Human rights education (HRE) is a lifelong process aimed at empowering people through fostering knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours needed to uphold human rights for all members of society. HRE stands to empower children and others to imbibe fundamental human rights principles such as dignity, equality, and non-discrimination through an embedded learning process - that includes education, training and information.
Human Rights Standards:
Convention on the Rights of Child, Article 29 (1)(b), General Comment No. 1 (para. 15), General Comment No. 7 (para. 33); International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Article 13 (1), General Comment No. 13 (para. 4).
See also non-binding instruments:
Specific Reference about ECCE:
- General Comment No. 7 (para.33) of the Committee on the Rights of the Childs recommends that ‘States parties include human rights education within early childhood education. Such education should be participatory and empowering to children, providing them with practical opportunities to exercise their rights and responsibilities in ways adapted to their interests, concerns and evolving capacities. Human rights education of young children should be anchored in everyday issues at home, in childcare centres, in early education programmes and other community settings with which young children can identify.’
Areas of Focus:
Levels and Types of Education:
Types of Indicator:
Levels of disaggregation:
Level of Education, Urban/Rural, Region, Public/Private.
HRE is widely considered an integral part of the right to education. The Committee on the Rights of the Child, in its General Comment No. 1 endorses HRE as one of the aims of education and emphasises that ‘human rights education should be a comprehensive, life-long process and start with the reflection of human rights values in the daily life and experiences of children’. In 1992, the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action pronounced human rights education (HRE), as a fundamental need for the promotion of human rights and for fostering a culture of mutual understanding, tolerance, and peace. Further, Sustainable Development Goals Target 4.7 emphasises that learners should acquire knowledge and skills to promote sustainable development, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship, and appreciation of cultural diversity.