How might a state-organised human rights education programme for public sector employees look like? The Human Rights Education for the Public Sector (HREPS) research project 2020–21 explored this question in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Bulgaria. The project looked at the concept and practice of human rights education in and for the public sector and developed a framework for a state-organised introductory course in human rights, which was co-designed with public sector employees and based on their needs and preferences.

The HREPS project was initiated and carried out in Latvia by Baltic Human Rights Society in partnership with the Latvian School of Public Administration and in collaboration with the Latvian ministries of Justice and the Interior. Hundreds of public sector employees contributed to the project through a survey and through workshops. Using a co-design methodology, the HREPS project examines how to build an introductory human rights education programme that would suit the needs, preferences, and availability of public sector employees. The aim of HREPS is to support public sector institutions and policy-makers with initial, practice-oriented research in designing and offering human rights education in the public sector.

In preparation of the HREPS project a one-day workshop was organised in collaboration with Latvian School of Public Administration at the EU House in Riga. Among the workshop participants were more than thirty public sector employees representing many different public sector ministries, including Justice, Defence, Foreign Affairs, Education and Science, Interior, Health, Welfare, as well as different subsidiary bodies such as the Prison Administration, National Centre for Education, State Inspectorate for Protection of Children’s Rights, State Education Development Agency, and State Plant Protection Service.