A/HRC/39/35 50. The Peruvian Institute of Education in Human Rights and Peace (Instituto Peruano de Educación en Derechos Humanos y la Paz) proposed focusing on the development of a form of intercultural citizenship, based on human rights and gender equality, as a means to fight discrimination and racism, insecurity, violence and political corruption. These problems had a negative effect on democratic life, especially for young people, who eventually lose interest in engaging and participating in public and political affairs. 51. The International Federation of Social Workers recommended that social workers be the target sector of the fourth phase, to enable them to work more strategically for human rights. Social work was practised worldwide, promoting human rights and working towards the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals at the community, national and international levels. 52. The International Planned Parenthood Federation, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education presented a joint submission in which they expressed their support for comprehensive sexuality education, including on human sexuality, sexual and reproductive health, human rights and gender equality, as a key component of human rights education and a focus area for the fourth phase. United Nations entities, including UNESCO and the World Health Organization, and other organizations had already addressed the importance of sex education in schools and of the specific needs of young people in the belief that such education should commence at an early age. Adolescents and girls, school teachers, and social, religious and traditional leaders were possible target sectors. 53. Maytree proposed the thematic focus of building a culture of rights, with emphasis on the social contract (the roles of rights holders and duty bearers), targeting the general public. It highlighted the importance for all individuals to understand how and why human rights mattered in their daily lives. 54. Soka Gakkai International emphasized that, according to data provided by the United Nations, there were some 1.8 billion young people in the world today, the largest youth population ever, and that more than a third of the 169 targets of the Sustainable Development Goals highlighted the role of young people and the importance of their empowerment, participation and well-being; young people should therefore be a target sector for the fourth phase. Human rights education for them should take place also through non-formal education, with the aim of reaching young learners in geographically remote areas, students with disabilities, groups in vulnerable situations, and persons living in extreme poverty. Soka Gakkai International also referred to the progress made during the previous phases of the World Programme and to the limited information available, and stressed the importance of States submitting their national progress reports on a regular basis. 55. Individual responses included a university professor, who recommended that the fourth phase should focus on human rights education for primary and secondary school teachers and within teacher-training institutions; a school teacher who highlighted the importance of quality education for persons with special educational needs; and a university student, who underscored the role of human rights education in democratic processes, particularly in fostering the engagement of students. V. Human Rights Council side event 56. On 6 March 2018, at the thirty-seventh session of the Human Rights Council, the Working Group on Human Rights Education and Learning of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations held a side event on the theme “World Programme for Human Rights Education: what focus for the fourth phase?”. The event was co-sponsored by the States Platform on Human Rights Education and Training in the Human Rights Council (Brazil, Costa Rica, Italy, Morocco, Philippines, Senegal, Slovenia and Thailand) and the UNESCO Liaison Office in Geneva. More than 75 representatives of States, international organizations, academia and civil society organizations participated in the event. 11