Founded in Geneva in 1967, The World Association for the School as an Instrument of Peace (EIP) is an international non-governmental organisation with consultative status to ECOSOC, UNESCO, the ILO, the IBE, the Council of Europe and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Administered by a committee of elected directors, EIP is managed by a General Secretariat in Geneva. At present, EIP includes 36 national branches and correspondents from all continents.
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In 1984, EIP created the International Training Centre on Human Rights and Peace Teaching (CIFEDHOP). A Swiss foundation, CIFEDHOP is presided over by Guy-Olivier SEGOND, formerly a State Councillor to the Republic and canton of Geneva, and managed by Monique PRINDEZIS. Jean HENAIRE, a socio-pedagogue, is the director of publications. CIFEDHOP is a centre for university-level research and training, whose work is directed towards teachers and educators, professionals and experts from both the formal and non-formal educational sectors.

EIP and CIFEDHOP have developed an international network of experts in the areas of education, law and political science.

Through their various actions, EIP and CIFEDHOP work together to promote education in democratic citizenship through the development of curriculum, employing various pedagogical methods, dealing with the recognition of cultural diversity, human rights and peace education, and international awareness.

EIP International and its national sectors propose educational projects and analysis to political authorities in order to encourage and advocate effective peace and human rights teaching within educational systems. For the past 16 years, CIFEDHOP has held regular international, regional and national training sessions on this type of education. In total, over 2000 educators from around the world have been able to increase their knowledge of international human rights law, develop innovative pedagogical approaches and understand, in a global context, the issues affecting education.

It is from this standpoint that EIP and CIFEDHOP work to achieve the following principle objectives:

- to contribute to the sociological and legal education of teachers in the area of international human rights law;

- to experiment with and verify pedagogical tools that encourage the progress of human rights and peace education;

- to present socio-political analysis on human rights and peace issues;

- to devise, produce and distribute pedagogical materials aimed at educators;

- to inspire and support the creation of national and regional branches throughout the world;

- to edit publications dealing with contemporary issues and problems, in collaboration with an international team of researchers and specialised educators;

- to produce and distribute pedagogical materials that heighten general public awareness of human rights and peace;

- to contribute to the creation of an interactive network of human rights educators, using information technology and communication tools adapted to the needs of those concerned.

The CIFEDHOP training team formulates and organises international, regional and national training sessions, and insures the evaluation and follow-up of these sessions in the countries concerned. Each training session includes a component consisting of human rights terms and concepts, in which specialists in international human rights law educate participants on the legal aspects of human rights conventions. In addition, researchers and analysts in various disciplines from Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe offer their knowledge and expertise to the training sessions. As the analysis of socio-political issues is a principle component in the process of political socialisation, each session addresses a theme relating to one of the major challenges of our world today. Recent themes include: “Human and citizenship rights: reference points for action”, “New educational politics: the challenge of a democratic school”, “Human rights and cultural pluralism”, “Human rights, democracy and development”, “Globalisation and distinctiveness”

Finally, theory is put into practice by means of pedagogic workshops in which all participants take part.

On the regional front, following in the footsteps of Guinea, Togo, Niger and Benin, it was Mali’s turn in 2003 to host the fifth African peace and human rights education training session. Taking into account the challenges confronting certain African countries, the debates dealt with the issues of democracy, development, the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. In the Americas, the campus of Laval University in Quebec hosted a training session for students on the theme of education from a global perspective within the framework of the work of five French-speaking universities in Eastern Canada. Most recently, in collaboration with an NGO (Alert International), a training seminar on peace education was held in Burundi.

An international team of experts researches and analyses various pedagogies in the area of peace and human rights education. These projects concentrate in particular on developing attitudes and skills that encourage opening up to "the other”, acknowledging the real, lived experience of teachers and analysing the problems of education, such as the grave and systematic violations of human rights. A significant effort is always made to invite participants to centre their teaching on the human person. In this way, the nature of the subject matter of human rights reinforces the pedagogical method.

Since 1968, the Schools for Peace bulletin has encouraged the exchange of experiences between the various national branches and educators from the “EIP in Movement” network.

EIP Publications produce works aimed at distributing an array of pedagogical approaches to human rights:

- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, printed in simplified vocabulary to mark the 30th year of the Declaration (1978)

- Half a century of human rights - a comic strip illustrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, created for the 50th anniversary of the Declaration (EIP, 1998)

- The Thematic Collection of CIFEDHOP was created with the objective of contributing to global discussions on the teaching of human rights and peace in both formal and informal education. The articles attempt to place educational initiatives within the overall framework of judicial, pedagogical and sociological analysis:

- Mondialisation et particularismes, No. 3, 1995 (in French only)

- Valeurs démocratiques et finalités éducatives, No. 4, 1996 (in French only)

- Droits de l'homme et citoyenneté: des repères pour agir, No. 5, 1997 (in French only)

- International Law and Human Rights, special issue, 1997

- Nouvelles politiques éducatives: défis pour la démocratie, No. 6, 1998 (in French only)

- Cultures, éducation et société: La place des droits de l'homme, No. 7, 1999 (in French only)

- Cultures de paix: portraits et perspectives, No. 8, 2000 (in French only)

- Education: a matter of law, No. 9, June 2001

- Life as Other, No. 10, July 2002

- Educational Challenges and Human Rights, No. 11, 2003

The CIFEDHOP Dossier presents subjects specifically relevant to teaching, and contains an overview of pedagogical issues.

- Nouvelles politiques éducatives: quelques éléments de problématiques, Genève, 1998 (in French only)

- Droits culturels: quelques éléments de problématiques, Genève, 1998 (in French only)

- Les droits culturels en tant que droits de l'homme, Genève, 1998 (in French only)

- Les droits des minorités: entre droits culturels et droits politiques, Genève, 1998 (in French only)

The Regional Perspectives Collection was created as a discussion forum directed at those who work on the ground in various ways around the world

- L'Education aux droits de l'homme, Vues d'Afrique No. 1, Editions du CIFEDHOP, Genève, 1996

- Eduquer aux droits de l'homme: contextes, problématiques et enjeux, Vues d'Afrique No. 2, Editions du CIFEDHOP, Genève, 1998

La Convention des droits de l'enfant. Comic book illustrating the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Editions Le Lombard, 1993, in collaboration with EIP-Belgium (in French only)

Teaching file on the use of the comic book on the rights of the child, 1994, EIP-Belgium (in French only)

Education in Human Rights and Peace: Problems and Pedagogical Trends. Jean Hénaire, Director of CIFEDHOP Publications, Council of Europe Editions, 1995 (in French and English)

A directory of pedagogical tools pertaining to issues of human rights education, democracy and managing diversity within the school and social environment, from an intercultural perspective. Veronique Truchot, Vice-President of EIP-international, Council of Europe Editions, 1996 (in French and English)

Education for international awareness: an idea that is paving its own way, Lucie-Mami Noor Nkake, EIP Consultant, BIE/UNESCO Editions, 1996 (in French and English)

Teaching guide to the European Convention on Human Rights for teachers in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Yves Lador, member of the EIP Directors committee, Council of Europe Editions, 1998.

Un demi-siècle de droits de l'homme. Comic book illustrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Montreal, Canada (in French only)

Human rights and cultural pluralism: the challenge of a democratic education, Jean Henaire, European Council of Europe Editions, 1998.

EIP and its national branches have built up a global network of teachers who exchange and discuss their pedagogic experiences. These national branches and their network of teachers play a significant role in promoting EIP's objectives and putting them into action. They also perform an important service in circulating EIP’s materials and international human rights documents.

EIP and CIFEDHOP experts participate in conferences and seminars of inter-governmental institutions in the area of human rights promotion, and also contribute to the drafting of works published by these institutions (see above for publications carried out in partnership). EIP participates in the sessions of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the Sub-commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights as well as the sessions of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights etc.

On the regional level, EIP participates in the meetings concerning education and the promotion of human rights of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Council of Europe.

In the context of more specialised programmes launched by Intermedia for the development of rural African radio, EIP participated in a project in Guinea, which was concerned with the preservation of oral traditions by means of sound archives. EIP was able to undertake a enriching dialogue with traditionalists and their agents who were the means of the handing on of collective memory. In Niger, EIP's expertise was solicited for an educational initiative concerning civic instruction (the rights of the child, the condition of women, health and environment…) and the development of a civic education programme which will be broadcast in different national languages, on rural and educational radio throughout French-speaking Africa.

On the national level, various branches of EIP offer custom-made training sessions for specific audiences, publish educational materials, and offer university courses on human rights education. National branches are frequently consulted by the educational authorities in their respective countries for their expertise in human rights education.