A HUMAN RIGHTS-BASED APPROACH IN HIGHER EDUCATION (PAPEL + E-BOOK)

The International community has expressed, with a growing consensus,that education in human rights contributes positively to theirimplementation. Consistent with this objective, on the 10th ofDecember 2004, the United Nations General Assembly announced the World Programme for Human Rights Education. Higher education represents one of the two priority areas within the second phase of this globalprogramme. Through its basic functions (research, teaching and theprovision of community services), higher education institutions carryout the social responsibility of providing ethical education tocitizens committed to peace building and defending human rights anddemocratic values. In addition, they are also committed to generatingglobal knowledge to face the current challenges of human rights, suchas eradicating poverty and discrimination, post-conflictreconstruction, sustainable development and multi-culturalunderstanding. However, most university institutions pay littleattention to this issue and in very few cases are these objectivesincluded in the concept of quality education. This work is the resultof a European Project TEMPUS Approche basée sur des droits dansl'enseignement supérieur au Maghreb (Human rights-based approach tohigher education in the Maghreb - ABDEM). The project intends tocontribute to enrich higher education programmes in the Maghreb region by introducing a human rights-based approach. This perspective, which is very new in all the countries, introduces considerable progress in the university institution as it intends to generate new impetus insociety, that can promote democratisation and the adoption of humanrights within cultural and social-political contexts in the Maghreb,from the standpoint of training, management and governance of theuniversity institutions. This work addresses a balance of the twelveEuropean and Maghreb institutions that participate in the project,using a new tool that consists of the construction and selection of agroup of indicators. Regarding the assessment tool, indicators aredevised as an input to provide knowledge and evidence in matters suchas performance and good practices for decision makers in the field ofHigher Education, both at the corresponding national and individualuniversity level. As such, the indicators should contribute, not justto assess interventions, but also to provide an aggregate value so the processes leading to decisions that contribute to improving currentand future activities, projects, programmes, strategies and politicslinked to the integration of the Human Rights-based Approach in Higher Education.