Human Rights Education

The Klau Institute for Civil and Human Rights has an ongoing partnership with the Vatican’s Global Compact on Education, which is an initiative begun by Pope Francis in 2019 and renewed by Pope Leo XIV in 2025 during the Jubilee of Education.

The Klau Institute’s work in this space seeks to promote institutional collaboration and learning by bringing together global Catholic universities that share a commitment to human rights education at all levels.

Our vision is to strengthen human rights education around the world by encouraging dialogue around pedagogical approaches and sharing best practices while also widening our perspectives on human dignity in all contexts.

Roundtable

The Klau Institute hosted a scholarly roundtable, Dignity, Democracy, and Human Rights Education, on March 23-24, 2026, at the University of Notre Dame. Representatives from more than a dozen Catholic universities in the United States and other parts of the globe will participate.

Key questions that the group considered included: What should human rights education look like in light of the Catholic social tradition? What are best practices in undergraduate and graduate education around human rights and democratic engagement? How can the Catholic Church’s historic involvement in promoting democracy and human rights help inform how we respond to today’s challenges? And what role should experiential learning, issues-based education, and the Catholic social tradition play in developing curricula?

The roundtable also included a public lecture by Charles and Jill Fischer Provost John McGreevy, “Democracy and Global Catholicism: The View from History,” in the Hesburgh Center for International Studies Auditorium.

The roundtable received financial support from the Notre Dame Democracy Initiative and was co-sponsored by the University’s Global Catholic Research Initiative.