United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education, 1994-2004

Urges all Governments to promote the development of comprehensive, participatory and sustainable national strategies for human rights education and to establish and strengthen, as a priority in education policies, knowledge of human rights, both in the theoretical dimension and practical application;

Urges all Governments to contribute further to the implementation of the Plan of Action, in particular by:

Encourages Governments to consider, within their national plans of action for human rights education:

Encourages States, where such national public access human rights resource and training centres exist, to strengthen their capacity to support human rights education and public information programmes at the international, regional, national and local levels;

Calls upon Governments, in accordance with national conditions, to accord priority to the dissemination, in the relevant national local and indigenous languages, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,1 the International Covenants on Human Rights¹³ and other human rights instruments, human rights materials and training manuals, including information on human rights mechanisms and complaint procedures and reports of States parties submitted under international human rights treaties, and to provide information and education in those languages on the practical ways in which national and international institutions and procedures may be utilized to ensure the effective implementation of those instruments;

Encourages Governments to support further, through voluntary contributions, the education and public information efforts undertaken by the Office of the High Commissioner within the framework of the Plan of Action;

Requests the High Commissioner to continue to coordinate and harmonize human rights education and information strategies within the United Nations system, including the implementation of the Plan of Action, in cooperation, inter alia, with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and to ensure maximum effectiveness and efficiency in the collection, use, processing, management and distribution of human rights information and educational materials, including through electronic means;

Encourages Governments to contribute to the further development of the web site of the Office of the High Commissioner,Error: Reference source not found in particular with respect to the dissemination of human rights education materials and tools, and to continue and expand the publications and external relations programmes of the Office;

Encourages the Office of the High Commissioner to continue to support national capacities for human rights education and information through its technical cooperation programme in the field of human rights, including the organization of training courses and peer education initiatives and the development of targeted training materials for professional audiences, as well as the dissemination of human rights information materials as a component of technical cooperation projects, to develop further its database and resource collection on human rights education and to continue to monitor developments in human rights education;

Urges the Department of Public Information of the Secretariat to continue to utilize United Nations information centres for the timely dissemination, within their designated areas of activity, of basic information, reference and audio-visual materials on human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the reports of States parties submitted under international human rights instruments and, to that end, to ensure that the information centres are supplied with adequate quantities of those materials;

Invites the specialized agencies and relevant United Nations programmes and funds to continue to contribute, within their respective spheres of competence, to the implementation of the Plan of Action and the World Public Information Campaign and to cooperate and coordinate with each other and with the Office of the High Commissioner in that regard;

Encourages the relevant organs, bodies and agencies of the United Nations system, all human rights bodies of the United Nations system, including the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, to provide training in human rights for all United Nations personnel and officials;

Encourages the human rights treaty bodies, when examining reports of States parties, to place emphasis on the obligations of States parties in the area of human rights education and to reflect that emphasis in their concluding observations;

Encourages all relevant mechanisms of the Commission on Human Rights, that is, working groups and special rapporteurs, representatives or experts, to include systematically in their reports a specific section on human rights education, as relevant to their mandate, as well as to include human rights education as an item on their agenda of their annual meetings, with a view to strengthening their contribution to human rights education;

Calls upon international, regional and national non-governmental organizations and intergovernmental organizations, in particular those concerned with children and youth, women, labour, development, food, housing, education, health care and the environment, as well as all other social justice groups, human rights advocates, educators, religious organizations, the private sector and the media, to undertake specific activities of formal, non-formal and informal education, including cultural events, alone and in cooperation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in implementing the Plan of Action;

Encourages Governments, regional organizations and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to explore the potential support and contribution to human rights education of all relevant partners, including the private sector, development, trade and financial institutions and the media, and to seek their cooperation in the development of human rights education strategies;

Encourages regional organizations to develop strategies for the wider distribution of materials on human rights education through regional networks and to develop region-specific programmes to maximize the participation of national entities, whether governmental or non-governmental, in programmes on human rights education;

Encourages intergovernmental organizations to assist, upon request, collaboration between governmental institutions and non-governmental organizations at the national level;

Requests the Office of the High Commissioner to continue the implementation of and to expand the project entitled “Assisting Communities Together” and to consider other appropriate ways and means to support human rights education activities, including those undertaken by non-governmental organizations;

Requests the High Commissioner to bring the present resolution to the attention of all members of the international community and of intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations concerned with human rights education and public information and to report to the General Assembly at its fifty-eighth session on the progress made towards the achievement of the objectives of the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education under the item entitled “Human rights questions”.