Resources
Explore a wide range of valuable resources on GCED to deepen your understanding and enhance your research, advocacy, teaching, and learning.
45 Results found
Human Rights Education: Key Success Factors Year of publication: 2023 Corporate author: UNESCO This study, commissioned by the UNESCO in cooperation with the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), examines the impact of human rights education (HRE) pedagogies and good practices worldwide, with a specific focus on the primary and secondary levels in formal education. Using a data-driven approach that includes a literature review and surveys and interviews with informants, the study identifies key success factors for impactful HRE and provides recommendations for future research and practice. The study finds that HRE can have a positive impact on learners’ knowledge and understanding of human rights, as well as their attitudes and behaviours related to human rights. It is an essential resource for education stakeholders looking to promote HRE at all levels of society and through a lifelong learning lens. 
Revision Process of the 1974 Recommendation concerning Education for International Understanding, Co-operation and Peace and Education relating to Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms: Comments from Observers to the Plenary Meetings of the International Expert Group (IEG) Year of publication: 2023 Corporate author: UNESCO Adopted in 1974, the Recommendation concerning education for international understanding, co-operation and peace and education relating to human rights and fundamental freedoms is considered a landmark legal instrument that brings together for the first time peace, international understanding, human rights, fundamental freedoms and education. In line with the Resolution adopted at UNESCO’s General Conference at its 41st Session in November 2021 (41C/Resolution 17), UNESCO launched the revision of the Recommendation and convened an International Expert Group (IEG) to advise the Organization on the changes. The work of the IEG took place between May and June 2022. Though the meetings of the IEG were technical in nature (category VI), in order to ensure an open and transparent process, the Permanent Delegations were invited to listen-in to the deliberations of the IEG online, as observers, along with a select number of non-governmental organizations, intergovernmental organizations, and United Nations entities. At the end of each plenary meeting, observers to the IEG plenary meetings could submit written comments. This document compiles the comments received from observers during this process and submitted to the IEG members for their consideration. 
Revision Process of the 1974 Recommendation concerning Education for International Understanding, Co-operation and Peace and Education relating to Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms: Compilation of Member State Comments Year of publication: 2023 Corporate author: UNESCO Adopted in 1974, the Recommendation concerning education for international understanding, co-operation and peace and education relating to human rights and fundamental freedoms is considered a landmark legal instrument that brings together for the first time peace, international understanding, human rights, fundamental freedoms and education. As per Circular letter 4401, the preliminary report and the first draft of the revised 1974 Recommendation were transmitted to Member States for their written comments and observations. These written comments were taken into consideration by the Director-General when preparing the revised second draft of the Recommendation to be discussed at the Intergovernmental Special Committee Meeting (Category II), in view of its submission to the 42nd session of the General Conference in November 2023 and eventual adoption. 
Implementing the Right to Education: a Compendium of Practical Examples Year of publication: 2016 Corporate author: UNESCO This publication is a compilation of practical examples of measures taken by Member States in implementing the provisions of the UNESCO Convention and Recommendation against Discrimination in Education. These examples are taken from national reports submitted to UNESCO for the Eighth Consultation of Member States on the implementation of these two international standard-setting instruments. The Convention and the Recommendation celebrated their fi fty-fi fth anniversary in 2015. Both express the fundamental principles of non-discrimination and equality of educational opportunities enshrined in UNESCO’'s Constitution. Since these fundamental principles were essential in the process of Education for All, the instruments have naturally become the cornerstone of this important domain.The Education 2030 development agenda will provide further opportunity to mobilise the Convention and the Recommendation in guiding Member States in the effective realization of the right to education. This compendium seeks to provide an overview of promising measures taken to ensure equality of educational opportunities and non-discrimination, while also serving as a tool for information sharing and advocacy in connection with the right to education. 
Recommendation on Education for Peace, Human Rights and Sustainable Development: An Implementation Guide Year of publication: 2025 Corporate author: UNESCO There is no peace without education. With conflicts rising on so many fronts, there has never been a more urgent need for a transformed education geared towards building and sustaining peace.The Recommendation on Education for Peace and Human Rights, International Understanding, Cooperation, Fundamental Freedoms, Global Citizenship and Sustainable Development, adopted by all 194 Member States of UNESCO in 2023, articulates a humanistic and transformative vision of education that can help address contemporary and future affronts to peace. These challenges range from the resurgence of conflicts driven by systemic inequalities and injustices, the rise and spread of hate speech, racism and discrimination particularly online, to the adverse effects of digital technologies and the existential threat of climate change.UNESCO has developed this Guide as the first of several tools to assist Member States in unpacking and fully implementing the 2023 Recommendation. The Guide elaborates its contents, integrating the 2023 Recommendation’s transdisciplinary lens to connect key concepts and issues. It also provides concrete ideas and curated resources for action at different levels and types of education, while calling for a multi-stakeholder and whole-of-society approach that includes everyone and builds on existing positive efforts.The Guide is a timely addition to the pool of available collective resources to fully implement the 2023 Recommendation and foster an education that is transformative for a just and peaceful world. 
Building Intercultural Citizenship through Education: A Human Rights Approach Year of publication: 2008 Author: Rodolfo Stavenhagen This article analyses the challenges posed by traditional ethnic and linguistic minorities in multicultural states and more specifically the problems faced by indigenous peoples and communities. Their educational and cultural needs and demands are increasingly being framed in the language of human rights, based on the expanding international legal and institutional human rights system. The United Nations World Conference on Human Rights, held in Vienna in 1993, endorsed a rights-based approach to development, human rights education is a growing field in educational practice, respect for cultural diversity is now enshrined in international and domestic laws, and the right of every person to education and to culture has become a mainstay of international human rights principles to which a majority of the world's states has subscribed. 
Citizenship, Identity, and Education: Examining the Public Purposes of Schools in an Age of Globalization Year of publication: 2006 Author: Fernando Reimers Corporate author: UNESCO International Bureau of Education (IBE) One of the purposes of educational institutions is to develop citizenship. In the 21st century, citizenship includes global citizenship. Addressing the challenges of globalization will require making citizenship education and the development of global values an explicit objective of efforts to improve quality throughout the world, critically examining theories and evidence about the effectiveness of various approaches to developing citizenship and global citizenship and supporting activities aligned with this public purpose. In this article, the author does not argue for an exclusive effort to focus schools on civic education, but rather for a balanced effort to elevate educational quality making it more relevant to address global challenges and opportunities, of which civic education and global education are components, much neglected at present. The author also does not suggest making civic education the only purpose of the curriculum or making it a priority to the expense of science, math, arts or physical and health education, but he thinks that helping students develop a sense of purpose, situated within broader civic and global purposes, would also facilitate high level engagement with science, mathematical and artistic pursuits. 
Global Education Monitoring Report, 2016: Planet: Education for Environmental Sustainability and Green Growth Year of publication: 2016 Corporate author: UNESCO PLANET: Education for environmental sustainability and green growth, a publication taken from the full 2016 Global Education Monitoring Report, explores the knowledge and skills needed for sustainable and inclusive economic growth that does not damage our planet.This publication demonstrates how education can help people understand and respond to environmental issues and climate change. Environmental education can increase green knowledge and build sustainability practices. The publication warns that while education contributes to economic growth, education systems must be careful not to encourage unsustainable lifestyles and all learners must acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development.It also argues that we must continue to learn throughout our lives in order to make production and consumption sustainable, and to provide green skills for green industries. Creating green industries relies on high-skill workers with specific training, yet by 2020 there could be 40 million too few workers with tertiary education relative to demand. Higher education and research should also be oriented towards green innovation and growth; innovation depends on cooperation in higher education and investment in research and development to transform production in vast swaths of the economy.It also recognises that education must change in order to keep up with the changing face of work. Green and transferable skills should be taught in both school and the workplace. The greening of industries requires not only the production of more high-skill workers, but the continued training and education for low and medium skill workers, often on the job. “To ensure the Sustainable Development Goals are implemented, everyone involved needs to think, to work, to organise, to communicate and to report in ways that are completely different from what has been done up till now. Education truly is key to a wide appreciation not just of the SDGs but the new ways of thinking and working that are going to be necessary to fulfil them. So the challenge to all of us is to re-learn, and that does not just apply to educators, but it applies to all of us.” 
Write for Rights 2018: A Human Rights Education Toolkit for Educators Year of publication: 2018 Corporate author: Amnesty International The annual Write for Rights (W4R) campaign is one of Amnesty International’s biggest human rights events. In 2018 the campaign focuses on women human rights defenders who have suffered human rights violations or are at great risk because of the positions they have taken on certain human rights issues.This Human Rights Education toolkit was created to support teachers’ participation with their students in the W4R campaign. It provides a broad perspective on human rights issues and offers the opportunity to open young people’s minds to global concerns. By learning about and writing persuasive letters to help end human rights violations and achieve justice, teachers and students contribute to the international human rights movement and see for themselves how words can make a difference in the world.This toolkit was created for students aged 13 and above and is primarily designed for use in a school setting: both inside the classroom as well as in clubs or school-wide events. Activities can also be adapted for use in other, non-formal education contexts such as youth groups and community settings. The toolkit contains general activities on human rights and highlights six women human rights defenders from the W4R campaign who have made extraordinary contributions to the advancement of human rights around the world. 
Teacher Training for Multicultural Education in Favour of Democracy and Sustainable Development: the Territorial Approach Year of publication: 1995 Author: Raúl Galiardi | Paula Bernadini Mosconi Corporate author: UNESCO This publication is part of the book Teacher Training and Multiculturalism: National Studies. This book presents the outcomes concerning the initial training systems of teachers in eight countries at different levels of development in different regions of the world but who are faced with a common challenge to educate for cultural diversity. Both the conclusions of each particular study and the general outcomes demonstrate the complexity of the problems and the benefits of comparative analysis. Overcoming prejudices and stereotypes is not an easy task nor likely to be achieved in the short term. Mentalities change far more slowly than knowledge and, because of this, educational strategies need to be applied in the long term. This study also shows that it is necessary to improve the exchange of experiences as well as contacts between people and institutions who are confronted with the same problems in different contexts. The publication of the initial outcomes of this project is intended to enrich the quality of discussions between specialists and institutions who, in different parts of the world, are concerned by multicultural education as an instrument to promote understanding, respect and dialogue between cultures.