A/HRC/27/28 teachers, higher education teaching personnel and other education staff have a major role and responsibility to transmit human rights values, skills, attitudes, motivation and practices, both in the performance of their professional responsibilities and in their function as role models. Accordingly, human rights education for those professional groups, aimed at fostering their knowledge about, commitment to and motivation concerning human rights, is a priority strategy of any human rights education programming in the formal education system. The same priority strategy applies, by analogy, to those performing the function of educators in other settings, in particular those working with out-of-school children and youth, as well as parents. 19. Strategies for the human rights education and training of educators may include the adoption of a comprehensive human rights training policy, the introduction of human rights and human rights education principles and standards into the training curriculum, the use and fostering of appropriate methodologies and assessment methods and the development of related resources. 20. Adopting a comprehensive human rights training policy for educators may include the following elements: (a) Spelling out and adopting the internationally-agreed definition of human rights education and training as an empowering process transferring knowledge and developing skills, attitudes and behaviour which promote and protect human rights; (b) Pre-service and in-service training, available to all educators, adapted to their particular culture, education and experience and based on training needs assessment; (c) The training of trainers, in particular those delivering pre-service and inservice training, who should be qualified and experienced human rights education practitioners and should reflect the diversity of the learners; (d) Considering human rights education as a criterion for the qualification, accreditation and career development of educational staff; (e) Recognizing, accrediting and supporting non-governmental organizations and other sectors of civil society carrying out training activities in human rights education; (f) Improving criteria and standards to evaluate training programmes and their implementation; (g) Tackling the issue of creating enabling learning and working environments for educators, as human rights learning can take place effectively only where human rights are practised. 21. A human rights training curriculum for educators should include the following elements: (a) Learning objectives that encompass knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviour with respect to human rights and human rights education; (b) Human rights principles and standards, as well as protection mechanisms in place in and beyond the communities where the educators are active; (c) Rights and contribution of educators and learners in addressing human rights issues in the community where they live, including security issues; (d) The principles for human rights education activities outlined in section I.C above; (e) Appropriate methodology for human rights education which is participatory, learner-centred, experiential and action-oriented, and takes into account cultural considerations; 8