The final report of the Commission outlined an ‘essential core’ which should underpin both Human Rights Education and Development Education and related areas such as Peace education, Multicultural Education, Environmental Education, Anti-Racist Education and Gender Education.

This ‘essential core’ comprised four key components:

1. Dispositions and Values (respect for self; respect for others; a sense of social responsibility, a sense of belonging, a commitment to learning and an engagement with change
2. Capabilities and Skills (communication skills, critical reasoning and thinking skills, social skills and action skills)
3. Ideas and Understandings (the centrality of relationships, the disparity in human living conditions, the importance of technological and economic change, the concepts of democracy, governance and citizenship; cultural identities, conflict and conciliation, rules, rights and responsibilities, gender identities and sustainable development and conservation
4. Experiences and Actions (working independently and cooperatively, giving and receiving feedback, feeling valued, sharing responsibility, knowing a sense of achievement and making connections).