Human Rights Education at Schools

Several schools offer human rights education as part of their curriculum, for example linked subjects like History, Politics and Citizenship, but there are also specialised courses, such as Human Rights offered as part of the International Bacclaureate Diploma programme for high school students.

IB Human Rights is an academic subject containing units on

    The theory of human rights
    The practise of human rights
    Contemporary human rights issues

In order to pass the course students are required to study for two years, take a final examination and produce a coursework.

As part of their Diploma programme students may also choose to write their Extended Essay on Human Rights. This is a a 4000 word research paper focusing on human rights.

The IB Human Rights course was originally authored by Joni Mäkivirta, the developer of Cognitive Emotional Pedagogy. Part of the 2002 version of the IB Human Rights syllabus can be found at the Global Human Rights Education (HREA) website. Only part of the syllabus is available at HREA website for copyright reasons.

The complete IB Human Rights syllabus that contains more details, including the assessment criteria, as well as the guide for the Human Rights Extended Essay can be acquired from the International Baccalaureate Organisation.