Human Rights in the Curriculum for Wales 2022

What is human rights education?

Human rights education is a cross-cutting theme of our new curriculum in Wales.  Human rights education means that adults and children:

  • Learn about human rights;
  • Learn through human rights;
  • Learn for human rights.

This means that children and adults know and understand their human rights, they experience their human rights in their education, and they are empowered with the skills to advocate for their rights and those of others.

How do human rights fit into the curriculum?

Developing an understanding of rights is integrated into learning descriptions for the Humanities and Health and Wellbeing Areas of Learning and Experience, and Relationships and Sexuality Education.

The wider requirements of the curriculum set out human rights education as a cross cutting theme of the curriculum and set out how learners need to meaningfully experience their participatory rights n curriculum design.

Importantly, children’s human rights are on the face of the Curriculum and Assessment (Wales) Act 2021, which sets out that all staff involved in delivering the curriculum need to develop knowledge and understanding of children’s human rights under two UN Conventions:

  • The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)
  • The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD)

The UNCRC sets out the human rights of children. The UNCRPD sets out what human rights mean for disabled people, including disabled children. Both of these Conventions are also fundamental to the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018.

Our resources and guidance will help all leaders and staff in education meet these requirements:

Read the Curriculum Map

Read our children’s human rights framework for schools

Learn more about our free children’s rights schemes