The Forum aims to reassess and affirm the potential of human rights education (HRE) towards a culture of peace and universal human rights by charting the contemporary status and role for human rights education, taking account of all its diverse forms and contexts. It also aims to strengthen the commitment of our partners the Council of Europe and the United Nations system to their shared agenda of support for the global community of practice concerned with educating about, for, and through human rights.
Holding the Forum during Human Rights Day 2025 stresses the leading role that human rights education should have in the promotion of a culture of universal human rights. It will provide the opportunity for the community of human rights educators to gather, share, reflect and nurture human rights education practice for the upcoming years, underlining cooperative dialogue between international, national and local partners, whether professionals or volunteers from the formal or non-formal education sectors, whether governmental institutions or non-governmental organisations.
It also takes place in a year where there is a convergence of important anniversaries and milestones for human rights and human rights education:
- 75 years of the European Convention on Human Rights
- 30 years of the European Youth Centre in Budapest
- 25 years of Compass and the Human Rights Education Youth Programme of the Council of Europe
- 20 years of the UN World Programme for Human Rights Education
- 15 years of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training
- 15 years of the Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education of the Council of Europe
- 10 years into the agenda of the UN Sustainable Development Goals
- 10 years of the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Citizenship
- 5 years into the Council of Europe 2030 Youth sector strategy.
While these occasions should be moments of celebration, they are also solemn and offer pause for collective reflection on human rights education, its contributions, and its challenges in relation to the achievement of universal human rights. This is even more important given the global political and social climate increasingly characterised by polarisation, transactional global politics, deepening democratic deficits, a growing authoritarianism, war and a culture of violence, and impunity in the face of flagrant human rights abuses.
The Forum is co-organised by the Council of Europe (Youth Department, Education Department and the North South Centre), and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), in co-operation with the European Youth Forum and Amnesty International. The Forum is also supported by the European Wergeland Centre, the Global Campus on Human Rights, Kandersteg International Scout House and Soka Gakkai International. It is led and prepared by a Steering Group that includes representatives of the Advisory Council on Youth, the European Steering Committee for Youth and experts from a variety of specialised youth and human rights organisations. It will bring together approximately 250 participants, of which 50 are from world regions beyond Europe.
More information and programme of the event: 2025 HRE Youth Forum – Human Rights Education Youth Programme
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