Ensuring Quality Education for Peace and Tolerance for Every Child

A/HRC/RES/54/5View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 3Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2023.

What subjects does this mandate have?

5 topics

Education Education for Peace Educational Quality Rights of the Child Tolerance

What does this mandate say?

15 operative paragraphs

Affirms that human rights and fundamental freedoms must be protected, including the rights of the child;

Urges States to place greater emphasis on and expand their activities promoting peace and tolerance through quality education for every child, consistent with international human rights law and applicable standards, and to ensure that peace and tolerance are fostered at all levels;

Recognizes the respective human rights obligations of States, and urges them to ensure that equal rights and appropriate standards of protection are provided to every child, so that every child, regardless of status and without discrimination of any kind, can enjoy a safe and supportive environment, consistent with international law;

Urges States to support quality education for peace, including by designing and implementing policies whereby education systems promote sustainable development and gender equality, help to prevent all forms of violence and instil the principles of tolerance and respect for others and cultural diversity, non-discrimination, and the freedom of religion or belief;

Calls upon all States:

To continue to take all appropriate measures to prevent and protect children, including in and out of school, both in person and in digital contexts, from all forms of violence;

To support quality education for peace and to instil the principles of tolerance and respect for others, including by implementing the World Programme for Human Rights Education and by designing and implementing policies whereby education systems promote inter alia human rights, sustainable development and gender equality, help to prevent all forms of violence, including sexual and gender-based violence, and instil the principles of tolerance and respect for others and for cultural diversity, and the freedom of religion or belief;

To ensure that children affected by armed conflict and children associated, or allegedly associated, with armed groups or terrorist groups are treated primarily as victims and not perpetrators and have equal access to inclusive and equitable quality education, with the best interests of the child as a primary consideration, and to take measures that are focused on recovery and reintegration, in an environment that fosters the physical and mental health, self-respect and dignity of the child, in accordance with relevant provisions of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, as applicable, in particular the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocol thereto on the involvement of children in armed conflict;

To create quality and meaningful child-friendly spaces with a particular emphasis on integrating a gender perspective in order to provide nurturing environments where children have access to mental health and psychosocial support and learning activities, with inclusive safe spaces and learning environments serving as a referral mechanism to other services as appropriate, and to help to restore a sense of normality and continuity;

Urges States and the international community, and encourages civil society and other relevant stakeholders, to take measures, as appropriate, including through education, such as human rights education and training, awareness-raising initiatives and the media, to promote peace, justice and human development, ethnic, national and religious tolerance and respect for all religions, religious values, beliefs and cultures and to effectively address conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism and violent extremism conducive to terrorism and that make children more vulnerable to the effects of terrorism and to recruitment by terrorists;

Invites States to take into account relevant recommendations made by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, and other human rights bodies and mechanisms, on ensuring accessible, inclusive, equitable and quality education for every child, including children affected by armed conflict or associated with armed groups or terrorist groups;

Decides to convene a panel discussion on accessible, inclusive, equitable and quality education for peace and tolerance for every child, especially children in the most vulnerable situations, at its fifty-seventh session, and requests the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to organize the panel discussion, inviting States, civil society organizations, United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, the private sector, academia and other relevant stakeholders to address the implementation of the obligations of States under relevant provisions of international human rights law and international humanitarian law and to discuss challenges and best practices in this regard, and to make the panel discussion fully accessible;

Requests the Office of the High Commissioner to prepare a comprehensive report, in an accessible format, with specific recommendations on how to develop accessible, inclusive, equitable and quality education for peace and tolerance for every child, especially children in the most vulnerable situations, in line with the provisions of the present resolution, and how to incorporate it into educational programmes, in consultation with all relevant stakeholders, including the United Nations Children’s Fund and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, other relevant United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, relevant special procedures of the Human Rights Council, regional organizations and human rights bodies and civil society, and to present the report to the Council at its fifty-ninth session;

Also requests the Office of the High Commissioner, when preparing the above-mentioned comprehensive report, to consider the outcome of the panel discussion and to closely cooperate with all relevant stakeholders, including States, international and regional organizations, relevant special procedures of the Human Rights Council, the treaty bodies, other relevant United Nations agencies, funds and programmes within their respective mandates, national human rights institutions, civil society, the private sector and academia, and to make the comprehensive report available in an accessible and child-friendly format;

Decides to remain seized of the matter.

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