Pristina, August 15, 2024 – The Ombudsman has published the Report with Recommendations ex officio no.636/2023 Inclusion of applicable standards in the field of human rights in the textbooks of higher secondary education in Kosovo.

This report has assessed the level of inclusion of standards in the field of human rights in 19 textbooks of grades 10, 11 and 12 of all secondary schools, both for social-linguistic high schools and natural high schools. Since the purpose of the report is focused exclusively on the field of human rights, the investigation was therefore carried out on the textbooks of school subjects from the social sciences and the humanities in general, such as the subject of the mother tongue, of literature, of history, for philosophy, logic, psychology, sociology and civic education.

With this report, the Ombudsman concluded that, in general, the treatment of human rights in these textbooks is satisfactory, but there is still room for improvement. The textbooks of the Albanian Language subject and those of the Literature subject, for grades 10, 11 and 12, do not have content that would specifically be problematic in relation to the field of human rights. Whereas, in the texts of subjects such as Civic Education, History, Sociology and Psychology, the main problems identified are two: first, the non-identical and incorrect use of terminology in the field of human rights in different texts. Second, the lack of concrete and detailed examples of violations and protection of human rights. These problems suggest the need for a greater harmonization of terminology and for a more in-depth and illustrative treatment of the subject of human rights in school textbooks.

Therefore, the People’s Advocate has recommended to the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) to unify the terminological language, namely the use of key terms and concepts used in the dictionaries of sociology, psychology and civic education, in relation to the field of human rights. Also, to elaborate as clearly as possible, with additional examples and explanations in the form of specific glossaries with new words for students, as well as to adapt the examples to the social and cultural contexts of the society in Kosovo, so that the phenomena and terms are clear, understandable for students. Finally, the People’s Advocate has recommended to MESTI that in the curriculum for the history subject text for the 12th grade, where lessons from modern and contemporary history are included, separate teaching units for the history of human rights should be defined. to man; for social movements of trade unions that have advocated for workers’ rights; for the waves of feminism that are committed to women’s rights and gender equality; for international conventions, resolutions and other relevant documents for human rights.

This report is a continuation of ex-officio Report no. 147/2021, the language of hate in elementary school textbooks in Kosovo published in 2023. In this report, the Ombudsman examined 47 textbooks from the first to the ninth grade if they meet international and European standards for addressing hate speech.

Read the full report -> https://bit.ly/3yTDIug