Human Rights, Conlict Resolution, and Tolerance Education:
UNRWA Experience from the Field*

Ozlem Eskiocak Oguzertem and Paul McAdams

T

he United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine
Refugees (unrwa) is an organization that has been providing assistance and services to Palestine refugees since 1950. It is a unique
United Nations (UN) agency as it directly runs schools, health centers, relief
and social services, infrastructure improvement programs, micro-inanceand emergency assistance to approximately ive million Palestine refugees
who have registered with unrwa.
Unrwa operates in one of the most fragile regions in the world, withoices in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. he
impact of conlict on children cannot be overstated across these ive Fields
of Operations (Fields). In Gaza, under blockade, six-year-old children have
lived through three conlicts.1 Almost 100 percent of unrwa students in
Gaza sufer from post-traumatic stress disorder.2 In Syria, Palestine refugees
have now been repeatedly displaced due to the on-going conlict there, theiraccess to a range of basic services limited and children are in dire need of
psychosocial support. In the West Bank, refugees and especially children
face daily challenges as a result of living under occupation. In Lebanon,
Palestine refugees’ mobility and employment opportunities are restricted.
In Jordan and Lebanon the inlux of Palestine refugees from Syria has overwhelmed many of the existing camps.
While there are many challenges to ensuring that Palestine refugee children have access to education, unrwa operates one of the largest school
systems in the Middle East, with twenty-three thousand Education Stafreaching half a million Palestine refugee children through 685 schools,
nine Vocational Training Centers, and two Educational Science Faculties.
Further to long-standing arrangements with host authorities, and for practical educational reasons - in order to ensure that refugees can continue their*he views and opinions presented in this article are solely those of the authors and do
not necessarily represent those of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (unrwa).

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education after leaving unrwa schools - unrwa uses the host curriculum
and textbooks in its schools.
Unrwa is committed to providing free, quality and equitable education to all Palestine refugee children. To this end, the Agency continuallyseeks to improve its Education Program and is currently implementing its
Education Reform Strategy (2011-2015). As described by unrwa Director of
Education, Dr. Caroline Pontefract, the “unrwa Education Reform aims to
improve the efectiveness, relevance, and eiciency of the education system.
At its heart lies changing classroom practices and the dynamics of the learning process, towards ensuring they address the needs of all children andstudents.”3 Accordingly, unrwa Education Program’s vision is “to develop
the full potential of Palestine Refugees to enable them to be conident, innovative, questioning, thoughtful, tolerant and open-minded, upholding human values and religious tolerance, proud of their Palestinian identity andcontributing positively to the development of their society and the global
community.”4To achieve this vision, a key component of the Education Program, the
Human Rights, Conlict Resolution and Tolerance (hrcrt) Program, wasupdated and strengthened in line with the Reform and evolving international standards. he following discusses the hrcrt Program and the achievements emerging from this reform process.
Building upon the Existing Human Rights Education Program
Since 2000, unrwa has been teaching human rights, conlict resolution
and tolerance in its schools, reaching approximately half a million children
from Grades 1-10. he Agency has focused its eforts on integrating humanrights into existing curriculums, supporting human rights-oriented extracurricular activities, and promoting concepts of tolerance and peaceful conlict resolution. Additionally, Gaza unrwa has been ofering a standalone
human rights curriculum. In 2009, the indings of an Education Program
Review highlighted the necessity of deining a uniied approach to hrcrt
across all ive Fields. In response to this need, and in light of the Education
Reform, with the continued inancial support provided by the United States,
UNRWA initiated a process to review its hrcrt education to further
strengthen the Program and provide unrwa-wide coherence.

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Formulating a Human Rights Education Policy
In order to achieve coherence in the unrwa’s approach to human rights
education in all Fields, it undertook eforts to develop an hrcrt Policy.5
he process of developing a policy was in line with other aspects of unrwa
Education Reform; including the development of the Inclusive Education
Policy and Teacher Policy.
From the onset, the development of the new hrcrt Policy was a participatory process. As an initial step, a scoping mission was undertaken
to the Fields in 2011 to conduct interviews with teachers, students, school
administrators, Education Specialists, parents, community members, andrepresentatives from non-governmental organizations (ngos). hese interviews reairmed that the knowledge and skills related to human rights education were limited and needed to be framed within a coherent approachto teaching and learning. he indings of the scoping mission also indicatedthat students were interested in learning more about human rights and thatteachers were eager to learn more about teaching human rights in the classroom. hese indings were particularly encouraging considering the diicult
living conditions of many Palestine refugees.
he indings of the scoping mission led to the development of the
hrcrt Policy, with the following strategic objectives:•
Build on the human rights principles embedded within the culturalcontext of Palestine refugees;• Develop a human rights education environment in unrwa education facilities that is conducive to promoting a culture of humanrights;• Equip unrwa students and youths with human rights knowledge
and skills in an attempt to inluence their attitudes and behaviors
in order to contribute positively to their society and the global
community.
he Policy builds on unrwa experience in human rights education but
also relects global developments and international commitments such as
the World Programme for Human Rights Education (wphre, 2005 – ongoing), the Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training by the
UN General Assembly (adopted in December 2011) and other international
agreements such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Unrwa also

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has a speciic mandate from the General Assembly to incorporate the needs
and rights of children in its operations in accordance with the Convention
on the Rights of the Child.6 Article 29 (c) and (d) of the crc was particularly
relevant in framing the hrcrt Policy, and provides that the education of thechild should be directed to:(c) he development of respect for the child’s parents, his or
her own cultural identity, language and values, for the national
values of the country in which the child is living, the country
from which he or she may originate, and for civilizations diferent from his or her own;(d) he preparation of the child for responsible life in a freesociety, in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equalityof sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national andreligious groups and persons of indigenous origin.
Because the Policy was formulated through a participatory process, itcommands a high degree of ownership among staf in all Fields. he Policy
also takes into account the challenges and diferent contexts under which
the ive Fields of unrwa operate. With regards to operational contexts,
there were a number of aspects to consider when developing the hrcrt
Policy, namely the diversity of each Field, the use of each host country’s curriculum, and diferent practices and supporting materials for human rights
education in schools, either by integrating human rights education into speciic subjects such as Arabic Language or Social Studies, or ofering standalone human rights education classes as in Gaza.
he Policy was inalized in 2012, one year after the scoping mission to
the Fields. Much of the Policy’s structure is inspired by the wphre’s framework for successfully integrating human rights education in the school system. he components of the framework are discussed in the next section.
With the new Policy in place, unrwa staf in each Field conductedawareness-raising workshops for staf, communities, and ngos on the
structure of the new Policy. With the new Policy adopted, the implementation of the revised hrcrt Program was ready to take place.
HRCRT Program Good Practices
he new unrwa hrcrt Policy enabled it to revise the hrcrt Program toensure a consistent approach to human rights education in all ive Fields.

Human Rights, Conlict Resolution, and Tolerance Education63

he development of the Policy along with the key components of the hrcrt
Program illustrates a range of good practices in human rights education.
hese good practices revolve around the importance of participation, theadoption of international standards and practices, concrete and practicalteaching materials, an efective and decentralized training of trainers process, and the necessity of integrating monitoring and evaluation tools within
existing structures.
For reference, the deinition of a “good practice” in human rights education is adopted from Human Rights Education in the School Systems ofEurope, Central Asia and North America: A Compendium of Good Practice.7
A good practice is a “strategy resulting in the successful teaching and learning of human rights values and competencies that could be demonstrated
through a learning activity, a methodological tool, an audio-visual resource
or a documented programme design intended for the formal education
sector.”Grounding the Policy in International Standards
As mentioned in the previous section, the hrcrt Policy was built on unrwa
experience in teaching human rights as well as global developments including the World Programme for Human Rights Education (wphre, 2005 – ongoing). In particular, the irst phase of the wphre, which focused on humanrights education in primary and secondary school systems, identiied thefollowing components as necessary in successfully implementing humanrights education in schools: teaching and learning, teacher preparation andprofessional development, the learning environment, and monitoring andevaluation. hese four components were adopted in the hrcrt Policy, andthe next section presents the good practices unrwa can ofer under eachcomponent.
I. Teaching and Learning
With respect to teaching and learning, the hrcrt Program wasstrengthened with a consistent approach thanks to the adoption, as is, of the
WPHRE deinition of human rights education.
As deined by the wphre,8 human rights education is
education, training and information aiming at building a universal culture of human rights through the sharing of knowledge,
imparting of skills and moulding of attitudes directed to:64

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he strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms;• he full development of the human personality and thesense of its dignity;• he promotion of understanding, tolerance, genderequality and friendship among all nations, indigenous
peoples and minorities;• he enabling of all persons to participate efectively in afree and democratic society governed by the rule of law;
• he building and maintenance of peace;• he promotion of people-centered sustainable development and social justice.
Adopting this deinition for the hrcrt Policy was a irst step towards a
coherent approach to teaching and learning. his was followed by reviewing
existing human rights education materials, adopting a practical educational
approach, promoting teaching methods that encourage student participation, and pre-testing teaching and learning materials.
a. Reviewing Existing Human Rights Education Materials
In order to improve teaching and learning, hrcrt teaching and learning materials needed to be consistent with the goal of human rights education deined above. his required an evaluation of existing human rights
materials used in unrwa schools. Furthermore, it meant the development
or adaptation of existing human rights materials from international goodpractices.
he review of existing materials used to teach human rights in unrwa
schools was facilitated through a participatory process engaging unrwa
staf, students and parents to evaluate the relevance of existing teaching andlearning materials, such as student booklets on human rights that had beenused as “enrichment materials” in the classroom, as well as a standalone human rights curriculum in Gaza for Grades 1 to 6. Additionally, unrwa examined a select number of international sources of human rights education
manuals and toolkits for non-formal and formal education settings (see, forexample, Compasito,9 Compass,10 and Play It Fair!11
hree main conclusions emerged from the review. First, the existing“enrichment materials” were outdated and no longer relected international
practices. Second, the role of the standalone Gaza human rights curriculum in contributing towards teaching life skills and some aspects of humanrights, but also in providing a general approach to teaching and learningHuman Rights, Conlict Resolution, and Tolerance Education

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human rights that would apply to all Fields, was recognized. hird, unrwa
needed to develop a resource, in the form of a toolkit for all unrwa teachers, with the following characteristics:• Practical, concise and not overly theoretical;• Provide consistent terminology;• Easily integrated into the curriculum;• Manageable for teachers with respect to their workload, also taking into consideration that, as part of the Education Reform, there
were other school-based initiatives such as “school-based teacher
development” which took time out of a teacher’s schedule;• With a practical educational approach, promoting critical thinking
rather than rote learning, respectful of children’s developmental
capacities (content to be adapted for age-speciic learning needs);• Considerate of the culture of Palestine
refugees;• Contain useful tools and activities for
integrating human rights education inschools, including planning tools forschool management and teachers, and arange of classroom-based activities adapted from international practice.
he results of this review led to thedevelopment of a teacher toolkit (the hrcrt Toolkit).13 he development of the
Toolkit (discussed further in the following
sections) took place through a participatory process, requiring input, feedback, andvalidation of its content several times until
it was inalized and published.
b. A Practical Educational Approach, Learner Competencies andHuman Rights hemes
As discussed in the previous section, the hrcrt Toolkit needed a practical educational approach basic enough for all teachers to integrate into
their classroom practices.
he resulting approach, reinforced by international practice, relies ona three-step participatory approach. In the irst step, Experience, students’66

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existing knowledge and experience are valued; they are exposed
to practical activities, and are encouraged to actively participate
in the class. In the second step,
Relect, students are encouraged
to relect on their learning experience in order to strengthen andfoster links between their learning and their lived experiences.
Finally, the third step, Apply, enables students to act in concrete
ways within the school and theircommunities to promote a culture of human rights.
he educational approach is reinforced and guided by learner competencies namely: the fostering of knowledge, development of skills, andmolding of attitudes that contribute towards a culture of human rights. he
Toolkit structured this around a set of learner competencies set out in the
hrcrt Policy. hese competencies were adapted from the Guidelines for
Human Rights Education (Secondary Education), osce and odhir (2012).14
he educational approach and learner competencies, along with thedeinition of human rights education mentioned at the start of this section,
form the educational underpinnings of the hrcrt Toolkit. Additionally, inorder to reinforce the speciic learning environments of all Fields, a totalof seven themes were identiied. hese themes were constructed based on
results of the scoping mission and inalized as: General human rights, participation, diversity, respect, equality and non-discrimination, conlict resolution, and community links. hese themes form the basis of the classroombased activities included in the Toolkit (discussed in the following section).
c. Teaching Methods and Learning Activities to Encourage Student
Participation
he educational approach of the Toolkit is supported by participatory
teaching methods adapted from a range of international practices (see, forexample, Compass15 and Richard Pierre Claude’s Methodologies for Human
Rights Education16). While the scoping mission revealed many teachers indicated a level of familiarity with these teaching methods, they highlighted theHuman Rights, Conlict Resolution, and Tolerance Education

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importance of consolidating these teaching methods in one resource. Someof the methods described in the Toolkit include: group work, brainstorming, debates, role play, participatory theater, and art. Examples of using themethod in the classroom are provided along with the description of eachmethod.
hese methods are also present in forty child-friendly classroom activities presented in the Toolkit. he activities were adapted in large partfrom a wide range of human rights education activities from international
practices. he activities were all structured in the same manner: identifying
a main theme, a suggested grade level and time, speciic learning objectives,a sequence of steps, a means of evaluating the activity through large group
discussion, and suggestions for follow-up actions. All activities relected theeducational approach (presented in the previous section) and were modiiedand revised mainly through pre-testing and a revision process as presented
in the next section.
d. Pre-Testing and Revising New Educational Material
In order to strengthen the teaching and learning of hrcrt, the structure and contents of the hrcrt Toolkit underwent a series of testing andrevisions in terms of content, language, structure, and design. A irst draft
in English was translated into Arabic
From the Classroom:
for pre-testing in schools in the WestBank and Gaza. hese Fields wereDuring the evaluation of the pre- selected due to their representation
testing phase, one teacher said this of two distinct structures supporting
about a “classroom agreement” activity human rights education in unrwa
in which students identified their own schools.
In the West Bank, teachers wereclassroom rules for working together:using enrichment materials, including specialized booklets and story“Before trying out this activity, I books, since the start of the hrcrt
thought it would result in chaos. But Program in 2000. In Gaza, someteachers had been using enrichment
then after I did it with my students, I
materials but also included standsaw they were more cooperative whenalone human rights curriculum inthey were setting the rules themselves
and there was increased participation.”
Teacher from Nablus, West Bank

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place for Grades 1-6. he latter is delivered in a “human rights class”, oneclass period per week.
To take part in the pre-testing, teachers participated in a two-day initial training workshop introducing the Toolkit. Teachers who took part in
the pre-testing were encouraged to practice a reasonable number of hrcrt
Toolkit activities within a two-month time period. After their initial training, teachers from the same school discussed which activities they would
practice and evaluate with their students. All teachers trained implemented
these Toolkit activities in their classrooms for two months. After this period, the teachers met again for an evaluation workshop, during which they
provided feedback and suggestions for improving the Toolkit. Suggestions
were categorized according to structure, content, and language. Regarding
structure, feedback called mainly for simpler planning tools and shorter activities. On content, feedback called for less theory, more teaching methods,
and more guidance on integrating human rights education into diferent
subjects. For language, some concepts required further simpliication andsome terminology in Arabic needed to be revised in order to take into consideration the language’s nuances.
hese suggestions and others were identiied through evaluation forms
provided to teachers implementing the activities in class. Each school submitted a compilation of all evaluation forms which recorded the views ofboth teachers and students practicing hrcrt Toolkit activities. he feedback was then analyzed and contributed towards the inalization of the
Toolkit. As the Toolkit was nearing completion, another workshop was organized with key unrwa staf from all Fields in order to provide additional
feedback on the Toolkit. During the workshop, participants were provided
with a colored version of the Arabic Toolkit that contained illustrations.
heir feedback identiied the importance of relecting diversity in the illustrations of children (for example, representing children with diferent skintones as well as children with and without special needs). Equally important
was to illustrate children in typical unrwa uniforms and other characters(such as parents and teachers) in traditional Palestinian dress. Feedback wasalso provided on content, design, the actions and gestures represented bychildren in the illustrations, and language. Following the workshop, a committee was established within unrwa to review the Arabic translation of
the entire Toolkit. his was especially important as Arabic is a rich language

Human Rights, Conlict Resolution, and Tolerance Education69

and there can be various terminologies with similar meanings which was
highlighted during the pre-testing phase.
In the end, the Toolkit contained:• Direct quotes from teachers who practiced some of the activities;• A section on participatory teaching methods;• Question and answer boxes throughout the irst (theoretical)
part of the Toolkit
that provided a quick
The Toolkit Main Sections:reference;•
Four planningPart 1. A General Guide to Teaching Human Rights
tools: Planning Tool 1
1. A culture of human rights in UNRWA schools
is for initial training on
2. Human rights
the Toolkit, Planning
3. Human rights education
Tool 2 is a baselineof the human rights
Part 2. HRCRT in Schools
environment of the
1. Human rights themes in the Toolkit
school, Planning Tool
2. The educational approach of the Toolkit
3 is on planning for
3. Planning for HRCRT in schools
the hrcrt Program
4. Realizing HRCRT in schools (includes Classroom
at the school level, andActivities)
Planning Tool 4 is for
5. Evaluating the HRCRT Program
teachers to integrate
Appendiceshuman rights into existing lessons, such asa social science class;• Tables structured by Grade and Term listing forty activities basedon the Toolkit’s seven themes;• Simple language versions of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
At the time of publication, there was relatively little information andguidance for teachers on evaluating the hrcrt Toolkit. he main focus ofevaluation is the end of each activity, during which the teacher asks students
what they enjoyed (or did not) about the activity, how it relates to humanrights, and how they can apply their learning in a practical way in the school
and the community. Because the hrcrt Program is part of the education
system within unrwa, any evaluation of the program was best considered

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by itting within the Education Program’s indicators as opposed to a standalone evaluation of hrcrt Program. he tools used to monitor and evaluate(M&E) the hrcrt Program were developed in line with this broader education system (see the section below on monitoring and evaluation tools formore information).
II. On-going Teacher Preparation and Professional Development
he second component of the hrcrt Policy is “on-going teacher preparation and professional development,” which complements the “teaching andlearning component” described in the previous section. Once the hrcrt
Toolkit was inalized, the next steps were to provide teachers with their own
Toolkit and training on how to use it. Planning to train approximately twenty-three thousand Education Staf required input from all unrwa Fields andeducation staf at the headquarters. he process for training teachers is described below, along with additional measures put in place for continuous
capacity building.
a. Training of Trainers (ToT) Process
Based on the pre-testing of the Toolkit and additional consultations
with unrwa staf in all Fields, a training process was developed to enable
all unrwa teachers to receive training on the Toolkit within two years. heprocess involved the following steps:• Training of Trainers (ToT) was provided to School Principals andEducation Specialists in all Fields (in June 2013). Each training was
two days long;• In all, approximately two hundred School Principals and Education
Specialists were trained as “hrcrt trainers;”• As part of their training, the hrcrt trainers received a training
guide that ofered diferent training options: one-day training, halfday training, and four short training sessions. hese options were
ofered to provide lexibility based on input from trainers indicating that the time to train teachers, School Principals, and Education
Specialists was limited owing to their workloads. he training option used most often was the one-day training;• Once the hrcrt trainers completed their training, each Field determined a process and timeline for training its staf. he hrcrt

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trainers provided training to other School Principals and Education
Specialists, who then went on to train teachers. he trainers werepaired up as teams, to strengthen the delivery of the training.
All trainings of the hrcrt trainers—and later other Education Staf —were grounded with practical outcomes in mind. he training workshops:• Emphasized the importance of understanding the educational approach, the learner competencies, and the Toolkit themes;• Focused on practicing as many Toolkit activities as possible;• Enabled all teachers in the schools to collaborate on planning forthe integration of hrcrt;• Demonstrated how teachers can use the Toolkit to develop hrcrt
learner competencies.
b. Additional Capacity Building Support
While the ToT approach is practical and eicient, there is a risk in any
ToT of losing the quality of the initial trainings by the time the training
reaches the last group of trainees. In order to mitigate this risk the following
additional steps were taken to supplement training workshops.
. Supplementary training video: unrwa produced a practical supplementary training video to mitigate the issue of ToT and allow teachers to
see the educational approach of the Toolkit irsthand. he video demonstrates various teaching methods, planning tools to integrate hrcrt in any
subject, and how to implement the hrcrt activities. It includes interviews
with students, teachers, and School Principals who have implemented the
Toolkit. As such, the video provides all Education Staf with an opportunity to see good practices and refresh their trainings at convenient times forthem. To address the issue of poor or intermittent Internet access at homes
and schools, each school was provided with training dvds.
. H Bulletin: he Bulletin supports teacher preparation by providing an update on the hrcrt Program and facilitating sharing of experiences and good practices across unrwa’s ive Fields of Operation. It is
distributed by email on a bi-monthly basis to all unrwa Education staf,with the aim of sharing information, tools, reports, news and tips on humanrights education.
he Bulletin supports the implementation of the hrcrt Policy by providing teachers with news and ideas, and ofering a constant reminder re-

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garding the necessary steps for the successful implementation of the Toolkit.
For example, in one issue a “Trainer’s Checklist” was provided to support
School Principals and Education Specialists in preparing for hrcrt training workshops. Ideas and reminders on how to carry out Toolkit activities
in the classroom are shared with teachers. In every issue of the Bulletin a“Featured Toolkit Activity” is presented. For example, “Activity 33: Our Ideal
Candidate” was presented in the August 2014 Issue, to be implemented at
the beginning of the school year to support students in electing a candidate
for the School Parliaments.
he Bulletin captures success stories from the teaching staf from all
Fields; this sharing of experiences with other Fields motivates and engages
teachers and increases ownership of the Program.
. Top-up trainings for  trainers: In order to ensure regular professional development of hrcrt trainers, one-day “top-up” trainings were
provided on a yearly basis. During these trainings, trainers had the opportunity to share their successes and challenges in undertaking their training
and the implementation of the hrcrt Program in general. hese trainings
also enabled trainers to provide feedback and suggestions to improve theProgram. he trainings were an opportunity to provide trainers with revised
and additional tools to implement, monitor and evaluate the Program. hetraining of all education staf (around 23,000 people) by hrcrt trainers approximately took two and a half years.
. School based top-up training led by School Principals: To date,most teachers have received the initial training on the use of the Toolkit,
but as is the case with any program, regular in-service capacity building andsharing of experiences, successes and challenges are essential in ensuring
sustainability. Guidelines were prepared for School Principals to lead topup trainings for teachers, to take place approximately a year and a half after
the initial trainings, in order to review the Toolkit’s educational approach,monitoring and evaluation tools to review outcomes at school level, and allow teachers to share experiences and challenges.
During the top-up training planned for 2015, teachers will be encouraged to adapt Toolkit activities, develop new activities that relect the seven
Toolkit themes, and provide examples of integrating human rights in different subjects. his enables greater ownership of the Toolkit and Programby teachers. Headquarters facilitates this process through the provision ofguidelines for the top-up trainings which include templates for the development of new Toolkit activities.

Human Rights, Conlict Resolution, and Tolerance Education73

. Top-up training for Education Specialists: As part of the capacity
building of teachers, the role of Education Specialists is to provide regularsupport and coaching to teachers through school visits. herefore, unrwa
headquarters is in the process of developing top-up training in order to support the role of Education Specialists in supervision, quality assurance, andmonitoring the Program through regular school visits. his includes, forexample, an updated classroom observation tool to be used by Education
Specialists.
III. Strengthening a Rights-Based Learning Environment
In addition to teaching about human rights in the classroom, unrwa pays
great attention to the learning environment as it afects all those involvedin the teaching and learning process. To this end, unrwa looks both at theschool environment and the links with the community.
a. School Environment and School Parliament
Unrwa’s human rights education approach considers not only whatgoes on in the classroom but also student participation in school life and theoverall environment within the school. Unrwa acknowledges that teaching and learning needs to take place in an environment where students andteachers are respected, violence and bullying is not tolerated, and the school
environment is healthy and provides safety for both the physical and psychosocial well-being of children. In order to have school practices respectful of
human rights, unrwa put a number of systems in place including strengthening the unrwa regulatory framework’s zero tolerance for violence againstchildren, a number of activities and initiatives to reduce bullying in school,a school-level agreement or code of conduct to promote respect and dignity
which is facilitated by the hrcrt Toolkit Planning Tools 2 and 3.17
One of the good practices unrwa has adopted to improve school
environment and to promote a culture of human rights is the School
Parliaments. Many were formed at the start of the hrcrt Program in 2000,
and all unrwa schools now have one in place. School Parliaments consistof elected members from the student body who represent their peers so thatchildren’s voices are heard and they practice their right to participation.18
As such, School Parliaments have played a signiicant role in ensuring
student participation in activities and decisions regarding the school en-

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H U M A N R I G H T S E D U C AT I O N I N A S I A - PA C I F I Cvironment. Members of School Parliament act as mediators between students if conlicts arise and act as the voice of students when interacting withschool administration. hey are also leading students in the creation of human rights themed activities, from raising awareness around human rights
to doing projects that allow students to learn about their communities andhelp address problems both in their schools and communities. hese activities allow all students to practically apply what they learn through human rights education. hey become young leaders and active participantsof their communities promoting a culture of human rights in their school
environment and beyond.
With over seven hundred unrwa schools, the diversity, quality, andamount of activities each School Parliament undertakes varied considerably.
With the advent of the hrcrt Policy, unrwa decided to ensure a consistent approach to focusing School Parliament activities. A irst step was tosuggest that each newly elected School Parliament develop and share withunrwa headquarters its plans for the year. To guide School Parliaments inthis process, a template for work plan and budget plan was developed andSchool Parliaments were asked to ill these out after meeting and discussing
with the students. hey were also provided with very brief guidelines andexamples on how to frame their activities along the lines of the seven hrcrt
Toolkit themes.
A second initiative towards ensuring a consistent agency-wide approach to School Parliaments was to develop a guide on “good practices.” Allschools were invited to share their examples of good practices; the results ofwhich are in the process of being compiled and will be presented in a School
Parliament Good Practices Booklet. his encourages information sharing
and learning as the Booklet will present diferent practices from schools andwill provide further tips and guidance on how to conduct activities to promote a culture of human rights in unrwa schools and communities.
b. Links with the Community
In addition to the school environment, unrwa also acknowledges
the important role of the community environment and making links between school and the community to promote a culture of human rights.
Community and family life play a big role in molding the attitudes and values of children. When what is taught and practiced in schools about human rights is contrary to practices and behaviors at home, a “school-homeHuman Rights, Conlict Resolution, and Tolerance Education75

divide” occurs. he “right to partici"We parents were not fully
pation” aptly illustrates this divide. In
unrwa schools children are taught aware of most of these rights. It was
about their right to participate and very informative and an importantpractice this right, particularly since experience to learn about these
the Education Reform started. When rights. The celebration today was very
special… We saw how our children
students go home and continue exwere discussing their rights as maturepressing their opinions, some parand empowered people."enting styles or traditional attitudes
that value the opinion of elders morethan of children, might cause tenParent during Human Rights Day,
sions within the family. In order toRamallah, West Bank
address this school-home divide andto ensure parents and community are informed about and involved in theirchildren’s education, it is important to conduct awareness-raising activities
targeting the community. Awareness-raising activities with parents enable
a respectful environment in which they appreciate their children’s ability
to participate in school and at home as a positive means of enjoying theirrights. hrcrt learner competencies, especially the attainment of humanrights attitudes, values and skills, can only be fully realized if parents andcommunities are involved. To this end unrwa put in place the following
good practices:
Open Day on International Human Rights Day: On December 10
2014, International Human Rights Day, parents and communities were invited to unrwa schools to learn about human rights and unrwa’s approachto teaching hrcrt. hey experienced a sample collection of hrcrt Toolkit
activities irsthand and participated in activities, each one facilitated by one
student and one teacher. In order to facilitate this process, unrwa headquarters provided the schools with guidelines that included the goal, suggested approach and activities for the Open Day.
his Open Day helped increase the understanding of hrcrt among thecommunity and deconstructed a lot of misconceptions regarding humanrights education. Human interest stories and a photo collage with quotes
from students, parents and teachers on the impact of this day can be foundon unrwa website.19
Awareness raising animated video targeting the community:
Awareness-raising animation videos are currently being produced to illus-

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trate the practical application of human rights education in schools. hreeepisodes were developed, each demonstrating how students take action afterparticipating in hrcrt Toolkit activities on issues such as bullying, women’s
rights, and supporting the community. hese episodes will be screened on
unrwa satellite TV and YouTube channel to reach out to the communityand communicate the hrcrt messages. his will allow the parents and thecommunity to increase their understanding of the goals of human rights education, and attempt to address any disconnect between what their children
learn at schools about HRCRT and actual practices at the community level.
Parent-Teacher Associations: All unrwa schools have Parent-Teacher
Associations (ptas) that further support school’s link with the community.
In line with the hrcrt Policy and the Education Reform, ptas are also currently being strengthened to lead on human rights education activities targeting the community. To this end the hrcrt Program staf in headquarters
is currently developing guidelines for ptas to conduct regular meetings andagree on a work plan on how they will contribute to hrcrt and humanrights education in their communities.
IV. Monitoring and Evaluation
he impact of the hrcrt Program on changing students’ and teachers’
knowledge, attitudes, behaviors and skills is measured through a range of
qualitative and quantitative instruments. In addition, a Perceptional Survey
explores the perceptions of students, teachers, School Principals and unrwa
Field staf, on the prevalence of an hrcrt culture and practices at schoollevel. his survey looks at perceptions with regards to school violence, bullying, respect, participation, School Parliament activities, discrimination andconlict resolution.
he Perceptional Survey was irst conducted in 2013 (in all Fields except
West Bank due to an industrial action) to identify the indicator baselines.
he irst part of this section looks at the current tools to measure results with a focus on activity and output levels, the second part discusses theresults of the Perceptional Survey which identiied the indicator baselines
and will be repeated after the implementation of the hrcrt Toolkit in all
schools.

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Quantitative and Qualitative Tools to Measure Results
At the output and activity levels, the following tools are used to monitor
and assess the progress of program implementation:
1. A Monthly Activity Monitoring Tool
his tool was developed to monitor Education Reform activities on amonthly basis. For the hrcrt component, the tool is used to record:a. he number of staf trained: 17,884 Education staf trained on hrcrt
Toolkit from 2013 until the end of 2014.
b. he number of schools completing the hrcrt Toolkit Planning“We may not be able to achieve
Tools: three hundred ifty-ive living in a safe environment, but at
schools completed the hrcrt least we will make the classroom andToolkit Planning Tools and moved the school environment safe. At least
on to implementation at school level we can achieve that through theseby the end of 2013-2014 school year
activities.”(the Planning Tools are described inthis paper under the “Teaching andTeacher, Gaza
Learning” section). hese Planning
Tools are used by school management as well as unrwa headquarters toassess where schools are and if they are on track with the agreed plan.
c. he number of School Parliaments that completed the School
Parliament Activity Planning and Monitoring template: six hundred fortyeight School Parliaments completed their action plans on hrcrt activities
during the 2013-2014 school year. Unrwa headquarters regularly collects
and analyzes activity plans from School Parliaments to make sure the plans
are in line with the goal of the hrcrt Policy and the guidelines developed.
d. Relections from the Chiefs of the Education Programs20 in each ield:
Under this section, the Chiefs report progress and challenges in implementing the Program, their most important observations from ield/school-level
implementation, and any external circumstances that afect the operationalization of the implementation plan. his narrative section also ofers successstories as observed by Chiefs during their school visits.
he quantitative and qualitative information collected through theActivity Monitoring Tool is synthesized by the hrcrt staf at unrwa headquarters and used to ofer support to the Fields where needed.

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2. Training evaluation surveys to assess HRCRT training
After each training, teachers ill out post-training surveys, which contain approximately ifteen statements related to the quality of the training
by facilitators and their perceived ability to integrate hrcrt into their work.
he surveys illustrate that overall the trainings equipped teachers with theknowledge and skills they need to implement the hrcrt Policy. In all, 78.82
percent of teachers responded positively to statements in post-training
surveys.
93.75 percent of participants stated they strongly agree or agree with thestatement: “I can better teach about human rights after this training.”
Teachers also expressed a strong understanding of the link between thesubject they teach and hrcrt with a combined agreement (strongly agree
or agree) level of 88.7 percent. his result is particularly important given
the fact that not all subject teachers were previously involved in teachinghrcrt. his therefore suggests that the training is successful in transmitting
the relevance of an integrated approach to human rights education, whereby
it is integrated throughout the entire curriculum.
In the evaluation results, teachers’ motivation and commitment toteaching hrcrt also came out as very strong. 93 percent of teachers agreed
with the statement “I am committed to create a rights-based environment
in my classroom”. Similarly, 93.1 percent stated that “it is important for
students to acquire human rights knowledge, skills and values.” he teachers’ commitment to hrcrt is commendable especially given the on-going
conlicts in and surrounding the countries where unrwa operates. Whilesome teachers at the beginning of their training posed the question “howcan I teach human rights when my own rights are not respected?,” after theirtraining they appreciated the value of human rights education and how it
can contribute towards positive change. To support this, concrete successstories such as students bringing clean water to their neighborhood or assisting ngos in the community to help people with disabilities, illustrating
their empowerment through hrcrt education were shared with teachers
during their training.
While the overall training results are positive, there is room for improvement in two areas. First, 30.9 percent of teachers trained stated thatthey did not understand the educational approach of the Toolkit whichstarts from students’ experiences (as opposed to teachers imparting knowledge), allows students to relect and participate, and inally apply what they

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learn. Classroom observations also conirmed that some teachers were not
yet able to adapt to the Toolkit’s educational approach. Observations also
revealed that this is related to holding on to the traditional approach toteaching where the teacher is perceived as the “expert” and students are passive recipients in the learning process. Moving towards transformative pedagogy where students are actively participating and the teacher is acting as a“facilitator” takes time. To address this, unrwa provides continuous capacity building that is discussed earlier in this paper. he second area where theresults were weaker was the ability of the facilitators to teach about hrcrt.
30.7 percent of trainees did not agree that “the facilitator was knowledgeable and well prepared”. his is due to the use of Training of Trainers (ToT)
approach which at times does not allow a consistent level of facilitators. his
issue and how unrwa addressed this through the provision of supplementary trainings and multi-media materials are discussed earlier in this article.
3. Focus group discussions and classroom observations
After more than a year of putting into practice the hrcrt Toolkit, anumber of teachers, School Principals, and students were interviewed infocus group discussions in the West Bank and Gaza. he results indicatedthat, above all, teachers and students identiied a marked increase in participation of the students, a greater respect towards each other and ease atresolving conlicts, a greater appreciation of what human rights mean tothem, and a growing interest in sharing their learning with the community.21
Classroom observations were also conducted to provide insight into theprogress that teachers have made in understanding, planning, and implementing Toolkit activities. It was observed that while teachers have madesigniicant progress in using participatory techniques ofered by the Toolkit,
some teachers faced challenges in fully adopting the educational approachas discussed above.
Perceptional Survey
he Perceptional Survey is an evaluation tool that was developed to
explore the perceptions of students, parents, teachers, School Principals
and UNRWA Field staf, on the prevalence of an hrcrt culture in unrwa
schools.22 he “prevalence” is relected through score values, which are expressed in numbers ranging from 0 to 3.

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he Perceptional Survey reached all relevant stakeholders and was administered to a total of 27,126 people. he Perceptional Survey is a humanrights based methodology to evaluate the changes in the Program. By asking the very beneiciaries and stakeholders, it values their experiences andopinions. However it is costly and takes time.
he irst survey was conducted before the implementation of the
hrcrt Toolkit, therefore ofering the baseline for evaluation. he Agencywide baseline score for the hrcrt
indicator represents the weighted
average of Field speciic scores,
which are calculated as the averageof twelve hrcrt related statementsthat correspond to hrcrt learnercompetencies. Each statement wasgiven a score ranging from 0 to 3,
the latter score being associated tothe most positive response in regards to the prevalence of hrcrt culture.
hese hrcrt statements included in the Perceptional Survey are shown below with the corresponding mean combined score for each statement (by all
respondents). hese twelve statements relect the essential elements of an
hrcrt culture and are in line with the seven themes of the Toolkit: equality and non-discrimination, diversity, respect, peaceful conlict resolution,
participation, community links, and general human rights.
he baseline results of Perceptional Survey showed some strong indication of the presence of a culture of human rights in unrwa schools. heresponses to question 49 (Q49), which asked whether boys and girls shouldhave equal rights, are particularly evocative with a mean of 2.48 among all
respondents and 2.41 among students. he overall result actually represents
the highest scoring single item of the entire survey which had a grand total of seventy-six items looking at diferent areas of the Education Reform.
here was also a noticeable trend within the responses to Q49 showing thatscoring got higher proportionally to the rise in grade levels. his may suggest that students’ perception that boys and girls should have equal rights
improves as they progress through the unrwa education system.
he second question which had the highest score among students was
related to conlict resolution. he indicator mean of 2.25 among students illustrates that the vast majority of students agreed that they talk rather than

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ight to solve arguments (Q46). he next three questions with the highestmeans followed each other closely and focused on voting in school (Q35),
involvement in celebrations of Palestinian heritage (Q20) and feeling respected by classmates (Q37). he items scored respectively with the meansof 2.31, 2.31 and 2.30 by students (and overall means of 2.3, 2.18, and 2.24 by
all respondents). One can therefore observe that the students’ responses aresuggestive of a culture of human rights within schools.
he Perceptional Survey also highlights areas of improvement for the
Program. Indeed some results suggest, even though hrcrt culture andpractices are prevalent on a large scale, there is a high degree of variance in“individual” experiences. It is worth noting that three questions related tobullying, violence, and exclusion have considerably higher standard deviation than all other items. he highest deviation of 1.05 is associated with Q52“I avoid other children if they are diferent from me” and Q43 “at school,
I am often left out of activities” and Q44 “at school, I am repeatedly hit
or mocked” both have a standard deviation of 1.02. he statements’ overallmeans (by all respondents) were respectively 1.61, 1.61 and 2.07 though whensolely looking at the students’ responses the means are lower: 1.52, 1.58 and2.06.
his shows that while bullying, violence, and exclusion are not widely
spread, they remain a signiicant issue for a substantial number of students.23
his will be addressed through the hrcrt Toolkit with its following themes:
diversity, equality and non-discrimination, non-violent conlict resolution,
as well as through the development of an Agency-wide Child Protection
Framework that is currently being developed.

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he graph below shows the mean comparison of hrcrt scores (for all
hrcrt statements) for each category of respondents:

As can be seen from the graph, perceptions of students and parents were
the same. his may be a result of successful community links built between
unrwa schools and parents through the Parents Teacher Associations thatexist in each unrwa school.
he hrcrt component of the Perceptional Survey will be repeated at
the end of 2016-2017 school year to review and evaluate the changes that are
expected to take place after the implementation of the hrcrt Policy and
Toolkit in all schools.
Conclusion
Despite the challenging environment and impact of a protracted crisis,
unrwa has successfully run a Human Rights Education Program to empower Palestine refugee students with human rights knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors in line with the United Nations Declaration on Human
Rights Education and Training, the Convention on the Rights of the Childand unrwa’s mandate from the United Nations General Assembly. Key tostrengthening the Program was the development of a Policy that aligned
unrwa’s approach with international standards and best practices and ensured a strategic and consistent approach to hrcrt in all ive Fields acrossthe Middle East. With the hrcrt Policy and the development of tools toHuman Rights, Conlict Resolution, and Tolerance Education

83

support its implementation, unrwa was able to improve teaching andlearning, teacher preparation and development, school environment, andmonitoring and evaluation of the Program.
Looking at the development of a human rights education policy to its
implementation at school level, unrwa can ofer lessons learned that canbe applicable to other organizations and ministries of education. he tablebelow summarizes these lessons learned.
Lessons Learned
Program area
Policy andProgramdevelopment andimplementation

Teaching and
Learning

Lessons Learned
On policy

While strengthening existing Human Rights Education
Programs or developing new ones international humanrights standards, treaties and conventions should be
carefully examined as this process increases effectivenessand quality of program.

On developing thecontent of the program

When developing materials, international good practices
should be used while adapting and tailoring them to thespecific context as this makes the program relevant andacceptable by target audience.

On identifying key themesthat shape the foundationof the program

Focusing the HRCRT Program on themes identified bystakeholders enables a consistent approach that is relevant
for beneficiaries and also enables a stronger relationshipbetween parents, the community, and the school.

On participation

Regular participation of stakeholders in the developmentof educational human rights materials for teachers ensuresthat materials are responsive to teachers’ needs, school
contexts, and targeted towards the learner competenciesof students. This requires development of feedback
mechanisms and tools to facilitate regular participation,
feedback, suggestions, and pre-testing of educational
human rights materials.

On empowering studentsChild-friendly activities and School Parliament initiatives
enables students to practically apply what they learn. Focus
group discussions and observations revealed that suchactivities develop and strengthen the self-esteem, dignity,
and ability to participate for many students.

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Professional
Development of
Teachers

Monitoring and
Evaluation

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On decentralizing training

Having an effective decentralized process for training oftrainers is feasible if trainers are equipped with guides andprovided with regular coaching.

On continuous capacity
building

Training should be supported by continuous capacity
building and support provided to teachers. This includes
supplementary training tools, multi-media and newsletters tokeep teachers engaged.

On teachers working
closely with school
management

School-level planning tools foster cooperation between
school administration and teachers to ensure a consistent
approach to teaching, as well as to ensure coordination ofactivities conducted and human rights education taught at
different grade levels.

On monitoring andevaluating

Teachers should be equipped with monitoring andevaluation tools. Monitoring and evaluation should not beseen as a tool to “assess” but a tool to “learn and review.”
To provide efficiency, simple monitoring tools that integrate
into existing monitoring and evaluation processes within theorganization should be used.

Learning
Environment

On a rights-based school
environment

School Parliaments should be empowered with guidanceand support since they play a key role to support a cultureof human rights.
Human rights education’s potential will not be reachedunless the community is involved. The school/home divide
could be addressed through Parent Teacher Associations,
Open Days, and awareness-raising activities for thecommunity.

In this case study, we have presented good practices in developing an
hrcrt Policy and the steps for its successful implementation. While it has
only been two years since the training on the new hrcrt Toolkit began,focus group discussions and classroom observations are demonstratingthat progress was made in creating a classroom and school environmentthat further enables students to advocate for their rights and the rights ofothers. After inalizing the training of all teachers and conducting another
Perceptional Survey, we will be able to compare the results with our baseline
survey to further evaluate results. As such, the hrcrt Policy has enabled
unrwa to strengthen the hrcrt Program to be more results-based, integrated within the Education Reform, and promote a culture of human rights
within unrwa schools, a fragile region, and beyond.

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Endnotes
1. Unicef, Humanitarian Situation Report (unicef, 2 October2014).
Retrievedfrom
http://unispal.un.org/unispal.nsf/0/
E59C1C42AE64F4CE85257D7000635DC1.
2. Pontefract, C., “Promoting Human Rights in the World’s Most Unstable
Region,” he Huington Post, 9 December 2014. Retrieved from www.huingtonpost.com/caroline-pontefract/promoting-human-rights-in_b_6294714.html.
3. Pontefract, C., “unrwa’s Human Rights, Conlict Resolution and Tolerance(hrcrt) Education Programme,” in Learning to Live Together - Education for Conlict
Resolution, Responsible Citizenship, Human Rights and Humanitarian Norms (218223) (Doha: Protect Education in Insecurity and Conlict (peic), 2013). Retrieved
from http://educationandconlict.org/sites/default/iles/publication/learning %20
to%20live%20together.pdf.
4. Unrwa Education Reform Strategy 2011 – 2015 (Amman: United Nations
Relief and Works Agency, 2011), Par. 1.2, page 1.
5. Unrwa Policy on Human Rights, Conlict Resolution and Tolerance (Amman:
United Nations Relief and Works Agency, 2012).
6. As relected in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 68/78 of 11
December 2014, para 13, unrwa has the mandate to address the needs and rightsof children in its operations in accordance with the crc. See: www.unrwa.org/sites/
default/iles/operations_of_the_united_nations_relief_and_works_agency.pdf.
7. Hrea, osce/odihr, Council of Europe, ohcsr and unesco, Human Rights
Education in the School Systems of Europe, Central Asia and North America: A
Compendium of Good Practice (Poland: osce Oice for Democratic Institutions andHuman Rights [odihr], 2009).
8. United Nations General Assembly, Revised draft plan of action for the irst
phase (2005-2007) of the World Programme for Human Rights Education (A/59/525/
Rev.1, 2005). Available online:
www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Education/Training/Pages/undhrEducationTraining.aspx .
9. Flowers, N. et al., Compasito – Manual on Human Rights Education forChildren (Budapest: Council of Europe, European Youth Centre, 2009), 2nd edition.
10. Brander, P., et al., Compass – Manual on Human Rights Education with
Young People (Budapest: Council of Europe, 2012), 2nd edition.
11. Equitas – International Centre for Human Rights Education, Play It Fair!
Human Rights Education Toolkit for Children (Montreal: Equitas, 2008).
12. Unrwa, hrcrt Material Review Workshop 23-25 April 2012. Summary ofindings (Internal document, 2012).
13. Unrwa Human Rights, Conlict Resolution and Tolerance Toolkit for
Teachers (Amman: United Nations Relief and Works Agency, 2013). Available fordownload at www.unrwa.org/sites/default/iles/full_toolkit_english.pdf.
14. he list is adapted from Human Rights Education Guidelines for Secondary
School Systems (Warsaw: hrea, osce, and odihr, 2012). he competencies in theseguidelines are for secondary schools and have therefore been adapted for unrwa’s
context.

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15. Brander, op. cit.
16. Retrieved from www.pdhre.org/materials/methodologies.html.
17. Refer to the hrcrt Toolkit, Planning Tool 2 (page 41) and Planning Tool 3(page 43).
18. See a short ilm about unrwa School Parliament elections (2014) at www.
youtube.com/watch?v=qSSO9f50XIY.
19. Unrwa, Human Rights Day 2014. Retrieved from www.unrwa.org/
human-rights-day-2014.
20. he Chiefs of Education Programme are primarily responsible for all education matters in their respective Fields.
21. Unrwa, hrcrt Classroom Observations and Focus Group Discussions.
Internal report (Unrwa, February 2015).
22. Unrwa, Perceptional Survey Analysis Report (unrwa, November 2014).
23. Ibid.