Revised draft plan of action for the first phase (2005-2007) of the World Programme for Human Rights Education

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The following extracts are relevant to the Rights-Centric Education (Emphasis ours):

Components of human rights education in the primary and secondary school systems

B. Planning policy implementation

6. Effective educational policy development and reform requires both explicit policy statements and a consistent implementation strategy, including clearly defined measures, mechanisms, responsibilities and resources. Such an implementation strategy is a means of ensuring coherence, monitoring and accountability of policies. It helps avoid a gap between policy and practice, rhetoric and reality, as well as situations where practices are happening, if at all, in a dispersed or inconsistent way, or on an ad hoc or voluntary basis.
7. Human rights education implies changes in the whole education system. But policy statements and commitments per se are not enough to ensure such educational change. Planning policy implementation is a key feature of effective human rights education.
8. The implementation of human rights education policies needs to be in line with current trends in educational governance towards devolution of powers, democratic governance, school autonomy, and sharing of rights and responsibilities within the education system. The responsibility for the education system cannot or should not lie with the Ministry of Education only, given the multiplicity of stakeholders such as the local government and the school district; head teachers, teachers and other educational staff, their organizations and unions; students and parents; research bodies and training institutions; non-governmental organizations, other sectors of civil society and communities.
9. The fact that both national authorities and the local/school level are responsible for education governance, improvement and innovation implies specific roles for each level: the role of central authorities is to set common policy frameworks and implementation and accountability mechanisms; the role of the local/school level is to find ways to take into account and tackle local diversity and needs and develop specific school profiles, including in human rights. In addition, the ownership of educational goals and the development of teaching and learning practices by teachers and other educational staff, parents and students needs to be ensured.
10. In this context, the following aspects are indicative of good practice for the organization of policy implementation and for key implementation measures by national authorities:
    1. Organization of policy implementation:
       1. Prepare a national implementation strategy in the field of human rights education including the type of measures, the division of tasks and identification of responsibilities of relevant educational institutions, the communication and cooperation procedures between these institutions, the timeline for the policy implementation with identified milestones (see also stage 2 of the national implementation strategy of this plan of action);
       2. Assign or strengthen a department/unit within the Ministry of Education responsible for coordinating the national implementation strategy;
       3. Ensure cooperation between the different sectors and departments related to human rights and human rights education, including those dealing with social and legal issues, youth, gender, etc.;
       4. Facilitate the establishment of a human rights education coalition of all relevant actors involved in this field to ensure coherence of implementation;
    2. Measures for policy implementation:
    1. Allocate sufficient resources (financial, human, time) for human rights education;
    2. Establish appropriate mechanisms so that stakeholders can be fully and effectively involved in policy development and implementation;
    3. Publish and disseminate the above-mentioned national implementation strategy, and ensure it is debated and endorsed by relevant actors, beneficiaries and the public at large;
    4. Organize communication and cooperation between officials responsible for the different plans indicated in section A, paragraph 5 (d), above;
    5. Consider piloting the human rights education approach in a selection of schools before mainstreaming it into the whole education system;
    6. Identify and support a resource centre for collecting and disseminating initiatives and information (good practices from diverse contexts and countries, educational materials, events) on human rights education at the national level;
    7. Support and promote research, for example, on the knowledge of human rights, practices of human rights education in schools, students’ learning outcomes and the impact of human rights education;
    8. Encourage research in human rights education by academic centres specifically devoted to human rights education, as well as through cooperation between schools, research institutes and university faculties;
    9. Participate in international surveys and comparative studies;
    10. Establish a rights-based quality assurance system (including school self evaluation and development planning, school inspection, etc.) for education in general and create specific quality assurance mechanisms for human rights education;
    12. Involve learners and educators directly in carrying out monitoring and evaluation processes so as to promote empowerment and self-reflection.

C. The learning environment

11. Human rights education goes beyond cognitive learning and includes the social and emotional development of all those involved in the learning and teaching process. It aims at developing a culture of human rights, where human rights are practised and lived within the school community and through interaction with the wider surrounding community.
12. To this end, it is essential to ensure that human rights teaching and learning happen in a human rights-based learning environment. It is essential to ensure that educational objectives, practices and the organization of the schools are consistent with human rights values and principles. Likewise, it is important that the culture and the community within and beyond the school are also embedding those principles.
13. A rights-based school is characterized by mutual understanding, respect and responsibility. It fosters equal opportunities, a sense of belonging, autonomy, dignity and self-esteem for all members of the school community. It is a school that is child centred, relevant and meaningful, where human rights are identified, explicitly and distinctively, for everybody as learning objectives and as the school philosophy/ethos.
14. A rights-based school is the responsibility of all members of the school community, with the school leadership having the primary responsibility to create favourable and enabling conditions to reach these aims.
15. A rights-based school will ensure the existence and effectiveness of the following elements:
1. Policy statements and implementation provisions for human rights in the school will be explicit and shared and will include:
   1. A charter on students’ and teachers’ rights and responsibilities based on a clear distribution of roles and tasks;
   2. A code of conduct for a school free of violence, sexual abuse, harassment and corporal punishments, including procedures for resolving conflicts and dealing with violence and bullying;
   3. Non-discrimination policies protecting all members of the school community including admissions, scholarships, advancement, promotion, special programmes, eligibility and opportunities;
   4. The recognition and celebration of human rights achievements through festivities, awards and prizes;
2. Teachers in a rights-based school will have:
   1. An explicit mandate from the school leadership concerning human rights education;
   2. Education and ongoing professional development in human rights education content and methodology;
   3. Opportunities for developing and implementing new and innovative good practices in human rights education;
   4. Mechanisms for sharing good practices, including networking of human rights educators at local, national and international levels;
   5. Policies for the recruitment, retention and promotion of teachers that reflect human rights principles;
3. Students in a rights-based school will have:
   1. Opportunities for self-expression, responsibilities and participation in decision-making, in accordance with their age and evolving capacity;
   2. Opportunities for organizing their own activities, for representing, mediating and advocating their interests;
4. Interaction will exist between the school, local government and the wider community, including:
   1. Awareness-raising of parents and families about children’s rights and key principles of human rights education;
   2. Involvement of parents in human rights education initiatives and projects;
   3. Participation of parents in school decision-making through parents’ representative organizations;
   4. Extracurricular student projects and service in the community, particularly on human rights issues;
   5. Collaboration with youth groups, civil society and local government for awareness-raising and student support opportunities;
   6. International exchanges.