Stand for our Rights: Resilience of Human Rights Education in an Era of Shrinking Spaces

In recent years, the Human Rights Education community has been operating in an increasingly complex and contradictory environment. Global geopolitical developments are not only making the promotion of human rights more difficult, but in many cases actively undermining them.
Human rights violations affect multiple contexts, including those in which citizens traditionally consider their rights to be guaranteed and inviolable. This reality exposes a growing disconnection from shared human rights values, as well as a widening gap between political declarations and actual practices, particularly at the level of international and national institutions.
Within this climate, youth workers, human rights educators and activists are increasingly questioning the sustainability of their role. 
How can Human Rights Education continue in contexts that are openly hostile or structurally resistant? Are traditional HRE tools, such as human rights charters and international legal frameworks, still effective as pedagogical and political instruments? And how can the HRE community support itself while remaining coherent with its core values?

Objectives of the Conference

The conference aims to offer a space for the HRE community to reflect on their role and to explore how Human Rights Education can be adapted in times of systemic human rights violations. This process contributes to reconnecting with shared human rights values, transforming them from abstract principles into authentic and collective practices for Social Justice.

The specific objective are: 

• to provide a space where critically reflect about the HRE practice in this historical moment;
• to facilitate the exchange of strategies, tools and support mechanisms among practitioners;
• co create a shared position of the HRE community on the conditions in which it operates today.

Approach and Methodology

The conference will be designed as a participatory learning space by using non formal education principals, combining plenary discussions, contributions from external experts and collaborative working sessions. 

Expected Outcomes

A key outcome of the conference will be the co creation of a Manifesto on Human Rights Education in Times of Human Rights Violations. The Manifesto will serve as a shared stand and statement of the participants. 

The Manifesto will be shared both with both the community of practice as well as International relevant stakeholders.