PUBLIC EDUCATION AND Training Resources

The Human Right to Education Program provides training materials and workshops for social justice organizations interested in using human rights as a tool to improve public schools and ensure the rights of students and parents to participate in determining educational policy. 

Training Manual

Bringing A Human Rights Vision to Public Schools:
A Training Manual for Organizers
English - PDF; Spanish - PDF

Produced by NESRI and Community Asset Development Re-defining Education (CADRE), this manual is a resource for advocates, organizers, community members, parents and youth interested in using human rights as a tool for improving public education in the U.S. The manual includes three training curricula:

• Know Your Human Rights - Introduces participants to basic human rights principles, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and standards for the right to education.
• Using Human Rights for Social Change - Introduces participants to strategies for using the language and principles of human rights in their campaigns and messaging, including organizing human rights tribunals to publicize findings.
• Taking Action by Documenting Human Rights Absuses - Introduces participants to research methods for documenting rights violations in schools and tips for using documentation as an organizing tool.

The Appendix includes training handouts and exercises, a glossary of human rights terms, and excerpts from human rights treaties and declarations recognizing the right to education.

To order hard copies email NESRI or call 212-253-1710.

Other Training Resources:

Basic info on human rights and education:

• Powerpoint on the Human Right to Education in the U.S.
• Human Rights Treaties recognizing the right to education
• Fact sheets on the Right to Education and the Right to Dignity in Schools
  
• Fact sheet on Economic and Social Rights in the U.S.
• Domestic Implementation of the Right to Equal Education, by Global Rights

Examples of people's hearings or human rights tribunals:

• South Los Angeles People's Hearing: More Education, Less Suspension, CADRE, June 2006
• A People's Hearing on the Human and Civil Right to Education in D.C., Just Associates, May 2006
• National Truth Commission: Shining A Light on Poverty in the U.S.A., Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, July 2006

Using international mechanisms:

• Resources from the US Human Rights Network on Submitting Shadow Reports to UN Human Rights Committees
• NESRI Presentation on Youth Issues to the UN Human Rights Committee, New York City, March 2006

Reports by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education in the U.S.:

• Mission to the United States of America, September 24 – October 10, 2001
• From the Outside Looking In: Changing New York City’s Education Through the Human Rights Approach, 15 April 2002

Other training resources:

• Human Rights Education Associates
• People's Decade for Human Rights Education
• University of the Poor
• Amnesty International-USA
• UN Cyber School Bus
• This is My Home Curriculum, Human Rights Center, University of Minnesota
• Ripple in Still Water: Reflections by Activists on Local and National Level Work on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights