Human Rights Education: setting the tone for shared approaches

1. Human Rights Education:setting the tone for shared approaches Lesley Emerson l.emerson@qub.ac.uk

2. Overview • Why human rights? • Why human rights education? • International standards and HRE • The right to human rights education • International commitment to HRE • Sharing emerging practice in HRE • Human rights based approaches • Engaging more fully with human rights discourse • Human rights and ‘political generosity’ • Key features of a ‘HRBA Connecting Classrooms’ HRE programme

3. Why Human Rights? • Human rights have a key role to play in democratic societies: • values base through which individuals can reflect on their own moral/ethical behaviour • framework through which to articulate the relationship between the state and the individual or groups of individuals • can frame and address the nature of conflict and its legacy • As the UDHR states: ‘every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction’ (UN, 1948, preamble, emphasis added)

4. Why Human Rights Education? • Human rights education (HRE) is central to the realization of the universal culture of human rights • The decisive features of a human rights culture are understood to include the following: • governments operating within a human rights framework; • the practices of public bodies shaped by human rights principles; • human rights standards popularly accepted in wider society; • individuals recognizing and valuing both their rights and the rights of others (McEvoy and Lundy, 2007)

5. Establishing the right to HRE • Explicit references to HRE as a requirement and obligation upon states and implicit references to its intrinsic valuecan be found in numerous international and regional human rights instruments and recommendations from international, regional and national human rights organizations (McEvoy and Lundy, 2007) • States are required to • ensure that education is directed towards respect for human rights (UN, 1966 Article 13); • propagate the principles and purposes of specific instruments, for example, the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UN, 1965 Article 7); • further, through education, for example, women’s human rights and gender equality (UN, 1979 Article 10) • UN treaty bodies have acknowledged the role of education in ensuring effective implementation of international human rights standards at national levels and states are encouraged to include information about educational activities in their periodic reports and to disseminate these reports to the public (UN, 1977; 1988).

6. Establishing the right to HRE for children: UNCRC • The right to education is ‘not only a matter of access but also of content’ (UN, 2001) • Article 29 : ‘a foundation stone’ for human rights education programmes (UN, 2001 para.15). • Article 42 of the CRC, which requires States Parties ‘to make the principles and provisions of the Convention widely known’ identifies education as a key mechanism for effective implementation. • The Committee on the Rights of the Child states that: ‘States should develop a comprehensive strategy for disseminating knowledge of the Convention throughout society’ and places special emphasis on children acquiring knowledge of their rights through ‘incorporating learning about the Convention and human rights in general into the school curriculum at all stages’ (UN, 2003).

7. Commitment of the international community to HRE • UN decade (1994-2005) (GA Res 49/184 Dec 1994) • World Program for HRE (GA Res 9/113 July 2005) • Develop a culture of human rights • Promote a common understanding, based on international instruments, of the basic principles and methodologies of HRE • Draft Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training (adopted by the Open Ended Working Group, January 2011)

8. Draft Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training Article 1: • Everyone has the right to know, seek and receive information about all human rights and fundamental freedoms and should have access to human rights education and training. • Human rights education and training is essential for the promotion of universal respect for and observance of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, in accordance with the principles of universality, indivisibility and interdependence of human rights. • The effective enjoyment of all human rights, in particular the right to education and access to information, enables access to human rights education and training.

9. Draft Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training Article 2: Human rights education and training encompasses education: • About human rights, which includes providing knowledge and understanding of human rights norms and principles, the values that underpin them and the mechanisms for their protection • Through human rights, which includes learning and teaching in a way that respects the rights of both educators and learners; • For human rights, which includes empowering persons to enjoy and exercise their rights and to respect and uphold the rights of others

10. Emerging Practice in HRE : Human rights-based approaches (HRBA) Key principles of a HRBA (UN, 2003): • Aim to further the realisation of human rights as laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments. • International human rights instruments guide all stages of the programme. • Programmes should seek to: • develop the capacities of ‘duty-bearers’ to meet their obligations and capacity of ‘rights-holders’ to claim their rights.

11. Emerging Practice in HRE : engaging more fully with human rights discourse • Human rights as consensus • Values/moral consensus • Standards/legal consensus • Human rights as compromise • Human rights as controversy (Emerson, forthcoming)

12. Emerging Practice in HRE : human rights and ‘political generosity’ Features of ‘political generosity’ include inter alia: • Recognition of the centrality of the human rights and equality framework • Awareness of the accountability of the state • Confidence in community identity and sensitivity to the politics of the ‘other’ • Focus on the pragmatics of peace-building rather than individual prejudice reduction (McEvoy et al , 2006)

13. Emerging Practice in HRE : human rights and ‘political generosity’ Implications for human rights education programmes: • frame issues of identity within the language of human rights: the right to a nationality; freedom of thought conscience and religion etc. • assist young people in exploring issues of difference and diversity through the language of rights and in resolving conflict through an understanding of the need to balance and limit human rights in certain situations. • provide young people with the opportunity to internalize core human rights values (justice, freedom, equality and participation) as a basis for their own ethical behaviour. • develop in young people an expectation of respect for their own human rights and a respect for the rights of others

14. Key Features of Effective Human Rights Education • Human rights education programmes should assist young people in: • learning about human rights, through human rights, for human rights • They should include: • knowledge and understanding about human rights, attitudes and behaviour respectful of those rights, skills to uphold and protect human rights

15. Key Features of ‘Connecting Classrooms’ Human Rights Education Programmes • Knowledge and understanding of the: • origin of the concept of human rights • UDHR and other key international (and regional/national) human rights instruments • values underpinning these instruments • relationship between ‘rights-holder’ and ‘duty-bearer’ • indivisibility/interdependence of human rights • need to balance and limit human rights • mechanisms through which human rights instruments are monitored (and enforced) • awareness of human rights issues in local and global contexts (through shared case studies) • Delivered through active and participatory classroom approaches in a climate that respects the rights of all • Lead to ‘taking action’ for human rights