I. The State of Human Rights Education

 
Citizenship education can be seen in the larger context of human rights education. As Jan Martenson, former Under-Secretary-General for Human Rights, wrote: "Human rights issues are at the heart of the entire United Nations system. Every United Nations body, regardless of its specific assignment, functions with the ultimate goals of the Organization in mind: the protection and promotion of world peace and of human rights."[3]  Twenty-five years earlier, the then Secretary-General of the United Nations, U Thant declared that: "The establishment of human rights provides the foundation upon which rests the political structure of human freedom... ." He saw in the promotion and protection of human rights an ascending spiral of human freedom and progress, prosperity and peace.[4]

A major theoretical and pedagogical dilemma of human rights educators has been what to teach and how it should be taught. As J. Paul Martin has written, there is "the realization that the concept of human rights is rarely examined systematically," and that there is "little attempt being made to reconcile the resulting ambiguities."[5]  If one takes the position that human rights education is analogous to political education, then we can assume that there are three components with which we must work: knowledge, skills, and attitudes. All three components are important in both formal and informal sectors of education.[6] What is needed today is what Ettinger, has termed a "structuring of discursive practice in such a manner as to make the goals and values espoused by the human rights education movement a part of the lived reality of human rights dialogue".[7]  Richard Devlin has termed this approach a ‘Critical Modernist Perspective’.[8] Human rights are, then, an "ideological discursive practice, that is … a way of thinking, knowing and talking that facilitates, structures and underpins the ways and means of social interaction."[9]  Devlin argues that this view of human rights eradicates problems of ahistoricity, reclaims a definition of ‘power’ as empowerment rather than merely ‘power over’ and enables human rights to respond to human needs.[10]

Unfortunately, most human rights education takes place within the framework of social studies courses and is therefore confined by the rest of the subject matter in these courses. Additionally, many students who do not take a social studies course therefore miss out on human rights education. In Canada this approach to human rights education has been accomplished in the conceptualization of "citizenship education".[11]  Being a good citizen means respect for others in a variety of manifestations: religious belief; skin colour; cultural and ethnic background; former nationality; gender; etc. We have come to use the short-hand words of "tolerance" and respect for "multiculturalism" to describe what good citizenship means for this country. However, in spite of this set of prevailing beliefs, we have seen the increase of just the opposite across this nation: more intolerance, and less respect and recognition of our multicultural fact.

In the formal education sector, the problems currently being experienced with regard to intolerance may in part be the result of the segmented nature of how "human rights" are taught. A more integrated programme might be required. However, this also would require more accessible resource materials on Canada’s international commitments in the area of human rights and on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It would also require significantly greater training of teachers in the subject matter and pedagogy of human rights.

However, there has been a significant change in human rights education elsewhere as a result, in part, of the efforts of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the U.N. Centre for Human Rights, and attempts by intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, and member states to operationalize the provisions referring to human rights education found in a variety of international Conventions and Declarations. Throughout Europe, and increasingly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, efforts are being made to introduce a more comprehensive approach to the question by combining the areas of conflict resolution, human rights, peace and democracy education. As the UNESCO Constitution states: "Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed". In Canada, these new approaches are finding their way into curricula under such titles as "global education", "peace education", and "multiculturalism studies". Again, unfortunately, financial support for these programmes has become increasingly problematic.

A special role in the area of teaching of human rights is assigned to UNESCO. The United Nations Economic and Social Council invited UNESCO in 1950[12]  to encourage and facilitate teaching about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in schools and adult education programmes and through the press, radio and other media. The International Conference on Human Rights, meeting in Tehran in 1968, called upon UNESCO to develop its programmes aimed at making children aware of respect for the dignity and rights of man and ensuring that the principles of the Universal Declaration prevail at all levels of education, particularly in institutions of higher learning, where future teachers are trained.[13]

In 1953 the Associated Schools Project for International Co-operation and Peace (ASP) was started by UNESCO. Beginning with 33 secondary schools in various countries, social programmes were started and experiments in teaching about foreign countries and peoples, human rights and the activities of the United Nations were undertaken. ASP has now grown to include 2,800 institutions in 114 countries. Many participating teacher-training colleges, primary and secondary schools concentrate their work on human rights.[14]  A variety of UNESCO publications report on these activities.[15]

UNESCO’s efforts in this field were further accelerated due to the "1974 Recommendation concerning Education for International Understanding, Co-operation and Peace and Education relating to Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms". This recommendation has been supported at various international meetings since that time by the UNESCO Member States.

One important UNESCO programme currently underway is in the area of an integrated programme of education for peace, human rights and democracy. The concept is to promote the development of a culture of peace and devise innovative methods for the early prevention and peaceful management of conflicts.[16] Activities focus on the identification of common values upon which a culture of peace may be based. Ways of reinforcing the contribution of religious leaders, mass media, non-governmental organizations, and youth could be seen to work in parallel with government. In the area of conflict settlement, analyses of the sources of conflict and violence, and the search for effective methods of prevention of social conflict, including appropriate early warning indicators are being undertaken and introduced in a variety of pilot programmes. Such a model is worthy of further investigation and development in this country.

UNESCO is also continuing its efforts to develop a comprehensive system of training and education for human rights and democracy, embracing all levels of education, and addressing a variety of target groups, including children, specialists, specific professional groups, and decision-makers. These activities are based upon the internationally recognized standards in human rights and aim to transmit democratic values and the knowledge concerning the functioning of democratic institutions.

Through its World Campaign for Human Rights, the United Nations Centre for Human Rights has produced a series of materials including "Human Rights Fact Sheets", the "Human Rights Newsletter", and "The Human Rights Study Series". These popular materials have been readily available and are useful to both students and NGO representatives.

II. United Nations and Human Rights Education

A series of United Nations conferences and declarations provide the building blocks upon which is constructed current efforts to introduce a comprehensive approach to achieving a culture of peace. Many of these are directly relevant to Canada as this country endorsed, or was a participant in, the deliberations. The actual starting point might be in dispute, but the arrival at this comprehensive approach is not.

Most of us are aware of the Rio (1992), Vienna (1993), Cairo (1994), Copenhagen (1995), and soon to be held Beijing (1995) conferences. But there are other meetings which have contributed as much to the building of a comprehensive structure of human rights education.

In 1974, the General Conference of UNESCO adopted the "Recommendation concerning Education for International Understanding, Co-operation and Peace and Education relating to Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms".[17]  Recommendation 74, as it has come to be known, sets out guiding principles by stressing the need for education about contemporary world problems such as the maintenance of peace, disarmament, respect for human rights, development, and an awareness of the increasing global interdependence between peoples and nations. It also stresses the duties incumbent upon individuals, social groups and nations towards each other. The Recommendation is also important because it promotes a culture of peace and tolerance at all levels of education, from pre-school to post-secondary, and within the formal and non-formal sectors. It became a significant building bloc in the promotion of human rights education and civic duty, and has been incorporated directly or indirectly in most documents since that time.[18]

Recommendation 74 was followed by the Declaration on Race and Racial Prejudice adopted by UNESCO in 1978 at its twentieth session in Paris. Article 5.2 is significant in that it indicates that,

In 1987 UNESCO sponsored an International Congress on Human Rights Teaching, Information and Documentation which was held in Malta.[24]  Amongst the numerous recommendations there was a strong call for increased effort in both human rights teaching and research on human rights. The role of UNESCO was reaffirmed at this meeting and there was a request for greater co-ordination of human rights activities to be undertaken.

Malta was followed by the Yamoussoukro Declaration on Peace in the Minds of Men[25] which brought together delegates from the five continents to discuss peace and human security. The Congress called upon states to include peace and human rights components as a permanent feature in all education programmes. It also proposed the promotion of education and research in the field of peace using an interdisciplinary approach aimed at studying the interrelationship between peace, human rights, disarmament, development and the environment.

In November 1990 a UNESCO international conference was held in Uruguay on "Democratic Culture and Development: Towards the Third Millenium in Latin America". The resulting document, the Montevideo Declaration - Democratic Culture and Governance[26]  recommended "the development of national, regional and interregional education programmes designed, with a view to developing a democratic culture, to enhance the people’s awareness of the values of freedom, solidarity, justice, social peace and tolerance and to provide them with the knowledge on political institutions and law they need to exercise democracy in a way that is genuinely guided by the principles of human rights".[27]

In 1992 the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) took place in Rio de Janeiro. It was made clear that, just as there can be no future if the natural environment is destroyed, so there can be no future for humanity if it is diminished by poverty, illness, ignorance or tyranny. The role for citizen education is to contribute to increasing creativity and rationality, the development of problem-solving capabilities and competitiveness needed to foster the increasingly complex cultural, social, political and technological decisions involved in human sustainable development.

Rio, as an environmental conference, also had a significant educational component. Delegates were encouraged to strengthen worldwide co-operation in education in a way which would help individual countries to devise the most effective ways and means of enabling their people to contribute to the common end of improving the material and spiritual living conditions of the present generation without denying a decent life for generations to come.[28] As figure 1 suggests, education on the environment became a key component of building a culture of peace and was a cornerstone of human rights education through such concepts as the right to development.

The 1987 Malta meeting was specifically a human rights education conference. It was followed by the International Congress on Education for Human Rights and Democracy, held in Montreal in early 1993. Since it was known that the World Conference on Human Rights was to be held later in the year in Vienna, many felt that Montreal would prove to be a cornerstone of future human rights education.[29]

The Montreal Congress reaffirmed the responsibility of all peoples and states to achieve a respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms through education and teaching. It stated that democratic values are required for the enjoyment of human rights and went on to indicate that the educational process itself should be a democratic and participatory process that empowers people and society in order to improve the quality of life. In order to operationalize the recommendations of the Congress a Plan of Action was approved which had a number of strategies. Amongst these strategies was the proposal for the development of active national, regional and international networks to produce material, curricula and programmes.

The purpose of the Plan of Action[30]  of the Montreal Congress was to create a culture of human rights and to develop democratic societies that enable individuals and groups to solve their disagreements and conflicts by the use of non-violent methods. What was particularly important in the Montreal action plan was the recognition of the importance of the non-formal education sector. The Plan conceived of education in its broadest sense, among all age, gender, class, ethnic, national, religious and linguistic groups and in all sectors of society.[31]  Not only were efforts concentrated on formal education, from primary through university, but with the promotion of the non-formal sector, many groups, previously excluded, became available for promotion of human rights and democracy through education.

The Plan proposed that education for human rights and democracy in a non-formal setting involved groups of adults and young people, including those not attending school, in out-of-school education, through their families, their professional associations, workplaces, institutions, groupings, etc.[32]

In the formal education sector the Action Plan aimed "to build an integral and broad-based curriculum that [was] both pervasive across subject disciplines and taught as a separate subject so that human rights and democracy education is dealt with repeatedly throughout a person’s basic education. The theme of rights, responsibilities and democratic processes, it was argued, should also be woven into all or most topics of study and included in the values aimed at in school life and in the process of socialization."[33]  The Montreal Congress addressed, at last, the question of how to operationalize Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In June of the same year the World Conference on Human Rights was held in Vienna. It had been twenty-five years since the last world conference, held in Tehran. Three years in the making, a series of disastrous preparatory meetings, and intransigence by some countries suggested that this conference would be a debacle. Nevertheless, the political will was found in the end to recognize the work of the Montreal Congress in human rights education, and perhaps most significantly, there was recognition that human rights are universal, and that women’s rights (often marginalized at the international level) were fully human rights.[34]

The World Conference unanimously agreed that all human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and inter-related. The conference considered human rights education essential for the promotion and achievement of stable and harmonious relations amongst communities and the fostering of mutual understanding, tolerance and peace. This consensus strengthens the impetus of those in the educational community to seek to promote peace, human rights and democracy based on the relationship to universal values.

Like the Montreal Declaration and Plan of Action, the Vienna Declaration on human rights is an exceptionally important document. These documents owe much to the input of Canadians who expended great efforts to obtain something that was both acceptable and workable. The Vienna Declaration provides the opportunity to further elaborate the human rights linkages outlined above. Paragraphs 78 through 82 of the Vienna Declaration[35]  are worth quoting at length as they reinforce the work done in Montreal and promote the importance of education.

The Declaration gives a major priority in education to children and young people, who are particularly vulnerable to incitements to intolerance, racism and xenophobia. It also calls for the co-operation of all partners who would be able to help teachers to link the education process more closely to real social life and transform it into the practice of tolerance and solidarity, respect for human rights, democracy and peace.[37]

The International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century (the Delors Commission)[38]  seems to sum up the challenges faced by the impressive list of United Nations resolutions and declarations in the field of human rights. There are a variety of economic, political and cultural challenges for which quantitative and efficiency responses are insufficient. The Delors Commission suggests that an overall social dynamic should underlie decisions concerning educational policy. "Responses in terms of changing resources, changing responsibilities of the different actors, or reform that influences teachers and teaching, must be carefully thought out to take into account effects over time and worked out to obtain the broadest possible agreement among those concerned."[39]

The final report of the Delors Commission, Learning: The Treasure Within,[40] asks the penetrating question, "..how can we learn to live together in the ‘global village’ if we cannot manage to live together in the communities to which we naturally belong - the nation, the region, the city, the village, the neighbourhood?"[41] As the Report correctly point out, it is the need to build social cohesion in a society so that one can have a sense of belonging and feeling of solidarity.[42]  This document has issued the challenge for education and human rights is at its core.

An equally powerful document issued by UNESCO is Our Creative Diversity, the report of the World Commission on Culture and Development, chaired by former U.N. Secretary-General, Javier Perez de Cuellar.[43]  The role of human rights education permeates the report. Without a learning of tolerance we will be unable to appreciate the importance of "our creative diversity".

III. Canada and Human Rights Education

 Since 1950, social reconstruction has been a popular term with educators who attribute high value to social reform. In this view, cultural change is more important than cultural transmission. The school has a responsibility to the future and educators, it is argued, should accept a role in making school curricula the vehicle for creating a better society.[44]

Curricula based on a social reconstruction value orientation are planned to include instruction and practice in the skills of participation in a democracy,[45] in leadership skills, and in group co-operation and problem solving.

It is from this perspective that one can approach human rights education. Teaching about human rights is not enough. The teacher will want to begin, and never to finish, teaching for human rights. Students will want not only to learn of human rights, but to learn in them, for what they do to be of the most practical benefit to them.

Reporting on a 1984 survey of human rights education, Douglas Ray stated that, "Human rights education ... has a political and legal impetus deriving from the constitutional debates, several court cases based on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and recent discussions of the roles of provincial human rights commissions."[46]

What is interesting to note in this survey is the sequential, or graduated, method of instructing students. "Teachers see the age or maturity of pupils to be vital in determining strategy and selecting appropriate examples."[47]  Young children, for example, were taught what was wrong (i.e., discrimination based on factors such as sex, race, disability, etc., was not appropriate behaviour), but were taught across the curriculum by creating an atmosphere of human rights. Once in high school, however, specific subjects were introduced in the curriculum to highlight issues which would involve students. It is now recognized that teaching for human rights, as was done with younger children, is much more effective than teaching about human rights, which ultimately became the method of instruction in high schools, colleges and universities.

In both approaches, the pre-service and in-service training of teachers is extremely important to the success of human rights education. Unfortunately, as Ray reported, "Although a 1984 survey of teachers in most parts of Canada revealed that many of them were interested in training courses reflecting human rights, few had such opportunities. In 1985, only Nova Scotia had human rights as a requirement in teacher education, and only some faculties elsewhere offered optional courses."[48]

Even in 1994 there continues to be concerns about the nature and extent of human rights education in Canada. "Notwithstanding the human rights legislation of both federal and provincial governments, education in human rights is still a neglected area in the schools."[49]

A review of both provincial and federal activities in human rights education suggests, on the surface, that many more programmes are available today. There are a number of curriculum guides and resource materials available from provincial ministries of education and other provincial departments, as well as from a variety of federal government departments. The problem remains, however, of "operationalizing" this material. Regular pre-service and in-service training in human rights education is still not a fact of life for the majority of teachers in Canada. Consequently, although material is being generated, in many jurisdictions it is not being used to its fullest potential.

The problem of training is vital to promoting human rights education. As Federico Mayor, Director-General of UNESCO, has written, "Education is more than the provision of education and instruction. It is the awakening of human creative potential ... it is forging attitudes of tolerance and understanding. Education is liberation. It is the main gateway to peace, equity and justice. Those who hold the key to this gateway ... have a crucial responsibility: the world we leave to our children will depend on the children we leave to our world."[50]

IV. Conclusion

 In the introduction to their book, Human Rights in the Twenty-First Century: A Global Challenge, Kathleen and Paul Mahoney explain why they brought over 300 participants together in Banff, Alberta in 1990 to discuss over seventy papers: "We believed communication across divides of cultures, races, gender, professional and social backgrounds, religions and regions would identify and deal with barriers to progress better than any single perspective alone could."[52]  This explanation for a major conference on human rights might well be an apt prescription for dealing with human rights and citizenship education. We must make the study as broad as possible and we must make it inclusive.

As mentioned above, a successful programme of human rights education must be based on educating for human rights, and not about human rights. Although the various international human rights documents are important to know, the more modern approach in human rights education is to create a climate within which knowledge, skills and values can be fostered and practised.[53]  It is suggested that students acquire the tools necessary for the creation of a tolerant and democratic citizen involving special emphasis on skills such as "oral and written expression, including the ability to listen and discuss, and to defend one’s opinions."[54]  This is as true for the non-formal education sector as it is for the formal. As the Montreal Plan of Action so clearly laid out, human rights education is an exercise in democracy where "educational processes and methodologies must be models for what the plan wishes to achieve in society as a whole."

"For the goals of human rights education to be achieved in a meaningful way with the hope of longevity, the values supportive of them must also be fostered as an intricate part of a culture of human rights."[55]  For teachers, this suggests that they must think about and then live human rights in the classroom before teaching them. This also implies that the question of students’ choices, their rights to free expression and to a vote on things that affect their lives as well as their access to friends and to what they want to learn must be thought through.[56]

Rosalie Abella has written about the richness of diversity and in so doing has suggested some of the linkages identified in Figure 1. Describing the differences between civil rights and human rights, she states:

• Dr. Marshall Conley is a Professor of Political Science at Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, and Vice-President of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. Elisabeth Barot is Programme Officer, Human Rights, Social Sciences, Status of Women and Youth for the Canadian Commission for UNESCO