Human Rights Education A Manual for National Human Rights Institutions
The goal guides the development of the outcomes. These will describe what the human rights situation
will be like when the education programme or activity has been successfully completed.
Now, I observe that the soldiers are disciplined and no longer abusive. Members of the Citizen Armed Forces
Geographical Unit no longer bear arms in public.
Higaonon, Philippines
If the human rights activity is implemented over a long period of time, outcomes can be organized into
short-term, medium-term and long-term timeframes. It is difficult, and not advisable, to generalize about
periods of time for achievement of outcomes. However, as a guide:
• short-term outcomes tend to result in new knowledge and increased awareness and commitment
to behavioural change
• medium-term outcomes tend to result in increased skills and changes in attitudes, behaviour,
decisions or policies
• long-term outcomes tend to result in changes in a situation.
Not all education activities will include medium-term and long-term outcomes. A comprehensive and
complex activity, such as raising national awareness about the rights of migrant workers, will include
all outcomes levels. A less complex activity, such as a presentation to a group of local officials on the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women may include short-term
outcomes only.
The examples below show the difference between short-term, medium-term and long-term outcomes
i) for a national human rights institution’s gender mainstreaming strategy
• Short-term outcome: At the end of a three-month organisation-wide gender awareness
raising programme all senior managers report they are committed and able to apply a gender
lens to the NHRI’s culture and operations.
• Medium-term outcome: By [date within six months], specific actions toward gender
mainstreaming have been undertaken at all levels of the NHRI with positive results as reported
by # focus groups of staff and commissioners.
• Long-term outcome: By [date after 2 years], the culture and operations of the NHRI has
improved against the baseline gender audit, as shown by the indicators and tools used in the
baseline audit.
and ii) for the human rights education activities and outcomes related to teacher-to-student and studentto-student bullying in a school environment.
• Activity: The NHRI provides human rights information about bullying to a school.
• Short-term outcome: By [date] the school knows about students’ human rights and its
responsibility to address the bullying.
• Activity: The NHRI works with school leaders and students to develop skills, attitudes and
behaviours to prevent bullying in the school.
• Medium-term outcome: By [date] the school reports it has the ability to develop bullying
prevention strategies and intends to do so.
• Activity: By [date] the NHRI works with the school to plan, implement and evaluate an antibullying strategy.
• Long-term outcome: The school takes action and against baseline data, bullying is reduced.
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