Human Rights Education and Democracy in the 21st century: Special Focus on Asia
1995-2004 was declared by the UN as the Decade of Human Rights Education. During this decade, most of the Asian Governments agreed to strengthen human rights education and democracy as a pillar of human rights protection. However, the vitality of human rights education has not been consistent across the Asian region. In few countries has there been a systematic review of the extent, quality and access to human rights education and of the national support system for its development. Very few Asian countries have developed a comprehensive national plan of action for human rights education. Regional support for human rights education has been largely localized, disparate, or discontinuous. This paper aims to address three key aspects of human rights education and democracy in Asian universities:
(1) Analysis of the current situation of human rights education in the university system;
(2) Setting priorities and guidelines on key components of human rights education in the university system;
(3) Identification of achievements, weaknesses, and areas for improvement in human rights education in Asian, mainly Japanese, universities, which help to promote a self-reliant approach to improving and expanding such education.
