Ashgabat, 9-10 December 2019: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights' (OHCHR) Regional Office for Central Asia partnered to hold a national forum on the occasion of the Human Rights Day to promote world programme on human rights education.

The national forum brought together over 50 representatives of the national ministries and agencies, national and regional academia circles, civil society, media and public organizations promoting education and human rights. The Forum was led by the Director of the Institute of State, Law and Democracy and co-chaired by the UNDP Resident Representative and the Office of Ombudsman of Turkmenistan.

“UNDP has established good working relations with the Government in human rights promotion. We aim to expand our cooperation and integrate human rights education in higher education and vocational training institutions. We believe that it is vital for the civil servants to undertake a training in human rights and, thus, we look forward to partnering with the Institute of State, Law and Democracy, Ombudsman Office and the Ministry of Education,” stated Natia Natsvlishvili, UNDP Resident representative a.i.

All UN treaties, including Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Convention of elimination of all forms of discrimination and others underpin education in human rights as the core for protection and promotion of the human rights for all. Participants of the Forum discussed on existing initiatives in the sphere of human rights education and the need to develop a comprehensive roadmap for implementation of the programme in human rights education sphere.

Participants of the Forum also discussed regional experiences of Councils of Europe, Georgia and Russia in introduction of human rights education. Representatives of the national and regional institutions promoting human rights education also addressed the questions and the need to design a Road map for joining of the fourth stage of the World Programme for Human Rights Education (2020-2024) proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 2004.

As a result of the event, national experts and representatives of the relevant agencies agreed to further discuss the process of design and adoption of the human rights education programme for higher education and professional training for civil servants in Turkmenistan.