A Year of Human Rights Covenants: Great Leap for Taiwan National Human Rights Commission, Taiwan III. Enhancing the instructional guidance system Additionally, the guidance system at all levels for human rights education should connect with one another. Currently, both the “curriculum and instruction counseling teams” for human rights education at the primary and secondary schools levels have functioned quite well, while the central counseling group and its counterparts in the counties and cities also have accumulated much experience. However, in response to the implementation of the 12-Year Basic Education Curriculum Guidelines, both central and local human rights curriculum and instruction counseling groups at primary and secondary education should connect with the Center for Human Rights Education Resources for senior high school education to enhance mutual cooperation and exchange of ideas. Moreover, the scope should cover different types of schools, such as special education schools and transition schools. Human rights topics to be taught for the year can be discussed at the joint meeting of the elementary, junior high, and secondary high schools convened the each year by the K-12 Education Administration. In designing the lesson plans and related activities for different levels of schools to meet the needs of learners, the “National Human Rights Action Plan” should be consulted to ensure that the curriculum and teaching take into account the rapidly changing situation in Taiwan. The planning of human rights education for vocational senior high schools should be enhanced, including teaching resources and teacher training. Further, quality teaching materials and lesson plans can be selected for presentation periodically; and scholars, civil society groups, and teachers invited to give comments; international human rights education experts can also be invited to visit or sponsor workshops. IV. Understanding domestic and global trends and introducing universal values and principles When planning human rights courses, the focus should be on important domestic issues and emerging international development trends, emphasizing the human rights values and principles advocated in international human rights documents. Currently, conflicts in interpersonal relationships, co-existence of different ethnic groups, legal compliance, and assistance for socially disadvantaged groups are the focus of many human rights lesson plans. Although they all involve the respect, care, and inclusion of people, if lesson plans are designed only to channel children’s behavior to legal and ethics compliance rather than improving their understanding and practice of human rights, this can deviate from the objectives of human rights education. In the three international reviews of our national reports on the Two Covenants, IRC members proposed in the concluding observations and recommendations that Taiwan’s human rights education fails to fully focus on the values and principles of the UDHR and Two Covenants. In the concluding observations for the third national report on the Two Covenants, IRC members “strongly advised” that Taiwan should systemically design human rights education courses starting with the UDHR and the Two Covenants. To do so, we should first select appropriate issues, including the eight major human rights issues of the “National Human Rights Action Plan”, and emerging issues, such as DNA technology, misinformation or fake news, COVID-19, and others. The MOE or related institutions can compile instructional handbooks based on the above issues for coursework National Human Rights Commission 2022 Annual Report 85