Human Rights Educational Programs and Activities

Art competitions are an effective way for youth to express their understanding of human rights.

The following Youth for Human Rights educational programs and activities—including contests, projects, campaigns and events—are inspiring young people and catalyzing groups working for human rights education throughout the world.

Art/Essay/Poetry Contests—Youth participate in local, national or international competitions to create art, essays or poetry depicting human rights.

Mural Projects—School and youth groups collaborate to work on mural projects depicting human rights messages.

Youth Summits—National, international and cyberspace meetings to discuss human rights and facilitate healthy interactions across borders and cultures.

Human Rights Awareness Campaigns—Raising awareness about human rights and tolerance through the use of the What Are Human Rights? booklets, as well as the YHRI public service announcement videos depicting the 30 Articles of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The campaign includes the UNITED Music Video with its strong anti-bullying message.

Human Rights Curriculum—YHRI has developed an educational manual that takes a teacher step by step through teaching their students human rights. These materials have also been used in community centers and after-school programs.

Translations—To facilitate the diversity of the YHRI international outreach campaigns, YHRI materials have been translated into 17 languages.

International Outreach Campaigns—(1) YHRI World Tours reach out to meet with dignitaries, leaders, educators and youth, promoting human rights education initiatives on all continents. (2) International Human Rights Summits bring together youth from around the world to discuss the important role of human rights education.

Media Campaigns—The YHRI videos have been promoted on more than 4,600 TV channels around the world. The videos have aired on TV stations, including CNN, Dynasty TV (which airs from New York to China), ABS-CBN in Malaysia, Zenit TV in Hungary, TV Mitel in Czech, Europa 7 in Italy, Tele Mexiquense in Mexico, Chanel 51 Nova TV in Colombia, Odeon TV in Italy and many more, reaching hundreds of thousand of people around the world. In addition to the media carrying our YHRI message of human rights across the airwaves, taxi drivers, theaters, shopping malls, sports arenas and electronic billboards have shared YHRI videos with hundreds of thousands more.

Watch the human rights PSAs here 

Find out how to implement YHRI programs here