United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education, 1995-2004

Urges all Governments to promote the development of comprehensive, participatory and sustainable national strategies for human rights education and to establish and strengthen in their education policies knowledge of human rights, in both its theoretical dimensions and its practical applications;

Also urges all Governments to intensify their efforts to contribute to the implementation of the Plan of Action and, in particular, to implement the suggestions in relevant resolutions adopted by the General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights regarding possible activities to be included in national strategies for human rights education;

Encourages Governments to support further, through voluntary contributions, the education and public information efforts undertaken by the Office of the High Commissioner within the framework of the Plan of Action;

Encourages the Office of the High Commissioner to continue to support national capacities for human rights education and information through its technical cooperation programme in the field of human rights;

Urges the Department of Public Information of the Secretariat to continue to utilize United Nations information centres for the timely dissemination of basic information, reference and audio-visual materials on human rights and fundamental freedoms;

Requests the High Commissioner to continue to coordinate and harmonize human rights education and information strategies and the implementation of the Plan of Action and the World Public Information Campaign on Human Rights within the United Nations system, in cooperation with, inter alia, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the Department of Public Information, and to ensure maximum effectiveness and efficiency in the collection, use, processing, management and distribution of human rights information and educational materials, including through electronic means;

Encourages all relevant organs, bodies and agencies of the United Nations system to provide training in human rights for all United Nations personnel and officials;

Encourages the human rights treaty bodies, within their mandates, when examining reports of States parties, to consider the activities of States parties in the area of human rights education;

Encourages all relevant mechanisms of the Commission on Human Rights to include systematically in their reports a specific section on human rights education, as relevant to their mandate, as well as to include human rights education as an item on the agenda of their annual meetings, with a view to strengthening their contribution to human rights education;

Calls upon international, regional and national non-governmental organizations and intergovernmental organizations to develop human rights education programmes in implementing the Plan of Action;

Encourages Governments, regional organizations and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to seek the cooperation of the private sector, development, trade and financial institutions and the media in developing human rights education strategies;

Encourages regional organizations to develop strategies for the wider distribution of materials on human rights education in all relevant languages and to maximize the participation of national entities in regional programmes on human rights education;

Requests the High Commissioner to bring the present resolution to the attention of all members of the international community and of intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations concerned with human rights education and public information;