Moral and Human Rights Education: the Contribution of the United Nations
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Moral and human rights education: the contribution of the United Nations Murray Printa, Carolina Ugarteb, Concepción Naval*c and Anja Mihrd aUniversity of Sydney, Australia; b and c University of Navarra, Spain; d Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany Moral education can take many forms. W ith the end of the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education (UNHRE) (1995-2004), we critically review developments in human rights education (HRE) during those ten years in the context of moral education. W e argue that, despite some modest successes, the decade lacked direction and a major impact and has failed to prepare a sound basis for securing HRE internationally. These outcomes largely account for the United Nations‘ (UN) decision in 2005 to initiate the W orld Programme for Human Rights Education. Meanwhile initiatives in defining the goals and practice of HRE have happened outside the UN context. Overall the UN‘s contribution to building HRE and moral education has, at best, been marginally successful due in large measure to the inherent weaknesses of the organisation as well as the UN‘s inability to engage member states. * University of Navarra, Edificio Central, 31080 Pamplona, Spain. Email: cnaval@ unav.es Introduction Moral education may take many forms within and outside schools and educational systems. W hile most initiatives in what generally constitutes moral education are typically bounded within formal educational systems and within countries, there are others which attempt to improve the human condition through international educational programs with no base anchored in any specific school or country. For example, some six decades ago the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) extolled every individual and every part of society to ”strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms‘. Yet the record of human rights abuse has been so profound that by 1993 the United Nations (UN) declared a decade to promote training and dissemination of information to build a universal culture of human rights (UN General Assembly (GA), 1994). Can an intergovernmental agency promote human rights education (HRE) effectively across and within national borders? In one sense the case of HRE and the UN, while apparently not as urgent as many others, typifies the rationale, need and dilemmas for such an agency œ can the UN deliver improved human rights through engagement with HRE? Human rights, both as a concept and as an implementation strategy, are problematic for many governments and consequently there has been wide pressure for the UN to take action to enhance awareness through HRE. W hile other intergovernmental groups, such as the European Union, may take similar action, this paper focuses upon the work of the UN as it has taken a long standing position on human rights and HRE. W ith the end of the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education (UNDHRE) in 2004, it is important to critically review the actions undertaken by the United Nations and to identify the impact of the program on human rights education specifically. Special mention has to be made of the task of the Office of the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights (OUNHCHR), charged with coordinating the Plan of Action of the Decade, which has worked together with organisations such as the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and non- governmental organisations. This review is based partly on official documents published by the UN, such as the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education, 1995-2004 (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 1998) and the Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the mid-term global evaluation of the UNDHRE (UN GA, 2000) 2 On December 10th 2004, the international day for human rights, the UN General Assembly concluded the Decade, but saw the need for the international community to continue collaborating to realise effective education for human rights. Simply put, too many objectives of the Decade for education in human rights were not achieved. The establishment of a UN W orld Programme for Human Rights Education (W PHRE) was approved with its first phase extending UN involvement in HRE to 2007. The purpose of this paper then is to outline, in the context of moral education, the definition and meaning of HRE, to explain the initiatives, to detect the strengths and weaknesses of the Decade and to identify trends within the framework of the W PHRE. Moral and human rights education W hile much of human rights is concerned with aspects of law, human rights education focuses its attention on changing human behaviour to address issues of human rights. Over the past two decades increasing concern has been expressed at the lack of improvement in the general condition of human rights around the world (Davies, 2000; Georgi & Soberich, 2004). One early identified approach to tackle human rights issues has been to promote the widespread application of HRE (UN. GA, 1994; UN Commission on Human Rights, 2004; Mihr, 2004). However, the status of HRE around the world, while variable, is generally low in terms of explicit national educational goals within countries. Indeed, this was a major motivation for calling the W orld Conference on Human Rights in 1993 (UN CHR, 2004; Australia. Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade (AJSCFADT), 2004; Mihr, 2004). In the process HRE has sought to gain wider public appeal, including establishing logical linkages with civic education, citizenship education and moral education. Several components of HRE may be linked directly with a broadly interpreted moral education, including capacity building within individuals to act morally towards others, awareness of fundamental moral positions, such as the value of human life, and building understanding of the impact of policies upon people‘s lives through education (Osler & Starkey, 2000). As a constitutive element of education HRE extends throughout life, affecting all social groups. Hence education in human rights may also be seen as the basis of moral, civic or anti-bias education. Moral education may be regarded as education of, in and for freedom and moral responsibility; whereas civic education is education that facilitates the kind of human co-existence that is necessary for the common good 3 (Medina, 1986). Therefore, a person educated in human rights, making free, morally- based decisions and actions, could contribute towards social justice and hence the common good of all in society (Naval, 2000). Significant attempts to address issues which are fundamental to moral education and which attempt to improve the human condition may be found in international educational programs, such as those proposed by the UN. Since moral education is directly concerned with developing morally aware and responsible people it is consequently linked with the more specific education about and for human rights. Indeed, it may be argued that both moral and human rights education are concerned with developing, through educational means, respect for fundamental human freedoms, a sense of dignity within people and the promotion of freedom, tolerance, equity and harmony amongst people. Although HRE is a widely used expression in educational literature (Starkey, 1994; Readon, 1995; Satrath, 1998; Osler & Starkey, 2000; Flowers, 2003; Mihr, 2004) here we wish to focus on HRE more narrowly in terms of what human rights education means in the context of the UN Decade. W hile definitional consensus for HRE is problematic, there is agreement that it is principally education in, of and for individuals, to build individual dignity and to accept that all have rights as human beings. For the purposes of the UN Decade, and for UN activities promoting human rights more generally, HRE was defined as training, dissemination and information efforts, aimed at building a universal culture of human rights through the imparting of knowledge, skills and attitudes directed to: (a) The strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms; (b) The full development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity; (c) The promotion of understanding, tolerance, gender equality and friendship among all nations, indigenous peoples and racial, national, ethnic, religious and linguistic groups; (d) The enabling of all persons to participate effectively in a free society; (e) The furtherance of the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace (UNOUNHCHR, 1998). To achieve such a level of individual understanding, the UN‘s HRE definition has identified the need for establishing a process for imparting the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to build a culture of human rights, to build understanding, attitudes and actions to protect human rights and to encourage peaceful, just and free communities. It has accurately argued, as agreed in the wider literature, that if citizens are not able to understand and state their human rights and those of others, they will not 4 be able to claim these rights, nor will they be able to defend them if necessary œ a fundamental concern of moral education (UNOUNHCHR, 1998; Davies, 2000; Naval, 2000; Flowers, 2003; Mihr, 2004). In particular the UN definition highlights that HRE is concerned with the educational process whereby people learn about those rights that are arguably inherent in human nature and without which we cannot live as civilised human beings. Human rights and associated fundamental freedoms allow us to develop fully as humans and utilise our human qualities, our intelligence, our talents and our conscience, and to satisfy our other needs. They are based on mankind's increasing demand for a life in which the inherent dignity and worth of each human being will receive respect and protection (Flowers, 2003). As the first sentence of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, respect for human rights and human dignity ”is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world‘ (UN CHR, 2004).