The Tom Lantos Institute (Budapest, Hungary), together with its partners Pro Humanum (Warsaw, Poland) and Tandem (Komárno, Slovakia), is launching a regional project on Human Rights Education in the V4: Practices, Challenges and Ways Forward. The project looks at human rights education (HRE) in the context of the Visegrad Four countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia). Human rights education comes in many different forms and is referred to by a variety of names. A preliminary assessment of the state of citizenship and human rights education in Hungary shows that practitioners engaging in this field face a wide range of challenges. While civil society organisations specialising in human rights advocacy cooperate in the framework of several regional and European networks, the education and socialization of human rights in V4 countries has never been assessed in a cooperative framework. In a series of meetings we aim to assess the realities and challenges of HRE in these countries with a view of identifying practical ways of addressing these challenges.

Project description

This project is a series of two expert seminars on HRE in the V4 region. It aims to provide an overview of HRE in the V4 countries and lay down the foundations for long-term collaboration in this field, both within formal and non-formal educational frameworks. With this project we would like to strengthen dialogue between HRE practitioners and institutional actors from all V4 countries, including decision-makers on educational policies, in order to explore possible answers to the identified challenges. Two thematic seminars will be held in Budapest and Warsaw. In the first seminar in Budapest participants discuss concepts, narratives and current practices in HRE. They share experiences and start assessing the situation of HRE in these countries. In the second seminar in Warsaw the focus will be on concrete challenges identified in individual countries and in the region as a whole with the purpose of discussing possible ways to address these challenges through regional cooperation. Each seminar addresses the specificities and the local context of the hosting country.

A report on the situation of HRE in the V4 region will identify strengths and weaknesses of HRE, and will aim to provide recommendations to educational practitioners and policy makers in the fields of formal and non-formal human rights education.

More specifically, the seminars address HRE from different perspectives and discuss four major sets of questions:

Concepts and narratives:
• How concepts such as human rights, civil rights and citizenship are understood and interpreted by relevant stakeholders in the V4 countries? What are the implications of these conceptualisations for the education of human rights?
• What does HRE consist of? Which are the concrete topics and issues it addresses?
• How does HRE relate to other relevant fields, such as citizenship education, global education, Holocaust education, intercultural education, etc.? How does HRE address issues such as recognition and redistribution, social justice, identity politics, and minority rights?

Methodologies and practices (types of activities, methods and tools):
• What are the existing methodologies, applied methods and tools of HRE?
• How do formal and non-formal education complement each other when it comes to HRE and how can non-formal educational practices be included into formal education?
• To what extent is it possible to mainstream the human rights approach into school curricula and more generally in the school environment?
• How does HRE reach out to marginalised groups?

Actors and institutions:
• Which are the major actors and institutions (formal and non-formal, public, private, civil and hybrid) in the field of HRE, and how do they relate to each other?
• For instance, how do educational practitioners cooperate with institutional actors such as ombudsperson’s offices or equal treatment authorities, and how could this cooperation strengthen the development of HRE?
• How do teachers and educational decision-makers comprehend HRE? What are their objectives?
• What is the role of higher education in training future teachers in this field and how does the formal school system support HRE activities?

HRE in action (evolution and impact):
• To what extent is it possible to monitor and measure the impact of HRE on society? Is there a nexus between HRE and democracy?
• How has HRE evolved in the past few decades in the individual countries?
• Have recent critical theories in human rights influenced HRE? What is the future of HRE in the current context of crisis faced by human rights in Europe?

Participants

A group of 20-25 participants will be selected from among:
• HRE practitioners from schools, universities and civil society organisations; trainers of teachers in the field of HRE;
• Decision-makers on educational policies;
• Human rights public actors such as officers working for public defenders of rights, equal treatment authorities, independent public human rights organisations.

Concepts and aspects of Human rights education in international instruments:
Human rights education is a human right that is enshrined in the 2011 United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training, according to which Human Rights Education aims at “promoting universal respect for and observance of all human rights and fundamental freedoms”. HRE contributes to the building and promotion of a universal culture of human rights and encompasses education about, through, and for human rights.
Prior to the adoption of this declaration, HRE was already the subject of several international and regional instruments, starting with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Art. 26), the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Art. 2 and 7), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Preamble, Art. 2 and 13), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Preamble, Art. 2), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Art. 2 and 10), the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Art. 2 and 10), and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Art. 4, 17, 19 and 29), the Council of Europe Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education, etc. All relevant instruments as compiled by the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights can be found here: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Education/Training/Compilation/Pages/Listofcontents.aspx 

In its Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education adopted in 2010, the Council of Europe differentiates Education for Democratic Citizenship (EDC) and Human Rights Education (HRE). The former focuses on the exercise and defense of democratic rights and responsibilities citizens have in a given society, but also on diversity and active participation in democratic life. The latter aims “to contribute to the building and defence of a universal culture of human rights in society”. (2010 CoE Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education)

A report on Holocaust education and human rights education published by the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency in 2011 revealed the following conclusion: “According to the students, the term ‘human rights’, is scarcely dealt with in everyday school life in a variety of countries. At the same time, there seems to be hardly any systematic development of human rights as a subject or attempts to develop a commitment to human rights in lessons. This finding is in clear contrast to the statements of all the EU states surveyed, in which HRE enjoys a clear priority within the framework of school education.” (Fundamental Rights Agency, Discover the past for the future. The role of historical sites and museums in Holocaust education and human rights education in the EU. 2011. Page 100)

The project is partially supported by: