A/HRC/22/71 68. The programme was significant because of its engagement with Muslim religious leaders, some of whom believed that human rights did not need to be taught specifically, given the alignment that they saw between human rights and the values found within Islam. While there are indeed common values, framing those values in the language of human rights ensures universal protection for all individuals. 69. In Cambodia, the Human Rights Teaching Methodology Programme, launched by the Cambodian Institute of Human Rights and the Cambodian Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, uses values identified with Buddhism as tools for explaining international human rights standards.83 The Programme is being implemented in educational institutions, specifically primary and secondary schools. 84 The Institute set out to train all of the country’s more than 70,000 primary and secondary school teachers in teaching human rights according to the methodology. 85 In this way, the Programme aims to create a community of human rights educators. By focusing on school children, the Institute also hopes that the human rights message will be transmitted to families and the community at large. The Programme recognizes that schools are central to the development of society, and that by developing the potential of learners, schools empower individuals for life in society.86 70. Educational programmes that promote and protect human rights should be developed. The programmes would give children the confidence to claim their own rights, but also the skills and means to promote and protect the rights of others. OHCHR has developed guidelines for teaching children that take into account the emphasis of the Committee on the Rights of the Child that such education should be centred on the child’s experience, by connecting human rights to values that the child is able to understand. 87 The guidelines suggest that the foundation for teaching human rights should be an examination of the values of life, freedom, justice and equality, and of the destructive nature of deprivation, suffering and pain. Through the discussion of such universal values, the idea of human rights can be gradually introduced to pupils in a way that bases those rights upon these universally understood values. Where relevant, the values can be mediated through local culture and tradition in order to provide local illustration and ownership of the universal values of human rights. This can help each and every person to identify himself or herself as someone who bears those values, and to be motivated to defend and promote them. 71. A study paper by the United Nations Development Programme on the role of informal justice systems provides numerous examples of initiatives designed to strengthen 83 84 85 86 87 Viola B. Georgi and Michael Seberich (eds.), “International Perspectives in Human Rights Education” 2004. Available from www.bertelsmannstiftung.de/bst/de/media/xcms_bst_dms_14994_14995_2.pdf. Human Rights Education in Asian Schools, vol. II, “Human Rights Teaching Methodology in Cambodian Primary and Secondary Schools”. Available from www.hurights.or.jp/archives/human_rights_education_in_asian_schools/section2/1999/03/humanrights-teaching-methodology-in-cambodian-primary-and-secondary-schools.html. Human Rights Education in Asian Schools, vol. I, “Human Rights Education in Cambodian Schools: The Experience of the Last Three Years”. Available from www.hurights.or.jp/archives/human_rights_education_in_asian_schools/section2/1998/03/humanrights-education-in-cambodian-schools---the-experience-of-the-last-three-years.html United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Guidelines on Intercultural Education, p. 10, Available from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001478/147878e.pdf. OHCHR, “Teaching Human Rights. Practical activities for primary and secondary schools”, 2004. Available from www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/ABCChapter1en.pdf. 19