all include elements of awareness raising, participation, empowerment and motivation to act. Amnesty International: Human rights education is a deliberate, participatory practice aimed at empowering individuals, groups and communities through fostering knowledge, skills and attitudes consistent with internationally recognized human rights principles.36 Asian Regional Resource Center for Human Rights Education (2003): Human rights education is a participative process which contains deliberately designed sets of learning activities using human rights knowledge, values and skills as content aimed at the general public to enable them to understand their experiences and take control of their lives.37 Jordan National Centre for Human Rights: Human rights education is all learning that develops the knowledge, skills and values that advance human rights, responsibilities and actions.38 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): Human rights education promotes values, beliefs and attitudes that encourage everyone to uphold their own rights and those of others. It develops an understanding of everyone’s common responsibility to make human rights a reality in each community.39 El Centro de Estudios Democráticos de América Latina (CEDAL): Human rights education, as critical thinking, moral reflection and meaningful experiences which contribute to an understanding of power-relations and power-structures, is both a tool for and the process of the struggle for social change and for the implementation of human rights.40 United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training: Human rights education and training comprises all educational, training, information, awareness raising and learning activities aimed at promoting universal respect for and observance of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and thus contributing to, inter alia, the prevention of human rights violations and abuses by providing persons with knowledge, skills and understanding and developing their attitudes and behaviours, to empower them to contribute to the building and promotion of a universal culture of human rights.41 10 36 “What is human rights education?” Available online at www.amnesty.org/en/human-rights-education. 37 Human Rights Education Pack. Asian Regional Resource Center for Human Rights Education; 2003; p. 22. 38 Prepared for a human rights education workshop in 2004. 39 Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; “Human rights education and training”; available at www2.ohchr.org/english/ issues/education/training/index.htm. 40 Towards a Pedagogy of Human Rights Education. La Catalina, Costa Rica, International Consultation on the Pedagogical Foundations of Human Rights Education, 1996. Available online at www.pdhre.org/dialogue/costarica.html. 41 UNDHRET Article 2.