Human Rights Education for a democratic citizenship in Spain, Finland and Ireland: a comparative study

In the last few years, the rights of millions of people have been violated, highlighting the need for human rights and democracy edu-cation. Therefore, this article pursues two objectives: to analyse the curricular development of human rights and democracy education in Spain, Finland and Ireland; and to establish relationships between the two concepts in the curricula of these three countries. The methodological approach adopted draws on Documentary Analysis and Comparative Education using as reference the proposal of Ca-ballero et al. (2016), on the regulations governing curriculum development in compulsory schooling. The results revealed a comprehen-sive approach to human rights education in all three countries. Ireland also includes in its curriculum the need to act locally and think globally. Moreover, human dignity is present in the Spanish and Finnish curricula. With regard to democratic education, this concept is closely linked to human rights in all three countries, and its development is mainly cross-cutting. That said, the preferred subjects for the development of both contents are History, Social Sciences, and Ethics or Religious Education. This demonstrates the need for a competency-based approach to education that permeates the educational practice as a whole.