Human Rights Learning: A Peoples' Report

This report was written to help make a simple and concise case for human rights learning at the community level. It is premised on the notion that human rights cannot be realised if people do not know about them, whereas if they do know, they are able to organise to claim their human rights with their fellow citizens. It presents human rights as a viable strategy for societal, economic, social and human development and asserts that all people must know their human rights - women, men, youth and children alike. The report offers an approach to motivate citizens to learn, know, and act guided by the human rights framework to protect and promote human dignity for all.

The report is a compilation of articles and case studies that brings together in one volume the history, theory and practice of human rights as a way of life. Written as "a narrative of organic, experiential knowledge, generated by communities in resistance and suffering people in solidarity of one another," the report covers experiences from Argentina, Cambodia, China, India, Guatemala, Israel, Japan, Sri Lanka, and elsewhere. These stories are supported by articles that address the concept of human rights and human rights learning, the way popular literacy education can serve as a model for human rights learning in the community, and the suggested importance of placing human rights learning solidly at the center of the global agenda.

Click here for access to both the full report and each individual chapter for download as PDF documents.