‘Connecting the Dots’ between Responses from Governments and Civil Society Organisations in the 2017 Council of Europe Report on the State of Citizenship and Human Rights Education

Abstract

Purpose: The article gives a brief introduction to the Council of Europe Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education (EDC/HRE) and illustrates the review process of its implementation.

Design/methodology/approach: Looking at the 2017 Report resulting from the second review cycle, the paper analyses analogies and discrepancies between responses received from governments and civil society organisations to the surveys organised by the Council of Europe.

Findings: Through the selection of answers analysed, it is shown that there are areas in which responses from governments and civil society organisations are similar and aligned, for example on the issues for EDC/HRE to address and on the little priority given to make financial support available. However, there are other areas in which considerable discrepancy can be highlighted. The article draws a reflection on the way in which the Report has been put together and argues that, in order to build a more accurate analysis, the Council of Europe should have connected the responses received from governments and civil society organisations and make them dialogue, rather than providing two unrelated summaries on the state of citizenship and human rights education without merging analogies and questioning discrepancies between responses received from different stakeholders.