MESSAGE FROM MR KOïCHIRO MATSUURA, DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF UNESCO, ON THE
OCCASION OF HUMAN RIGHTS DAY - 10 DECEMBER 2004

Over fifty years ago, when it adopted the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (1948), the United Nations General Assembly recommended that the
Governments of Member States "cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read
and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions".
From the outset, therefore, the publicization of the Declaration through
educational processes was an integral part of its general dissemination
for the purpose of consolidating world peace. It may be noted that, while
the United Nations Secretary-General, the specialized agencies and
non-governmental organizations also were called upon to disseminate the
Declaration as widely as possible, the greatest responsibility was placed
upon national governments.

Since then, human rights education has moved on considerably and is
certainly no longer focused on disseminating a particular text, although
the Declaration continues to be a foundational document for all human
rights education. Important developments in this field have taken place in
recent years within the framework of the United Nations Decade for Human
Rights Education (1995-2004) but much remains to be done. While some
countries have well-developed educational programmes for promoting
awareness of and respect for human rights, elsewhere human rights
education for children, young people and the general population needs to
be strengthened considerably.

To highlight this fact, UNESCO and the Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights (OHCHR) are dedicating their efforts on Human Rights Day 2004
to human rights education. On this day, furthermore, the United Nations
General Assembly is devoting a special plenary session to human rights
education, marking the end of the UN Decade and providing an opportunity
to consider the way forward. In recognition that national efforts can
benefit from an international framework of cooperation and action, it will
be proposed that a World Programme for Human Rights Education be
proclaimed to begin on 1st January 2005. In its first phase (2005-2007),
the World Programme would promote the integration and implementation of
human rights education within national school systems at the primary and
secondary levels. This is an area of particular interest and concern for
UNESCO.

In UNESCO's perspective, human rights education is important not only for
the promotion and protection of human rights but also for education
itself. In particular, human rights education should be seen as part of
the content and purpose of quality education for all (EFA) and within the
framework of the fulfilment of the right to education. All human rights -
civil, cultural, economic, political and social - are indivisible,
interrelated and interdependent. Believing that all human rights are
equally important to ensure a decent living for all, UNESCO considers the
right to education as a key right because it unlocks the enjoyment of
other human rights. Without education - education of good quality - people
have very limited opportunities to create a better life.

The cultivation of respect for the human rights of all should be an
integral component of everyone's learning, not only in formal schooling
but also through a range of educational experiences throughout the
life-span. Human rights education involves learning about one's own rights
and those of others, but it goes beyond this to include learning that
human rights are a shared responsibility with practical consequences for
how we live together. Such learning, please note, cannot be obtained from
books alone or simply from curriculum content but must also be acquired
from educational processes, pedagogical methods and the educational
environment within which learning takes place. In other words, human
rights education involves learning by doing.

Thus, human rights education is about acquiring not only knowledge but
also skills and the ability to apply them; it is about developing values,
attitudes and behaviour that uphold human rights but also about taking
action to defend and promote them. It involves learning about human rights
through the practice of human rights.

On Human Rights Day 2004, let the theme of human rights education
stimulate a redoubling of efforts to promote, in the words of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, "universal respect for and
observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms". The task of building
a universal culture of human rights is far from complete but the
Declaration points the way forward when it proclaims that "every
individual and every organ of society ... shall strive by teaching and
education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms". Human rights
education is a shared duty of us all.