Human rights education for, with and by youth

Human rights education for, with and by youth

“People cannot protect, defend, and promote something that they do not fully understand,” said Jean Linis-Dinco. “It is imperative for young people to come together and understand human rights.”

Linis-Dinco, from the Philippines was a leader for one of the three winning teams of the Oxford Forum for International Development (OxFID) Global Youth Challenge 2022. She highlighted the profound importance of human rights education for youth, adding that ignorance can lead to human rights violations and abuses around the world.

OxFID is the largest student-led development conference in the United Kingdom, where students and young professionals get together annually to discuss international development issues. This year’s challenge was held in partnership with United Nations Human Rights, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth (OSGEY). It focused on proposing solutions to support and strengthen the implementation of the fourth phase of the World Programme for Human Rights Education.

In 2004, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the World Programme to advance implementation of human rights education programmes in all sectors. It is structured in consecutive five-year phases, with each phase having a specific focus. The current fourth phase (2020-2024) is dedicated to human rights education for, with and by youth.

“Human rights education is an important strategy for young people’s meaningful, diverse and effective engagement, empowering them to uphold their human rights and those of others,” said Paulina Tandiono, Associate Human Rights Officer. “At UN Human Rights, we strive to ensure that our work on human rights education is not only conducted for youth, but also with and by youth. This is why we always engage young people as key partners in these efforts.” 

In the context of the OxFID Global Youth Challenge 2022, three winning teams were selected from more than 400 submissions. They were: a team from the Philippines with their proposal to use SMS to gamify human rights education using scenario-based interaction; a team from Chad with “Living Lab SDGs”, an organization aimed to raise awareness among youth on SDGs and human rights and to empower them to become change-makers within their communities; and a team made up of university students from Brazil, Ghana, India, Myanmar and Thailand  with their proposal to organize a human rights education youth boot camp, where young people come together and promote peer-to-peer learning on human rights.

“Human rights education for young people is essential because it allows them to develop their skills and strengthen their knowledge so that they become young agents of change within their community,” said Langue Sylvain from Chad, team leader for the “Living Lab SDGs”. “Young people cannot remain silent and passive while witnessing the violation of the human rights of millions of their peers around the world.”

The winning teams were selected as their solutions take into account youth in situations of vulnerability or exclusion, promote experiential learning methodologies that enable youth to apply human rights concepts to their lives and experiences, and engage youth as protagonists in developing programmes that affect them – all of which are in line with the Plan of Action of the fourth phase of the World Programme for effective human rights education for youth.

“Rather than seeing youths as passive recipients of human rights education, they should be seen as co-creators to make it more relevant, meaningful and empowering,” said Kyay Mon from Myanmar, team leader of the group of university students.