The concept and emphasis of this bulletin emerged out of a participatory process. The Peacebuilding Public Association carried out interviews with 53 participants in 2 human rights seminars that took place in Almaty in March and November 2003. Among the participants were school teachers, methodologists, and school librarians from many regions of Kazakhstan. They noted that educators "desperately need new information and innovative approaches which they can put into practice when working with children. The methodical base of high schools has become out of date which negatively reflects on efficiency of teaching humanitarian subjects and on the level of schoolchildren's knowledge".

To address these needs, the Peacebuilding Public Association began producing a 16-page bulletin once every 2 months. The organisation distributes this bulletin by post to roughly 500 adults in the secondary education system (schools, regional departments of education, and informational-educational resource centres) who work directly with children. The preference during distribution is to reach the rural regions of the Republic, which are excluded from much of the work being done around human rights education methodologies. The booklet is printed in the Russian language; organisers plan to publish part of the materials in Kazakh language. The bulletin is also available in electronic format; click here to read it online (in Russian language only).

The content of "Human Rights Education at School" is structured to increase the knowledge of Kazakhstan teachers - and, by extension, students - in the field of human rights and related themes. Topics addressed include methods of nonviolent conflict resolution, tolerance, problems of war and peace, and the like. Teaching methodology is also a focus. This element of the publication is part of a strategy for expanding the list of disciplines taught within the framework of the school programme by introducing Kazakhstan teachers to the newest methodological developments in the field of teaching human rights and cultures of peace. Here are a few examples of what a typical bulletin might include:

Human Rights, Education.

Organisers explain that, since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Republic of Kazakhstan has pursued democratic reforms. To ensure that these reforms ae carried out successfully and supported on a long-term basis through the transformation of public consciousness, they say, people must be convinced to reflect on and accept new democratic values as central to the creation of a new society free from injustice, violence, and discrimination. One of the priorities in this task, according to the Peacebuilding Public Association, is education of the new generation in the spirit of values of human rights and the culture of peace. The 1995 UNESCO Declaration and other frameworks of action on education stress the importance of this aim.

Organisers also explain that rural schools suffer from limited access to information. Despite the fact that various NGOs have carried out work in the field of legal education for different groups in Kazakhstan, this work has been concentrated in large cities. Rural regions are rarely involved in the educational process on human rights and the culture of peace. At the same time, roughly 6,000 of the total number of schools (8,000) in Kazakhstan are rural and understaffed.