Human rights education: review in perspective from Europe, Central Asia, North America, Latinamerica and Colombia

Abstract

This study attempts to make a documentary investigation of the main instruments ruling public policies that affect the design and formulation of teaching strategies in Human Rights in different geographical levels. In this regard it is essential to address the universal declarations of rights generated from the UN, and those that have been developed multilaterally between member countries of the so-called Regional Systems, especially by the European and the Inter-American systems, which have affected discussions on the way in which Human Rights should be taught. To achieve the collection of multiple instruments and debates on the subject, it has been privileged the information from Western regional systems, followed by data on the Latin American situation, and finally focusing on the case of the educational public policy in Colombia. In this study the existence of a considerable gap between the normative ideal and the reality of human rights education is highlighted, not ignoring the clear fact that a collective, but insufficient, effort in the field has been undertaken by the education actors.