A/HRC/4/WG.3/6
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tolerance and peace.”18 The World Programme for Human Rights Education identifies the
promotion of understanding, tolerance, gender equality and friendship among all nations,
indigenous peoples and racial, national, ethnic, religious and linguistic groups as one of the
constitutive elements of human rights education that aims at building a universal culture of
human rights.19 The 2005 World Summit Outcome calls for the implementation of the World
Programme for Human Rights Education and encourages all States to develop initiatives in this
regard.20
30. ICERD commits States parties “to undertake to adopt immediate and effective measures,
particularly in the fields of teaching, education, culture and information, with a view to
combating prejudices which lead to racial discrimination and to promoting understanding,
tolerance and friendship among nations and racial or ethnical groups.”21
31. Human rights treaty bodies dedicate much attention to the role of education in the
promotion and protection of human rights. In its general recommendation No. 27 (2000) on
discrimination against Roma, CERD recommended that States parties take “the necessary
measures, in cooperation with civil society, and initiate projects to develop the political culture
and educate the population as a whole in a spirit of non-discrimination, respect for others and
tolerance, in particular concerning Roma.”22
32. The World Programme for Human Rights Education provides a common framework for
action for all relevant actors. However, it is not a legally binding document. In the view of the
experts, the adoption of a comprehensive binding instrument establishing the duty to promote
non-discrimination, tolerance and equality of rights irrespective of race, ethnicity, and other
related grounds through human rights education has important merit. Such an instrument would
essentially contribute to the promotion of tolerance and the countering of racism and xenophobia
through instruction at all levels of formal and informal education, in public and private school
curricula, as well as schools the ethos of which is based on religion or belief. This goal should
also be pursued in other educational frameworks, such as training in detention facilities.
33. In conclusion, the experts acknowledge the existence of a normative gap in the area under
discussion, the filling of which should be recognized as one of the priorities on the agenda of the
international community.
18
Part I para. 33 and Part II para. 80.
19
General Assembly resolution 59/113B and Commission on Human Rights resolution 2005/61.
See in particular the revised draft plan of action for the first phase (2005-2007) of the World
Programme for Human Rights Education, A/59/525/Rev.1, para. 3.
20
General Assembly resolution 60/1, para. 131.
21
Article 7. See also ICESCR article 13, para. 1 and CRC, article 29, para. 1 (b).
22
Paragraph 11.
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