Educating for Human Rights and Global Citizenship An Introduction (original) (raw)

From Human Rights to Global Citizenship Education: Peace, Conflict and the Post-cold War Era

In the present paper, the researchers historicize the rise and growth of human rights education (HRE) in the post-Cold War era and importantly, periodize changes in the actors involved in the implementation of HRE, their approaches to HRE programming. The researchers detail three distinct periods that demonstrate the changing nature of warfare in the post-Cold War era: from sectarian, intra-state conflict to the global war on terror. The researchers’ narrative points towards possibilities for subsequent research that either asks new questions about HRE programming or explores old questions about HRE programming in new ways. Finally, the researchers explore the shift from HRE to Global Citizenship Education (GCE) and conclude by arguing for continuing and renewed emphasis and action on behalf of HRE, and examine a handful of key principles necessary for programs to realize the promise of human rights education as the new civics education for the new world order.

Contemporary challenges to international human rights law and the role of human rights education

Original Publication, 2011

OPSOMMING Hedendaagse uitdagings vir internasionale menseregte en die rol van menseregte-opleiding In hierdie bydrae word vier hedendaagse uitdagings aan international menseregte onder die loep geneem. Hierdie uitdagings is: (1) Die internasionale menseregte-sisteem is oormatig ingewikkeld en gefragmenteerd, dog steeds onvolledig in die substantiewe beskerming wat dit bied. (2) Internasionale menseregte het nie voldoen aan die beloftes wat dit voorgehou het nie. (3) Die staats-gesentreerde aard van menseregte gee aanleiding daartoe dat state die paradoksale posisie inneem as beide menseregte-beskermer en menseregte-skender. (4) Internasionale menseregte het nie voldoende aandag geskenk aan die behoeftes van die mees behoeftige lede van samelewings nie. Hierdie artikel maak die argument uit dat elkeen van hierdie uitdagings beter verstaan en benader kan word indień n multidissiplinêre, eerder as ´n streng judisiële of regsgebaseerde benadering gevolg word. Die inhoud van menseregte-opleiding moet dus krities heroorweeg word, en toelatingsvereistes vir meseregte-programme behoort aangepas te word om so ´n multidissiplinêre benadering te vergestalt. This address explores the broader idea of human rights, and reflects on contemporary challenges to international human rights law and their 208 2011 De Jure relevance for human rights education. 1 Under the term "international human rights law", I understand the human rights treaties and other documents and related institutions and processes at both the global level (under the auspices of the United Nations) and at the regional level (under the African Union). During the last century, in particular after the fall of the Berlin Wall, human rights were celebrated as the "idea of our time". 2 International human rights had become the new universalised or "worldwide secular religion", 3 and its acceptance by states a prerequisite for "good governance" and international legitimacy. 4 However, with the dawn of this century, critical voices have increasingly questioned whether "human rights can survive" 5 and even postulated the "end of human rights". 6 2 Contemporary Challenges to International Human Rights Law International human rights law has been problematised from different vantage points, and for various reasons. 7 A few of the contemporary challenges are the following: (1) In the post-9/11 era, as human rights became increasingly fused with security concerns in the United States and elsewhere, legislation and executive action purporting to counter terrorism instead eroded principles as firmly entrenched as the prohibition of torture. (2) The prominent role of China in international affairs, especially in Africa, is tied to the resurgence of a crude understanding of the principle of noninterference in the domestic affairs of states, allowing states to cloak human rights violations from international scrutiny despite their acceptance of international standards. Prominent infrastructure developments initiated by the Chinese, which may paradoxically assist in realising socioeconomic rights, may also increase the strength of their leverage. 1 The adoption of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training by the UN Human Rights Council, on 23 March 2011, testifies to the growing importance attached to human rights education globally (UN Doc A/ HRC/RES/16/1, 2011-04-08). It is expected that the UN General Assembly will endorse this draft and adopt this as a UN Declaration in 2012. 2 Henkin The age of rights (1990) ix sates "Human rights is the idea of our time, the only political-moral idea that has received universal acceptance". 3 Wiesel "A tribute to human rights" in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Fifty years and beyond Y (eds Danieli, Stamatopoulou & Dias)(1999) 3. 4 See eg Teson Humanitarian Intervention (1988) 15 ("a government that engages in substantial violation of human rights betrays the very purpose for which it exists"). 5 Gearty Can human rights survive? (2006). 6 Douzinas The end of human rights: Critical legal thought at the turn of the century (2000).

Teaching the Transformative Agenda of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Radical Teacher, 2015

Neoliberalism has dominated the world for over three decades and now permeates our laws, policies and practices at the international, national and local levels. The International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, the European Union, the United States and China all support trade liberalization, privatization of public services and the primacy of markets over people. Indeed, neoliberalism has become so ingrained that it has become invisible and many of us no longer notice when new agendas conflict with international human rights laws and principles to which almost all countries in the world have committed themselves. Adopted in 1948, immediately after World War II, to implement one of the four goals of the new United Nations Organization, the norms and aspirations elaborated in the UDHR provide a framework for a radically different world than the one we have today. In this article, we revisit the content of the UDHR, beginning with the right to a social and international or...

Human Rights Education: The Promise of the Third Millennium?

1994

The 20th century could be characterized as the "Age of Rights." Never before has there been such progress and interest in human rights standards. To ensure this progress, human rights education (HRE) needs to look at the world history of the struggles for rights and against tyranny and injustice. The notions of HRE originated in the text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This paper chronicles the history and current state of human rights education. Details of human rights education in the context of the 1974 UNESCO Recommendation, the 1993 UNESCO Montreal Recommendation, the Vienna Declaration, and the Draft Plan of Action for the United Nations Decade for HRE: 1995-2005 are explored. The fundamentals of human rights education cannot be legislated in advance, but must emerge through regular and persistent review by human rights educators. The necessary critiques of human rights pronouncements and the tasks ahead in improving and spreading human rights education are investigated. (LAP)

Human Rights and Human Rights Education: Beyond the Conventional Approach

infactispax.org

The last three decades have witnessed an intellectual conflict between two diametrically opposed schools of thought on human rights. The first school of thought concerns the universalism of human rights, and the second is based on cultural relativism. Universalists are committed to the view that, while the discourse of human rights originated in the West, a common set of human rights standards can, and should, apply across cultures. For Cultural Relativists, there is no universally moral doctrine, since morality is viewed as a relative social and historical phenomenon. As follows from the relativist approach, human rights are valid only in and for those cultures that established the discourse of rights. Relativism emphasizes that values of human rights are at odds with traditional intercultural beliefs. This paper is an attempt to go beyond the dichotomy inherent in the Universalist-Relativist debate. As a prerequisite, to move beyond the debate, it is essential to acknowledge the nature of the dichotomies in existence (universalism versus cultural relativism, Western vs. Non-Western). This study is an effort to translate one perspective into another and discover a common denominator for the variance in perspectives.

International Approaches in Human Rights Education

2002

This paper was presented at a working group on Human Rights Education (HRE), organised by Volker Lenhart and Christel Adick, as part of the biennial conference of the German Society for Educational Research (DGfE), held in 2000 in Göttingen. In the spirit of the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education (1995-2004) it contributes to the global discourse about HRE by summarising its foundations in international declarations and conventions, by discussing some examples for diverse approaches and conceptions of HRE and, finally by introducing some major obstacles or problems. The paper is part of the author's PhD project in the field of HRE and presents only an interim résumé of her recent work. Zusammenfassung-Dieser Artikel wurde bei einer von Volker Lenhart und Christel Adick organisierten Arbeitsgruppe über Menschenrechtserziehung (Human Rights Education-HRE) als Teil einer alle zwei Jahre abgehaltenen Konferenz der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Erziehungswissenschaft (DGfE) im Jahr 2000 in Göttingen vorgestellt. Im Geiste der Dekade der Vereinten Nationen für Menschenrechtserziehung (1995-2004) trägt er zur globalen Debatte über Menschenrechtserziehung bei, indem er deren Ursprünge in internationalen Deklarationen und Konventionen zusammenfasst, indem einige Beispiele für diverse Ansätze und Konventionen der Menschenrechtserziehung zur Diskussion gestellt werden und schließlich, indem einige wesentliche Hindernisse oder Probleme vorgestellt werden. Dieser Artikel ist Teil des Projekts zur Doktorarbeit der Autorin im Bereich Menschenrechtserziehung und gibt lediglich einen Zwischenbericht ihrer jüngsten Arbeiten. Résumé-Cette intervention a été présentée à une groupe de travail dur l'éducation aux droits humains, organisé par Volker Lenhart et Christel Adick dans le cadre de la conférence biennale de la société allemande des sciences éducatives (DgfE), tenue en 2000 à Göttingen. Dans l'esprit de la Décennie des Nations unies pour l'éducation aux droits humains (1995-2004), elle contribue au débat international sur l'éducation aux droits de la personne en rappellant ses fondements acrés dans les différentes méthodes et conceptions de cette éducation, enfin en abordant certains obstacles ou problèmes majeures. L'article fait partie du projet de thèse de l'auteure sur l'éducation aux droits humains et ne contient qu'un résume intermédiaire de son récent travail. Resumen-Este trabajo ha sido presentado en un grupo de trabajo sobre la Educación para los Derechos Humanos organizado por