Geneva, from 4 to 7 December 2006
Theme
The new Council of Human Rights and the issues of human rights education
First day
This 3-days meeting was officially opened with an introductory session by Mr. Guy-Olivier Segond, President, Executive Board, CIFEDHOP, and Ms. Monique Prindezis, Director CIFEDHOP.
Yves Lador, from CIFEDHOP, made a presentation on the opportunities for human rights education (HRE) in the new Human Rights Council (HRCouncil), which took over the work of the Commission on Human Rights on 19 June this year. This new UN body, established by the Generally Assembly on its resolution 60/251, has as one of its main objectives to ‘promote human rights education and learning as well as advisory services, technical assistance and capacity-building, to be provided in consultation with and with the consent of Member States concerned’ (paragraph 5, point a) ). This specific mandate of the new Council opens up the space for the inclusion of human rights education in the political and diplomatic arena, a crucial space for the relaunch of HRE. Given this particular context, Yves Lador drew attention to the potential risk of HRE being used as a new diplomatic instrument in the measures to be considered as a result of the country exams.
This introductory session facilitated by the organizers of the seminar was followed by a roundtable where participants exchanged information and reflections on the achievements on HRE in their respective countries and regions in terms of resources, training practices, research and grass-rooted experiences. Participants evaluated the current state of HRE in the national educational policies in their regions and analyzed the conditions required to effectively include HRE in the curriculum, and the way it should be done. A reflection was also made regarding the content of HRE.
The first day of the seminar was closed with a summary presentation by M. François Audigier, from University of Geneva, who built on the contributions made by participants along the day and reflected on the main issues raised.