Our guide

Understanding human rights

Available in 11 countries:

Our resources

How human rights work in everyday situations

Key features:

Our mission

Everyone has the right to know their rights

Available in eleven countries, the Human Rights Guide is a platform for human rights and citizenship education. It offers resources and tools that help citizens, public sector employees and other professionals, teachers and students to understand what human rights are and how they work in everyday situations.

Developed by a network of organisations from across Europe, the Human Rights Guide was founded on the idea that everyone has the right to know their rights. It is our mission to provide country-specific, multilingual and user-friendly guides to promote understanding and ownership of human rights, encourage civic participation, and foster good governance and respect for the rule of law.

Our story

Developed in the Baltics for Europe and beyond

The Human Rights Guide was founded by Riga-based organisation Baltic Human Rights Society and developed as a Baltic initiative. It was first launched in Latvia in 2016, followed by Estonia and Lithuania in 2017. To kick off the initiative, the first Baltic Human Rights Education Conference was organised in Riga in 2015 which brought together representatives from government, state institutions, international and non-governmental organisations and academia.

The Human Rights Guide became a European platform and network when it was launched in Bulgaria in 2019, Slovenia and Slovakia in 2021, and France and Croatia in 2023. The Human Rights Guide further expanded into Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia in 2023.

Our supporters

Enhancing human rights and citizenship education

The Human Rights Guide is co-funded by the European Union, Nordplus in the Nordic-Baltic countries, Active Citizens Fund (EEA and Norway Grants), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Culture of Latvia.

The Human Rights Guide has been supported by the Defender of Rights of France (Ombudsman), National Consultative Commission on Human Rights of France, National Bar Council of France, UNESCO Latvian National Commission, Ombudsman of Latvia, Ministry of Education and Science of Latvia, Embassy of the Netherlands in Latvia, Ministry of Social Affairs of Estonia, Ombudsman of Moldova and Equality Council of Moldova.

‘The Human Rights Guide is a good example of how to educate people about their rights in a simple way through practical daily situations and examples.’

Juris Jansons, Ombudsman of Latvia