UNESCO Programme in Human Rights

UNESCO Programme in Human Rights has three major aims:

 strengthen awareness;  act as a catalyst for regional, national and international action in human rights;  foster cooperation with all actors and networks.

Priority action areas of the UNESCO Programme in Human Rights:

 Promotion of human rights  Gender equality and development  Struggle against discrimination  Youth and HIV/AIDS  Human security

Promotion of human rights

UNESCO’s role in the field of human rights is founded in its Constitution. There it is stated that the Organization shall further respect for justice, for the rule of law and for human rights and fundamental freedoms without discrimination of any kind.

With regard to the promotion of human rights, action is concentrated in areas where UNESCO has a special mandate: generating and sharing knowledge, protecting human rights, renewing and reinforcing commitment to human rights education and providing advisory services and technical assistance to Member States.

UNESCO is working for the advancement of all human rights. However, there are certain rights for which the Organization has a special responsibility. These are the right to education, the right to take part in cultural life, the right to freedom of opinion and expression, including the right to seek, receive and impart information, the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications.

UNESCO chairs in Human Rights, Democracy, Peace and Tolerance assist UNESCO in the elaboration and implementation of activities aimed at the promotion and protection of human rights, with a view to develop national capacity in research, education and training. UNESCO also strives to strengthen cooperation with human rights research and training institutions and non- governmental organizations.

UNESCO makes special emphasis on increasing coordination with agencies and bodies of the United Nations system, dealing with human rights, in particular with OHCHR.

Gender equality and development

UNESCO Programme in Human Rights is aimed at eliminating all forms of discrimination against women. UNESCO focuses on research, networking, advocacy and knowledge sharing regarding gender equality and the human rights of women. In particular research focuses on the linkages between socio-economic issues and rights, the human rights of women and social structures, and progress in the achievement of gender equality.

Research and analysis will be used as tools to promote public policy change, especially with regard to ensuring gender equality in the enjoyment of specific human rights. Cooperation and networking with UNESCO Chairs, women's studies programmes, UN agencies and civil society organizations are essential in order for the knowledge to be effectively disseminated and the goals and objectives of the programme to be obtained.

Struggle against discrimination

UNESCO contributes to identifying effective responses to the obstacles hampering the full exercise of human rights: extreme nationalism, ideologies of intolerance and new forms of discrimination arising from technological and scientific progress. UNESCO directs its efforts towards drafting international instruments that outline standard principles, concepts and universal criteria to support the fight against racism and discrimination.

UNESCO participated actively in the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, which took place in 2001 in Durban, South Africa and which was undoubtedly the high point of the Third United Nations Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1994-2003). In October 2003 UNESCO adopted a new Integrated Strategy to Combat Racism, Discrimination, Xenophobia and Intolerance. The following themes and domains were identified in the Strategy as priority:

 Development of scientific research and reflection on the phenomena of racism, discrimination and xenophobia;  Revision and/or revitalization of UNESCO's instruments dealing with racism and discrimination;  Development of new educational approaches, elaboration of teaching materials and establishment of indicators;  Mobilization of opinion leaders and political decision-makers against racism and discrimination;  Preservation of diversity in multi-ethnic and multicultural societies;  Combating racist propaganda in media especially in cyberspace.

Youth and HIV/AIDS

The HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to be a catastrophe. In 2003, 3 million died from the epidemic, 14 million children have been orphaned, globally more than 40 million are infected. There is still no cure and no vaccine. With 5 million new infections in each of the last three years we are confronted with a massive failure of prevention.

UNESCO believes that the further spread of HIV can be prevented. In cooperation with UNAIDS UNESCO spearheaded the launch of the Global Initiative for an AIDS-free generation by a massive expansion of prevention education. By HIV/AIDS prevention education, UNESCO means offering learning opportunities for all to develop the knowledge, skills, competencies, values and attitudes that will limit the transmission and impact of the pandemic. Awareness and commitment on HIV/AIDS among opinion leaders and policymakers, particularly those with influence on education should be increased, education system should be improved, through developing new programmes on HIV/AIDS that also reach out-of-school youth. According to the UNESCO Strategy for HIV/AIDS prevention education the highest priority is the age group between 10 and 25 (children and youth), in which about half of new infections take place.

The Global Initiative is a renewed commitment to achieve goals already set by the United Nations in the Millennium Declaration: “To have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS” (Goal 6, Target 7).

Human security

UNESCO believes it is essential to emphasis the fact that the millennium is closing on a profound transformation in security. Three main factors are helping to redefine security more broadly. Firstly, conflicts take place to an ever lesser extent between States and are increasingly internal, within nation States, often as the expression of a crisis affecting them that has radically challenged social contracts. Secondly, the clear distinction between national security and international security is now meaningless. The security of the nation-state and international security are interdependent. Thirdly, the military register, with globalization and the relegation of bipolarity, seems to be but one component among many others of security policies that are becoming ever more inclusive: peace is increasingly dependent upon development, security of resources and protection of the environment, but also of human rights, whose violation gives rise not only to injustice and tension but also to unpredictability and instability and hence to international insecurity.

UNESCO strives to contribute to developing a new, sociological conception of security, which must be perceived in its social and cultural environment. Such conception implies promoting regional integration, opening up political communities to globalization and human flows; raising responsibility of the nation-states, with everybody accountable for the failings in the social contract of the other; increased involvement of new actors (NGOs, media, transnational networks, etc.) in international life.

The Forum on Human Security on web-site www.unesco.org should contribute to the development of international intellectual debate on relevant issues.