Education and Training

The Commission is committed to promoting awareness and understanding of human rights among public, private and voluntary groups.

Supporting human rights training

The Commission is developing training tools to support public, private and voluntary bodies who want to integrate human rights into their work. One way of doing this is to take a human rights-based approach.

What is a human rights-based approach?

A human rights-based approach is a way of organising policy choices and practice on a day-to-day level to ensure that human rights are at the centre of how organisations work as well as how they measure success. It emphasises the importance of the empowerment and participation of people affected by decisions to claim their rights, and the accountability of those responsible for human rights.

You can watch a short video clip where Legal Officer for the Commission, Kavita Chetty, outlines the five key components to a human rights based approach.

What other tools are there?

The Commission is also developing ‘human rights impact assessment tools’ for public bodies, and will offer support to the organisations who use them. In the current economic climate it is particularly important to ensure that budget decisions are informed by an evaluation of their human rights impact. These tools will be available to download from this website, so sign up to the e-Newsletter and we will let you know when they are available.

Education

The Commission is working to support a human-rights based approach to education in Scotland's schools, with an emphasis on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. We are working together with Learning and Teaching Scotland and Scottish schools delivering the new curriculum for excellence to develop a child-centred approach to achieving a Charter of Rights for Scottish schools. The Commission will be hosting a seminar at the Scottish Learning Festival in September 2009 on a human rights-based approach to education. Young people can also find out more about their rights online from Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People.

Looking for teaching resources now?

Our regional partners, the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, have produced an excellent training manual called Inspiring Practice, which will help teachers to deliver human rights workshops and activities in the classroom, with an emphasis on the European Convention on Human Rights.

Internship program

In the future the Commission will offer a small number of structured internship placements, in both legal and non-legal study areas. Sign up to our newsletter and we will let you know when this program is open for applications.