Qatar: Arab human rights education strategy approved
The National Human Rights Committee will help school communities integrate human rights values and principles into school curricula at various levels.
Photo by Damon Taylor, Flickr Creative Commons
HE the Minister of Education and Higher Education and Secretary General of the Supreme Education Council (SEC), Saad bin Ibrahim al-Mahmoud, has approved a Memorandum of Co-operation (MoC) signed between the SEC and the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) for the implementation of the Arab Human Rights Education Strategy.
The MoC was signed by the minister of education and higher education and NHRC chairman, Dr Ali bin Smaikh al-Marri, with the objective of formulating and implementing a national plan of action for human rights education.
The nine-point MoC aims to implement a plan of action established with the purpose of strengthening human rights education and promoting a culture of human rights.
The plan targets schools through supporting school communities to integrate human rights values and principles into school curricula at various levels.
The MoC, which will be effective from the 2011-2012 school year, underlines SEC’s role in providing all necessary elements for the conduct of human rights studies, developing a national plan to raise public awareness about human rights issues and the inclusion of human rights in school teaching materials. Accordingly, human rights education would be deeply rooted in a number of subjects in schools of all types and at all levels.
Under the terms of the MoC, NHRC provides training courses, workshops and seminars on human rights for key personnel besides consultation on human rights issues related to human rights education.
Established on 11 November 2002, on the basis of Emiri Decree No. 38 of 2002, the NHRC is bound by the Paris Principles, a set of guidelines set by the United Nations for national human rights institutions.
Date: 30 June 2011
Source: Gulf Times / QNA
