Since 2010, education for children’s rights, citizenship and democracy are part of the Western Switzerland compulsory school curriculum (Plan d’études romand, 2010). The Latin cantons education ministers Declaration also defines children’s rights as one of the basic principles of public schools (Conférence Intercantonale de l’Instruction Publique Declaration, 2003). On an international level, the Education 2030 Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action introduces global citizenship education as a comprehensive and organizing concept  “which includes peace and human rights education as well as intercultural education and education for international understanding” (Education 2030 Framework for Action, point 62). It is worth noting that educational policies at both national and international levels readily combine these various “educations for” (“éducations à” in French, see e.g. Favre, 2014) (human rights, responsible and active citizenship, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, appreciation of cultural diversity, sustainable development) regardless their different theoretical backgrounds. Moreover, they describe them as transversal forms of education and encourage teachers to promote interdisciplinary and multi-stakeholders approaches. This can possibly reinforce, to a certain extent, the vagueness around the theoretical anchoring of these different topics.

Nevertheless, Swiss NGOs (e.g. education21, International Institute for the Rights of the Child, Graines de Paix) consider these policies as an impetus for action and a grounding for their promotion activities in the field of children’s rights, sustainable development, peace and intercultural education. They thus select and/or produce pedagogical material to provide all school-level teachers with the necessary tools to equip learners with knowledge on global issues, as well as specific cognitive and socio-emotional skills and behavioural capacities. This process is generally supervised by quality assessment specialists and often includes collaboration with teachers from the field for testing on the one hand and researchers for external evaluation on the other. In addition to assessing the pedagogical quality of the material and its potential impact, the researchers have the opportunity to study the pedagogical means teachers are provided with and the way they handle and implement them. Moreover, they can analyze sets of practices in relation to a specific context, that is the school climate, regulations and socio-cultural environment.

How are the various theoretical frameworks or, when they are difficult to identify as such, the scientific literature related to the fields of children’s rights, human rights, intercultural, peace and global citizenship education combined in educational policies and then translated into pedagogical means? What are the points of encounter, possible overlaps, boundaries shifts or even territorial struggles? Postulating that the theoretical conflicts or conflicts of interest will diminish as the closer we get to practices, what are the losses in density and complexity in the pedagogical material and in its implementation? On the contrary, what is the added value of the combination, cross-fertilization or even integration of these different approaches, including from a theoretical point of view?

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