Founded in Geneva in 1967, The World Association for the School as an Instrument of Peace (EIP) is an international non-governmental organisation with consultative status to ECOSOC, UNESCO, the ILO, the IBE, the Council of Europe and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Administered by a committee of elected directors, EIP is managed by a General Secretariat in Geneva. At present, EIP includes 36 national branches and correspondents from all continents.
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In 1984, EIP created the International Training Centre on Human Rights and Peace Teaching (CIFEDHOP). A Swiss foundation, CIFEDHOP is presided over by Guy-Olivier SEGOND, formerly a State Councillor to the Republic and canton of Geneva, and managed by Monique PRINDEZIS. Jean HENAIRE, a socio-pedagogue, is the director of publications. CIFEDHOP is a centre for university-level research and training, whose work is directed towards teachers and educators, professionals and experts from both the formal and non-formal educational sectors.

EIP has developed an international network of experts in the areas of education, law and political science.

EIP International and its national sectors propose educational projects and analysis to political authorities in order to encourage and advocate effective peace and human rights teaching within educational systems.

It is from this standpoint that EIP work to achieve the following principle objectives:

- to contribute to the sociological and legal education of teachers in the area of international human rights law;

- to experiment with and verify pedagogical tools that encourage the progress of human rights and peace education;

- to present socio-political analysis on human rights and peace issues;

- to devise, produce and distribute pedagogical materials aimed at educators;

- to inspire and support the creation of national and regional branches throughout the world;

- to edit publications dealing with contemporary issues and problems, in collaboration with an international team of researchers and specialised educators;

- to produce and distribute pedagogical materials that heighten general public awareness of human rights and peace;

- to contribute to the creation of an interactive network of human rights educators, using information technology and communication tools adapted to the needs of those concerned.

An international team of experts researches and analyses various pedagogies in the area of peace and human rights education. These projects concentrate in particular on developing attitudes and skills that encourage opening up to "the other”, acknowledging the real, lived experience of teachers and analysing the problems of education, such as the grave and systematic violations of human rights. A significant effort is always made to invite participants to centre their teaching on the human person. In this way, the nature of the subject matter of human rights reinforces the pedagogical method.

Since 1968, the Schools for Peace bulletin has encouraged the exchange of experiences between the various national branches and educators from the “EIP in Movement” network.

EIP Publications produce works aimed at distributing an array of pedagogical approaches to human rights

EIP and its national branches have built up a global network of teachers who exchange and discuss their pedagogic experiences. These national branches and their network of teachers play a significant role in promoting EIP's objectives and putting them into action. They also perform an important service in circulating EIP’s materials and international human rights documents.

EIP experts participate in conferences and seminars of inter-governmental institutions in the area of human rights promotion, and also contribute to the drafting of works published by these institutions (see above for publications carried out in partnership). EIP participates in the sessions of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the Sub-commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights as well as the sessions of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights etc.

On the regional level, EIP participates in the meetings concerning education and the promotion of human rights of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Council of Europe.

In the context of more specialised programmes launched by Intermedia for the development of rural African radio, EIP participated in a project in Guinea, which was concerned with the preservation of oral traditions by means of sound archives. EIP was able to undertake a enriching dialogue with traditionalists and their agents who were the means of the handing on of collective memory. In Niger, EIP's expertise was solicited for an educational initiative concerning civic instruction (the rights of the child, the condition of women, health and environment…) and the development of a civic education programme which will be broadcast in different national languages, on rural and educational radio throughout French-speaking Africa.

On the national level, various branches of EIP offer custom-made training sessions for specific audiences, publish educational materials, and offer university courses on human rights education. National branches are frequently consulted by the educational authorities in their respective countries for their expertise in human rights education.