Topic 5: Preamble Teaching and Education (Preamble paragraph 8, see MODULE 12)

(i) Part One

The whole purpose of this online course in human rights education is to make available the education so strongly called for in this last section of the Preamble to the Universal Declaration. If people don’t know their human rights, they cannot demand that their rights are respected, and they cannot know how to respect and uphold the rights of other people.

One of the official Objectives of Peaceful Planet Human Rights Education is to ‘To provide education that empowers, enhances and activates individuals and communities to implement their human rights.’ This would include education in general, education about human rights and education that helps a person overcome any barrier that prevents them from knowing and asserting their human rights.

You will see later in the course that Article 26, Right to Education, returns to the theme of human rights education, making it a vital component in what it calls “the full development of the human personality”.

(ii) Simplified version of paragraph 8 of the Preamble

This Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a rule to be followed and remembered always by the people and societies of the world, as they teach respect for these rights and freedoms, doing everything possible to be sure they are kept by all the countries of the United Nations and by all the people living in these countries. (This means it should be taught in all schools everywhere.)

Remember that if you want to protect your human rights, you must educate me to know what they are. If I want to protect my human rights, I must educate you about the Universal Declaration so you know what my human rights are. In this way, we create a support network in which we all take responsibility for knowing and respecting each others’ human rights.