This paper examines the contribution of human rights education (HRE) to conflict prevention and to the promotion of security. It outlines the difficulties in evaluating the long-term impact of HRE, but then proposes five benefits of a rights-based approach to education--rights as secular, man-made, requiring transparency, enabling freedom from degrading treatment and implying reciprocity. The paper goes on to describe the work of UNICEF UK's Rights Respecting Schools before acknowledging the political and contested nature of HRE, in terms of competing rights. Future work should include research on the impact of and countering myths about rights.