Manual on Understanding Human Rights

http://www.etc-graz.at/ -> http://www.etc-graz.at/cms/index.php?id=104

A really excellent source for human rights education has been elaborated by the European Training and Research Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (ETC) for the Human Security Network (HSN), the HSN Manual "Understanding Human Rights". Its objective is to assist human rights education efforts worldwide and to be used in different cultural settings, by human rights educators and learners, looking for a basic understanding of human rights - hence the title. The manual has been endorsed by the 5th Ministerial Meeting of the HSN in Graz, Austria, from 8- 10 May, 2003, together with the Graz Declaration on Human Rights Education and Human Security, also elaborated by the ETC.

Authors/Editors

The ETC - as is explained in the "About us"-section of its website - has been set up as a non-profit association and started its work in October 1999. Its premises in Graz have been opened on the occasion of the Human Rights Day on the 10th of December 2000. Its main aim is to conduct research and training programs in the fields of human rights, democracy and the rule of law in close co-operation with the University of Graz.

Description of Contents

After an introduction to the system of Human Rights (I.), there are 13 modules on selected human rights issues, ranging - as can be seen on the screenshot - from the prohibition of torture and the freedom from poverty to the right to education as well as democracy (II.).

Each module is structured in the same way, starting with an Illustration Story and continuing with a Need to Know section, which introduces the substance and context of the right and the instruments of implementation, a Good to Know section, which, inter alia, contains good practices, trends, inter-cultural perspectives and a chronology, and a Selected Activities section, which offers proposals for games, role plays or debates to be organized with learners, and finally a section on References and sources of further information

A third part (III.) contains various additional resources like an introduction to the methodology of human rights education and an overview of the most important literature and Internet sources.

The screenshots below - using the module "Human Rights of the Child" as an example - demonstrate the amazing comprehensiveness as well as the outstanding quality of the material provided for the various modules. With respect to that very fact one really is inclined to denote the ETC Human Rights Manual as a kind of cockaigne for all teachers of EDC and human rights or, as the editors of the Manual express themselves, "...a unique contribution to its field".