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The Human Rights Education Associates (HREA) announces:
On 19th of December 2011 "The United Nations General Assembly in New York adopted the Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training. This landmark document recognises the right of every one of the planet's seven billion people to have access to human rights education, a lifelong process involving all ages, all parts of society, and every kind of education, formal and informal.
The Declaration specifies not simply what one should learn about human rights, but also how ("through human rights, which includes learning and teaching in a way that respects the rights of both educators and learners") and also why ("for human rights, which includes empowering persons to enjoy and exercise their rights and to respect and uphold the rights of others").
The adoption of this new Declaration also offers educators and policy makers an occasion to reassess national policies and priorities in the light of international standards. If as the Declaration states, "human rights education and training is essential for the promotion of universal respect for and observance of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all," then human rights education is not only the entitlement of every human being, but also a necessity for responsible global citizenship."
For text of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training please follow this link.
EUROCLIO Vice-President Sylvia Semmet wrote an article in the new very recommendable publication on the field EUROCLIO is working in. The book is entitled History Wars and the Classroom: Global Perspectives and examines how ten separate countries have experienced debates and disputes over the contested nature of the subject, for example the ‘Black Armband’ and ‘Whitewash’ factions in Australia who adopt opposingly celebratory or denigratory views of Australian history, especially when evaluating episodes of poor racial relations. There are also tensions between traditional/patriotic views of history teaching and reformed or ‘new’ history. There are issues of political control of the curriculum and parallel issues of who writes it (very topical in England at the moment over two expat ‘big picture’ historians who work at Harvard and Columbia (Niall Ferguson and Simon Schama)).
The Emek Shaveh, an Israeli NGO consisting of archaeologists and human rights activists working to change the role of archaeology in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, inform us about their two recent publications: "Between Holiness and Propaganda: Archaeology and Political Claims over the Old City of Jerusalem" (December 2011) aims to raise public awareness about how archaeological research influences the identity and the character of the Old City. In the publication, Emek Shaveh also provide suggestions for how the archaeological finds could be presented as telling a complex story independent of religious or nationalist dictates. It is their belief that by listening to this multicultural story we can enrich culture and promote values of tolerance an pluralism. The publication can be read on their 
"If the gains from the uprisings throughout the Middle East and North Africa region are to be institutionalized, education systems throughout the region must also change. They must operate on the values of participation, equity, and free thinking embodied in the political revolutions of the region. 
EUROCLIO board member Semih Aktekin's doctorate thesis was published as a book by LAP Lambert Academic Publishing ISBN 978-3-8443-5404-1
