Human Rights Education in the School Systems of Europe, Central Asia and North America: A Compendium of Good Practice

This book is a compilation of 101 examples of good practice in human rights education in primary schools, secondary schools, and teacher training institutions in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) area. It was created by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the Office of the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Council of Europe, and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The book includes descriptions of successful education initiatives in the fields of human rights and democratic citizenship education, as well as education for mutual respect and understanding from Europe, North America, and Central Asia. It covers key elements of successful human rights education such as normative frameworks, the learning environment, teaching and learning tools, professional development for educators, and evaluation.

From the Introduction: "The term "human rights education" is often used in this resource in a broader sense, to also include education for democratic citizenship and education for mutual respect and understanding, which are all based on internationally agreed human rights standards. These three areas are seen as interconnected and essential within educational systems in order to prepare youth to be active, responsible and caring participants in their communities, as well as at the national and global levels...This book aims to support quality teaching in these areas and to inspire educational policymakers (those working in education ministries and local school boards) and administrators, teachers, teacher trainers, non-formal educators and all other interested actors, as well as to facilitate networking and the exchange of experience among education professionals."

From the Approaches and Practices to Improve the Learning Environment section, a sampling of the communication-based approaches include the following:

• Co-operative Learning in Multicultural Groups (CLIM) - a set of strategies used for the enhancement of intercultural education. The projects are a means to promote equal participation in interaction and consequently allow equal access to learning.
  
• Democracy Education through a National Student Assembly - This Turkish programme in elected representation is a guide to electing student leaders of schools' student assemblies whose residents form provincial assemblies. It is linked to academic studies of representation and propaganda.
  
• Everybody has Rights/is Right?! Trainings for Everyday Life Together - This 5-unit programme is focused on topics such as: “Fighting together” (non-violent conflict management and communication); “Respect all” (esteem and self-esteem); “Borders: lost?” (dealing with personal and structural limits); and “We are a class?!” (issues of class community and the team-building).
  
• Human Rights and Service-Learning Manual - This Amnesty International manual provides guidance for preparing students for service learning (volunteer project work combined with academic preparation) using lesson plans geared towards human rights education on the environment, poverty, discrimination, and others.
  
• Make the Bridge: A Student-Centred, Whole-School Organization - These principles of creating a school are oriented to educate people and citizens with increased cultural knowledge, autonomy, responsibility, and solidarity in a democratically based construction school as a social project.
  
• Methodology and Resources for Integrating Roma Culture in Education (EURROM) - The activity consists in the joint writing by all the children in a class of a tale whose hero is a young Roma, and where other characters and elements of the story can be linked with the Roma culture. The tale is then transformed in a theatre performance and presented in front of an audience, as a separate event, or as part of a wider school festivity.
  
• Participatory Strategies in The World around Us: A Primary Level Curriculum for Children’s Rights Education - "The World Around Us curriculum for children's rights education has been researched and developed to help young students explore themes, concepts, and issues relating to respect as well as children's rights and responsibilities."
  
• Peer Mediation and Peer Education Programme in Schools - This is a peer conflict management system using extensively trained students supported by knowledgeable faculty to intervene in student disagreements. The Training for Trainers (TOT) is an advanced training for those who are already familiar with conflict issues and management. It contains a 4-level approach to learning/teaching about conflicts.
  
• “School, a Path to Equality”: A Multi-Year, Non-Formal Education Approach - Cooperative learning and paedagogy form a part of this informal education strategy as a means of promoting participation of all those involved and leading them to become agents of change through multidimensional learning opportunities which incorporate various “know how’s” – “know how to be”, “know how to do”, “know how to know”, and “know how to live together.”
  
• Quit It!: A School-Wide Model for Reducing Teasing and Bullying - Using techniques of drawing, storytelling, brainstorming and mapping, puppets, role-plays, vignettes, and stop-action stories, students explore what makes them feel welcome/unwelcome and comfortable/uncomfortable in school, and think about kindness, teasing, and problem solving.
  
• School as State: A Simulated Democratic State - “School as a State” is a project to set up a state governing format through student cooperation. It begins with some basic considerations clarifying what kind of structures one wishes to endow the state which is to be set up: What kind of state it is supposed to be, what kind of economic system, and what political and legal guidelines should be allocated to this state.
  
• The Peace Factory: A Mobile Interactive Exhibition on Peace, Conflict, Freedom, Prejudices and the Scapegoat Phenomenon - This exhibition format, also called a game circuit, from the Peace Factory is designed for children from 10-16 years old to visit in groups for an hour and a half to view a video and interact with panels, tools, and instruments in a self-managed learning process. There is a booklet for classroom follow-up.
  
• Youth Act! Programme: Advocacy to Solve Community Problems - Students develop an advocacy campaign through using this tool to assemble campaign components.
  

The full version, including numerous examples of teaching materials, is available both online through the link below and on CD-ROM through the contact information below.