This article is the outcome of the research carried out during the author’s PhD in History, National University of Colombia. In it, the instruments of Christianization applied to the indigenous population during colonial times are explored and analyzed, as well as the discursive use of fear by the evangelizers. The importance of the Christianization method is discussed; the way in which, by means of catechism lessons and the synodal constitutions of the first archbishops in Santafé, indications for the conversion of the indigenous peoplewere made. Fear is implicitly present, as such instruments communicate. With that goal in mind, a documental and descriptive methodology is applied, allowing a contextualization in time and space for this Christianization and pedagogy of fear. In the same fashion, the role of the Church and the obstacles preventing the Christianization of the indigenous inhabitants of Santafé and Tunja provinces are established. From these, the consequences of the indigenous population Christianization in the already mentioned provinces during the early colonial period can be evidenced; likewise, it can be seen how fear operated in two horizons: the first, a Christian supernatural one; the second, the indirect fear produced by punitive law instituted within the instruments used as core tools for the evangelizing enterprise.

This study attempts to make a documentary investigation of the main instruments ruling public policies that affect the design and formulation of teaching strategies in Human Rights in different geographical levels. In this regard it is essential to address the universal declarations of rights generated from the UN, and those that have been developed multilaterally between member countries of the so-called Regional Systems, especially by the European and the Inter-American systems, which have affected discussions on the way in which Human Rights should be taught. To achieve the collection of multiple instruments and debates on the subject, it has been privileged the information from Western regional systems, followed by data on the Latin American situation, and finally focusing on the case of the educational public policy in Colombia. In this study the existence of a considerable gap between the normative ideal and the reality of human rights education is highlighted, not ignoring the clear fact that a collective, but insufficient, effort in the field has been undertaken by the education actors.