United Nations
General Assembly
A/RES/59/113
Distr.: General
17 February 2005
Fifty-ninth session
Agenda item 105 (b)
Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 10 December 2004
[without reference to a Main Committee (A/59/L.43 and Add.1)]
59/113. World Programme for Human Rights Education
The General Assembly,
Recalling the relevant resolutions adopted by the General Assembly and the
Commission on Human Rights concerning the United Nations Decade for Human
Rights Education, 1995–2004,
Recalling also its resolution 58/181 of 22 December 2003, in which it decided
to dedicate a plenary meeting during the fifty-ninth session of the General
Assembly, on the occasion of Human Rights Day, 10 December 2004, to review the
achievements of the Decade and to discuss possible future activities for the
enhancement of human rights education,
Taking note of Commission on Human Rights resolution 2004/71 of 21 April
2004, 1 in which the Commission recommended that the General Assembly proclaim
at its fifty-ninth session a world programme for human rights education, to begin on
1 January 2005,
Reaffirming the need for continued actions at the international level to support
national efforts to achieve the internationally agreed development goals, including
those contained in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, 2 in particular,
universal access to basic education for all, by 2015,
Convinced that human rights education is a long-term and lifelong process by
which everyone learns tolerance and respect for the dignity of others and the means
and methods of ensuring that respect in all societies,
Believing that human rights education is essential to the realization of human
rights and fundamental freedoms and contributes significantly to promoting
equality, preventing conflict and human rights violations and enhancing
participation and democratic processes, with a view to developing societies in which
all human beings are valued and respected, without discrimination or distinction of
any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political, or other opinion,
national or social origin, property, birth or other status,
_______________
1
See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 2004, Supplement No. 3 (E/2004/23), chap. II,
sect. A.
2
See resolution 55/2.
04-48304