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Take a closer look at some of the events and stories taking place across the world to stand up for human rights.

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30 November 2020

The power of Human Rights Education

At a school in Apelação, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Lisbon, Portugal, teachers participated in professional training under a new vision based on a “whole school” approach to human rights. The new teaching philosophy put the students at the center of the learning process and fostered critical reflection and thinking. As a result, teachers reported improved levels of concentration among students and a decline in antisocial behavior and bullying.

This is one of the examples highlighting the impact of human rights education that is featured on the open web resource Transforming Lives: The Power of Human Rights Education. This website highlights the role of human rights education in empowering people to build and promote a universal culture of human rights. It equips users, especially youth, with inspiring examples and guidance to realize their human rights and those of others and to contribute to the betterment of their own communities.

Oyndrilla Mukherjee, teacher at the Ecole Internationale de Genève - La Grande Boissiere Campus, has been using the open web resource in her class. “It is a student-friendly website that is convenient to navigate. My students of Year 9 (12 year olds) were deeply engaged with understanding the concepts of human rights as they accessed the resources on the website”, Mukherjee said.

The website was developed as a collective initiative among many different actors, including Soka Gakkai International (SGI), HRE 2020 (a coalition of civil society organizations dealing with human rights education), the NGO Working Group on Human Rights Education and Learning of the CoNGO (Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations) as well as the Human Rights Council’s Governmental Platform for Human Rights Education and Training, with the support of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The website is now available in Arabic, French and Spanish in addition to the original English version.

The Take action section of the website lists some concrete actions that anybody can take, based on the idea that respecting, promoting and protecting human rights begins with developing one’s own understanding and skills and continues with taking steps in daily life and in the immediate environment.


  • I will respect your rights regardless of who you are. I will uphold your rights even when I disagree with you
  • When anyone’s human rights are denied, everyone's rights are undermined, so I will stand up
  • I will raise my voice. I will take action. I will use my rights to stand up for your rights.

people have stood up for human rights

We can all be Human Rights Champions

Tweet, Instagram or YouTube your action using the hashtag #Standup4humanrights.

Spread the word

#Standup4humanrights