This article builds on previous comparative education research by analyzing the current discourse surrounding this emerging education model--human rights education. The first section provides a brief history of human rights education in formal education. The second section reviews research on international reforms, emphasizing analyses of processes in global diffusion and variation at national or local levels. Closely related, the third section discusses linkages and relational and associational processes that spread ideas and construct new models such as human rights education. The fourth section focuses on the current state of human rights education, exploring the creation of an epistemic community of human rights educators and the theorization of human rights education within the community. Specifically, the section analyzes discussions among members of the epistemic community about why to teach human rights education, how to teach human rights education, and how to assess the reform. (Contains 1 figure, 3 tables and 16 footnotes.)