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Education

The Commission has a duty to promote awareness and understanding of human rights. Facilitating education or training is part of this work.

The Commission delivers workshops, seminars and interactive resources to a diverse range of individuals and groups to help relate fundamental human rights to our everyday lives. You can find out more about awareness raising activities related to the Commission’s strategic priorities on the different Our Work pages of the website. For example, there are a series of film resources in the Care about Rights project; podcasts and video clips discussing the UN Disability Convention in Scotland; and details of future training and information seminars on the Events pages.

 

Human Rights Education in the classroom

There are lots of organisations, including Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People (SCCYP), that have expertise on human rights education in primary and secondary school settings, particularly in relation to Global Citizenship in Curriculum for Excellence. Young people can find out more about human rights,including under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, from Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People.

The Commission has also supported the development of lesson plans and workshops to accompany a documentary film series on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Learning Through Film: Human Rights in Scotland is a collaborative resource for secondary school pupils and teachers aimed at understanding fundamental human rights in a Scottish context

The right to education

As well as being a right in itself, the right to education is also an enabling right. Access to education helps develop the skills, capacity and confidence to secure other rights. It supports people to develop communication skills to stand up for these rights, the confidence to participate in decision making and the ability to access information about other rights in order to hold the state to account in fulfilling its international obligations.

You can find out more about the right to education on the web pages of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education and the Right to Education Project.

A human rights based approach

A human rights based approach is a way of empowering people to know and claim rights, and increasing the ability and accountability of individuals and institutions who are responsible for respecting, protecting and fulfilling rights. This means giving people greater opportunities to participate in shaping the decisions that impact on their human rights. It also means increasing the ability of those with responsibility for fulfilling rights to recognise and know how to respect those rights, and make sure they can be held to account.

A human rights based approach is about ensuring that both the standards and the principles of human rights are integrated into policymaking as well as the day to day running of organisations.

There are some underlying principles which are of fundamental importance in applying a human rights based approach in practice. These are participation, accountability, non-discrimination and equality, empowerment and legality.

You can find further examples of the Commission's work to promote a human rights based approach, including in care settings and with the environment, on the Human Rights Based Approach page.

 

Internships with the Commission

There are not currently any placement opportunities with the Commission. When new opportunities become available, these will be publicly advertised on the Opportunities page.

Further resources and links

There are lots of resources on human rights education. Here is a small selection.