Human Rights Education

Human rights can only be achieved through an informed and continued demand by people for their protection. Human rights education promotes values, beliefs and attitudes that encourage all individuals to uphold their own rights and those of others. It develops an understanding of everyone's common responsibility to make human rights a reality in each community.

Human rights education constitutes an essential contribution to the long-term prevention of human rights abuses and represents an important investment in the endeavour to achieve a just society in which all human rights of all persons are valued and respected.

Human rights education teaches both about human rights and for human rights.

Its goal is to help people understand human rights, value human rights, and take responsibility for respecting, defending, and promoting human rights. An important outcome of human rights education is empowerment, a process through which people and communities increase their control of their own lives and the decisions that affect them. The ultimate goal of human rights education is people working together to bring about human rights, justice, and dignity for all.

Education about human rights provides people with information about human rights. It includes learning about the inherent dignity of all people and their right to be treated with respect about human rights principles, such as the universality, indivisibility, and interdependence of human rights.

About how human rights promote participation in decision making and the peaceful resolution of conflicts.

About the history and continuing development of human rights.

About international law, like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

About regional, national, state, and local law that reinforces international human rights law.

About using human rights law to protect human rights and to call violators to account for their actions.

About human rights violations such as torture, genocide, or violence against women and the social, economic, political, ethnic, and gender forces which cause them.

About the persons and agencies that are responsible for promoting, protecting, and respecting human rights.

Education for human rights helps people feel the importance of human rights, internalize human rights values, and integrate them into the way they live.

To have a Human Rights based approach in JAMMIN is fundamental for the success of the project.

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Council of Europe

Education is the process by which society transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another. In the broadest sense, education may include any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character, or physical ability of a person. It has a fundamental influence on the capabilities and potentials of individuals and communities to achieve development as well as social and economic success. It is one of the key factors for development as well as for empowering people. Education provides people with knowledge and information and also contributes to building a sense of self-esteem and self-confidence, and towards the realisation of one's potential.

Education is both a human right in itself and an indispensable means of realizing other human rights. As an empowerment right, education is the primary vehicle by which economically and socially marginalized adults and children can lift themselves out of poverty and obtain the means to participate fully in their communities. Education has a vital role in empowering women, safeguarding children from exploitative and hazardous labour and sexual exploitation, promoting human rights and democracy, protecting the environment, and controlling population growth.

General Comment 13 on the right to education on Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights1

Education as a Human Right

The right to education is core to the very idea of human rights. In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed free and compulsory elementary education to be a basic human right. Education is seen not only as a right, however, but also as a means to the full and effective realisation of other human rights. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which entered into force in 1976 and was ratified by 160 countries4, reaffirmed the right to education as a legally binding obligation. Article 13 is the longest provision in the Covenant and the most wide-ranging and comprehensive article on the right to education in international human rights law.

The right to education is upheld in numerous other human rights instruments too, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and various regional treaties (for example, the European Social Charter, or the African Charter on Human Rights and Peoples' Rights, or the revised Arab Charter) and conventions focused on particular groups of people (such as the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, or the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women).

All human rights instruments rely largely on knowledge and education about their standards and objectives. The preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognised this when observing that "a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge" to promote universal respect for and observance of human rights. It entails that education about human rights is essential to creating a world where human rights are respected.

Education should be available, accessible, acceptable and adaptable. The concept of these four As was developed by Katarina Tomaševski, a former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education.

• Availability: education is free and paid for by the government; there are appropriate infrastructures, including trained teachers.

• Accessibility: the system is non-discriminatory and accessible to all, and positive action is taken to include marginalised people.

• Acceptability: the content of education is relevant, non-discriminatory and culturally appropriate, and quality is guaranteed.

• Adaptability: education can evolve with the changing needs of society, and the system can be adapted to the local contexts.

Governments have to respect, protect and fulfil the right to education by making education available, accessible, acceptable and adaptable. However, there are other duty-bearing actors in the education process as well, including the child, who benefit from the right to education and are supposed to comply with compulsory education requirements the child's parents who are the "first educators" and are responsible for providing guidance to the child; and education professionals.

Education and discrimination

The principle of non-discrimination with respect to education relates to a number of issues.

1. The first is that education, at all levels, should be accessible and available to all without discrimination.

2. The second is that the provision, quality and content of education should uphold non-discrimination.

3. The third is that education itself is aimed at the nurturing of respect and tolerance.

Regarding the first issue, the UDHR sets as an objective that elementary education should be free and compulsory. Technical and professional education should be generally available and higher education should be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has confirmed that the obligation of non-discrimination in relation to education extends to all persons living in the territory of a state party, including non-nationals, and stated that "the enjoyment of the right to fundamental education is not limited by age or gender; it extends to children, youth and adults, including older persons"5. The Committee has recognised the right of access to public education on a non-discriminatory basis as a minimum core obligation of states in relation to the right to education. Ensuring non-discrimination in terms of access to education requires that stereotypical perspectives, for example those impeding the right of girls or disadvantaged groups to access education, should be overcome.

The second issue is related to the idea that education itself should work in a non-discriminatory manner. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights highlights "acceptability" as an essential aspect of enjoyment of the right to receive an education. It is important that the quality of education should be equivalent in all public educational institutions of the same level. If separate educational institutions are maintained for particular groups of people, such as the two sexes, or religious or ethnic groups, the quality of teaching staff as well as school premises and equipment must be equivalent.

Integration VS Segregation

The question of integrated versus segregated education has been hotly debated in recent years. The right to inclusive education is recognised in international human rights law. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities explicitly states that education for disabled children should be inclusive. However, inclusive education should not be limited to learners with disabilities or special needs, but to all marginalised, left-out, stereotyped people, including ethnic minorities. A learning environment with all kinds of people is beneficial to the more privileged as well, as it helps develop sensitivity to the needs of others, thereby enhancing social integration and tolerance.

Education and vulnerability in Europe

Although many human rights instruments with binding force prescribe the right of everyone to education without any discrimination, the reality is that not everybody can enjoy this right to the same extent. There are some social groups whose right to education is violated more often than other people's. Experts from the Council of Europe have highlighted three main groups of young people who are particularly vulnerable within education systems:

1. those who come from economically disadvantaged families

2. those whose parents have limited educational experience

3. ethnic minorities, immigrants and people with no fixed home (the so-called "travellers").

In Europe, the education dropout rate among young people aged between 18 and 24 was 14.4% in 2009, according to the official statistics published by Eurostat.8 This means that more than six million people, or one in seven young people, leave school with only lower secondary education or less. In 14 member states, however, that indicator exceeds the European average. The highest education dropout rates are in Malta (36.8%), Portugal (31.2%), and Spain (31.2%).

As the largest ethnic minority in Europe, the Roma are especially vulnerable to human rights violations regarding education. Social marginalisation, poverty, language difficulties and cultural differences may prevent them from taking full advantage of education legally available to all. In some countries, Roma children are often placed in "special" classes or schools, despite not having any mental or learning disabilities, or are segregated into Roma-only schools. An estimated 50% of Roma children fail to complete primary education, according to a UNESCO report. Primary education is compulsory, pursuant to international human rights law, so stakeholders should make all efforts to enforce it.

Human Rights Education

No single definition for human rights education will serve the many ways in which people young and old come to understand, practise and value their rights and respect the rights of others. The Council of Europe’s Human Rights Education Youth Programme defines human rights education as:

...educational programmes and activities that focus on promoting equality in human dignity, in conjunction with programmes such as those promoting intercultural learning, participation and empowerment of minorities.

The telling phrase in this definition is “in conjunction”, for human rights education is rarely undertaken outside of a specific context, ideally based on the needs, preferences, abilities and desires of the learners.

The key to defining human rights education is its purpose, for no matter what the methodology or context, its aim is always the development of a culture of human rights. The essential elements of such a culture can provide general objectives for human rights education:

• to strengthen respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms

• to value human dignity and develop individual self-respect and respect for others

• to develop attitudes and behaviours that will lead to respect for the rights of others

• to ensure genuine gender equality and equal opportunities for women and men in all spheres

• to promote respect, understanding and appreciation of diversity, particularly towards different national, ethnic, religious, linguistic and other minorities and communities

• to empower people towards more active citizenship

• to promote democracy, development, social justice, communal harmony, solidarity and friendship among people and nations

• to further the activities of international institutions aimed at the creation of a culture of peace, based upon universal values of human rights, international understanding, tolerance and non-violence.