Embracing the vision and mandate of the World Programme for Human Rights Education, the Human Rights Friendly Schools project is Amnesty International’s first global human rights education project for schools.

The project aims to promote a culture of human rights in schools through supporting school communities to integrate human rights values and principles into key areas of school life, and to demonstrate the global impact of a human rights friendly schools approach.

The initial pilot phase includes secondary schools from fourteen countries: Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Denmark, Ghana, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Paraguay, Poland, Senegal and the United Kingdom.

These schools are supported by Amnesty International national offices to integrate human rights values and principles across four key areas of school life: school participation and governance; community relations; curriculum; extra-curricular domain and school environment. Schools that work towards becoming human rights friendly will act as examples that can demonstrate in microcosm that such a culture is achievable, and the tools and processes used to become human rights friendly school can be readily adapted to various contexts at modest expense.

The pilot phase of the project is a two-year process running until August 2011. During this time, AI national offices will be supported in their work with their partner schools to implement the project, and networking, information sharing and collaboration amongst participants will be facilitated.

A project monitoring and evaluation plan will be implemented, and consultation on the pilot phase of the project will take place with key stakeholders to ensure that project successes, challenges, lessons learned and human rights impact are collated and disseminated.

Amnesty International sees the Human Rights Friendly Schools project as an opportunity to support countries all over the world in making human rights an integral part of their national education systems.

This project builds on the work carried out through Amnesty International’s human rights education campaign in 2005 which called for governments to mainstream human rights education into national curricula.

Why are human rights important to schools?

Human rights education has become an internationally recognized method for promoting human rights on a local, national and global level among many levels of stakeholders. Knowledge of rights and freedoms is considered a fundamental tool to guarantee respect for the rights of all.

Schools are widely believed to reflect their societies and socialize younger generations, preparing learners to become active and successful members of society. The children and youth of today are the citizens of tomorrow. Promoting human rights friendly educational environments everywhere in the world is crucial to ensure a global culture of human rights. One of the best ways to educate people about how to create a culture of human rights is to acquaint them with living in a culture of human rights in their school environment, an environment which play a very large role in the lives of the majority of children and young people the world over.

What is a Human Rights Friendly School?

A Human Rights Friendly School is a school that embraces the potential of human rights as core operating and organizing principles.  It is a school that fosters an environment and a community in which human rights are learned, taught, practiced, respected, defended and promoted. It is a place in which all are included and encouraged to take part, regardless of status or role, where cultural diversity is celebrated. In short, a Human Rights Friendly School ensures that equality, dignity, respect, non-discrimination and participation are at the heart of the learning experience and present in all major areas of school life; it is a school that is friendly to human rights.

A Human Rights Friendly School promotes:

• An overall school-wide atmosphere of equality, dignity, respect, non-discrimination and participation.

• A fully democratic, participatory approach to school governance where all members of the school community are involved in the decisions that affect them.
• Empowerment of students, teachers and staff to meaningfully and equally participate in the creation and implementation of school policies.
• Student involvement in debates about change.
• An increased sense of inclusivity and interconnectedness that fosters mutual responsibility and local and global solidarity.
• Rich learning experiences about human rights inside and outside of the classroom.

This approach to human rights education which goes beyond the classroom and into all aspects of school life, is commonly called a ‘whole-school approach,’ a ‘holistic approach’ or ‘rights-based approach.’ These terms indicate the involvement of all members of the school community in building an environment where human rights are learned, taught, practiced, respected, defended and promoted.

For more information please contact the International HRE team.