Key features:
Our guide
Understanding human rights
Available in eleven countries
Our resources
How human rights work in everyday situations
The Guide takes a thematic approach to explaining how human rights work. You can learn about the rights which are relevant to a particular topic or a situation in your daily life. New themes will be added over time.
The Guide offers help in understanding how to complain when you believe your rights have been violated. Each theme has a section that explains the steps to take.
The Guide offers references to the relevant national and international laws, case law and additional documents. These are found in resources sections at the bottom of the specific page. Summaries are provided for the most relevant cases, in addition to links to full judgments.
The Guide has a section on the human rights institutions to approach for establishing whether your human rights have been violated. It explains when and how you can apply to these institutions. There is also a section on organisations which work with human rights and that can be consulted for help or further information.
If you wish to use the Guide for learning purposes, the Guide offers you a possibility to assess your knowledge in human rights before or after studying, by completing tests about different themes included in the Guide.
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
Our network
A joint European initiative
- Baltic Human Rights SocietyLatvia
- Bulgarian Helsinki CommitteeBulgaria
- Center for Civil LibertiesUkraine
- Estonian Human Rights CentreEstonia
- Foundation for the Support of Legal Education of GYLAGeorgia
- Human Rights EmbassyMoldova
- Human Rights House ZagrebCroatia
- Institut international des droits de l’Homme et de la paixFrance
- Institute for Human Rights and Democracy EducationLithuania
- Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in SlovakiaSlovakia
- Peace Institute – Institute for Contemporary Social and Political StudiesSlovenia