why education is a human right essay

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Understanding education as a right, 116328scr_india_pupils.jpg.

Education is not a privilege. It is a human right.

Education as a human right means:

• the right to education is legally guaranteed for all without any discrimination
• states have the obligation to protect, respect, and fulfil the right to education
• there are ways to hold states accountable for violations or deprivations of the right to education

Human rights are inherent to all human beings, regardless of nationality, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. They cannot be given or taken away.

Human rights are the foundation for freedom, justice and peace in the world.

They are formally and universally recognised by all countries in the  Universal Declaration on Human Rights  (1948, UDHR). Since the adoption of the UDHR, many treaties have been adopted by states to reaffirm and guarantee these rights legally.

International human rights law sets out the obligations of states to respect, protect, and fulfil human rights for all. These obligations impose specific duties upon states, regardless of their political, economic, and cultural systems.

All human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated ( Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action , 1993, para. 5).

Equality and non-discrimination are foundational and cross-cutting principles in international human rights law. This means that all human rights apply to everyone.

International human rights law guarantees the right to education. The  Universal Declaration on Human Rights , adopted in 1948, proclaims in Article 26: 'everyone has the right to education'.

Since then, the right to education has been widely recognised and developed by a number of international normative instruments elaborated by the United Nations, including the  International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966, CESCR), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989, CRC), and the  UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education  (1960, CADE).

The right to education has also been reaffirmed in other treaties covering specific groups ( women and girls , persons with disabilities , migrants, refugees , Indigenous Peoples , etc.) and contexts ( education during armed conflicts ). It has also been incorporated into various regional treaties and enshrined as a right in the vast majority of national constitutions.

See our pages on international law and national implementation  for more information.

Both individuals and society benefit from the right to education. It is fundamental for human, social, and economic development and a key element to achieving lasting peace and sustainable development. It is a powerful tool in developing the full potential of everyone and ensuring human dignity, and in promoting individual and collective wellbeing.

• it is an empowerment right
• it lifts marginalised groups out of poverty
• it is an indispensable means of realising other rights
• it contributes to the full development of the human personality

For more details, see the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights'  General Comment 13 on the right to education  (1999, para. 1).

The right to education encompasses both entitlements and freedoms, including the:

right to free and compulsory primary education

right to available and accessible secondary education (including technical and vocational education and training), made progressively free

right to equal access to higher education on the basis of capacity made progressively free

right to fundamental education for those who have not received or completed primary education

right to quality education both in public and private schools

freedom of parents to choose schools for their children which are in conformity with their religious and moral convictions

freedom of individuals and bodies to establish and direct education institutions in conformity with minimum standards established by the state

academic freedom of teachers and students

The 4As were developed by the first UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Katarina Tomaševski, and adopted by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in its General Comment 13 on the right to education  (1999, para.6). To be a meaningful right, education in all its forms and at all levels shall exhibit these interrelated and essential features:

Available – Education is free and there is adequate infrastructure and trained teachers able to support the delivery of education.

Accessible – The education system is non-discriminatory and accessible to all, and positive steps are taken to include the most marginalised.

Acceptable – The content of education is relevant, non-discriminatory and culturally appropriate, and of quality; schools are safe and teachers are professional.

Adaptable – Education evolves with the changing needs of society and challenges inequalities, such as gender discrimination; education adapts to suit locally specific needs and contexts.

For more details see:

• Primer 3  Human rights obligations: making education available, accessible, acceptable and adaptable (RTE, Katarina Tomaševski, 2001)

When a state has ratified a treaty that guarantees the right to education, it has obligations to respect, protect, and fulfil this right. Some obligations are immediate. Others are progressive.

Obligations to respect, protect, and fulfil:

• respect: refrain from interfering with the enjoyment of the right (e.g., the state must respect the liberty of parents to choose schools for their children)
• protect: prevent others from interfering with the enjoyment of the right usually through regulation and legal guarantees (e.g., the state must ensure that third parties, including parents, do not prevent girls from going to school)
• fulfil: adopt appropriate measures towards the full realisation of the right to education (e.g., the state must take positive measures to ensure that education is culturally appropriate for minorities and indigenous peoples, and of good quality for all)

Immediate and progressive obligations:

As with other economic, social and cultural rights, the full realisation of the right to education can be hampered by a lack of resources and can be achieved only over a period of time, particularly for countries with fewer resources. This is the reason why some state obligations are progressive, for instance, the introduction of free secondary and higher education.

However, no matter how limited resources are, all states have immediate obligations to implement the following aspects of right to education:

• ensure minimum core obligations to meet the essential levels of the right to education, which includes prohibiting discrimination in access to and in education, ensuring free and compulsory primary education for all, respecting the liberty of parents to choose schools for their children other than those established by public authorities, protecting the liberty of individuals and bodies to establish and direct educational institutions
• take appropriate steps towards the full realisation of the right to education to the maximum of its available resources. A lack of resources cannot justify inaction or indefinite postponement of measures to implement the right to education. States must demonstrate they are making every effort to improve the enjoyment of the right to education, even when resources are scarce
• not take retrogressive measures. This means that the state should not take backwards steps or adopt measures that will repeal existing guarantees of the right to education. For instance, introducing school fees in secondary education when it had formerly been free of charge would constitute a retrogressive measure

States have the primary duty to ensure the right to education. However, other actors play a key role in promoting and protecting this fundamental right.

According to international law, other actors have responsibilities in upholding the right to education:

• the role of multilateral intergovernmental agencies, such as UNESCO, OHCHR, UNICEF, is of particular importance in relation to the realisation of the right to education in providing technical and financial assistance
• international financial institutions should play greater attention to the protection of the right to education in their policies, credit agreements, structural adjustment programmes and measures taken in response to the debt crisis
• private businesses also have the responsibility to respect human rights and avoid infringing on the rights of others. For more information, see UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights , Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights' General Comment 24 , Committee on the Rights of the Child's  General Comment 16 , and our page on Privatisation
• civil society plays a crucial role in promoting the right to education and holding the state accountable for its obligations
• parents have the responsibility to ensure that their children attend compulsory education. They cannot deny their children access to education

Violations of the right to education may occur through direct action of States parties (act of commission) or through their failure to take steps required by law (act of omission). Concrete examples are given in paragraph 59 of General Comment 13 .

Whilst the vast majority of countries have ratified international treaties that recognise the full right to education, it is still denied to millions around the world due to lack of resources, capacity, and political will. There are still countries that have not integrated the right to education into their national constitution or provided the legislative and administrative frameworks to ensure that the right to education is realised in practice. Most of the children and adults who do not fully enjoy the right to education belong to the most deprived and marginalised groups of society which are often left behind in national policies.

• raise awareness on the right to education. If individuals knows their rights they are empowered to claim them
• monitor the implementation of the right to education and report regularly on deprivations and violations
• advocate and campaign for the full implementation of the right to education, holding the state accountable
• seek remedies when there are violations of the right to education

See our page on Using rights in practice  for more details on what you can do.

5 Must-Read Essays on the Right to Education

When the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, Article 26 asserted that all people have the right to education. That right appears in other documents such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) and in treaties about women and girls, refugees, migrants, and others. Many constitutions around the world also list education as a right. However, the right to education isn’t always upheld. To understand more about education as a human right, and where and why it’s often not a reality, here are five must-read essays:

“ Girls Can Change The World – But We Have To Invest In Them First ” – Malala Yousafzai

Writing for Time Magazine in 2018, Malala Yousafzai’s essay details the importance of educating girls. It’s short, but like all of Malala’s writing, it’s impactful. She opens with the sobering statistic that 130 million girls are not in school. Despite promises at the United Nations to guarantee that every girl will get 12 years of education by 2030, donor countries either halted or decreased their giving for education. Malala expresses her discouragement, but remains hopeful, drawing attention to the Malala Fund and impact of local activists and educators.

The youngest Nobel Prize laureate, Malala is a Pakistani human rights activist, with a special focus on female education. In 2012, the Taliban attempted to assassinate her since she was already a well-known activist, but she survived. The attack and recovery made her a household name, and she won the Nobel Prize two years later. She is a writer and current student at Oxford University.

“ Is Education a Fundamental Right? ” – Jill Lepore

A relatively-unknown Supreme Court Case from 1982, Plyler v. Doe addressed questions about education, immigration, and if schooling is a human right. In her essay, Jill Lepore writes that this case could become much better known as various lawsuits filed on behalf of immigrant children enter the court system. These are the children who are separated from their parents at the border and deprived of education.  Using Plyler v. Doe as a guide along with the other cases both past and present, Lepore explores the issue of education as a fundamental right in the United States.

This essay appeared in the print edition of The New Yorker in September 2018 under the headline “Back to the Blackboard.” Jill Lepore is a professor of history at Harvard University and a staff writer for the New Yorker. Publications include the book These Truths: A History of the United States and This America: The Case for the Nation.

“ How to Improve Access to Education Around the World ” – Jan Lee

In this piece on the Triple Pundit platform, Lee takes a look at how Pearson, an education publishing and assessment service company based in the UK, is making an impact on education access around the world. In the United States, Pearson works on finding solutions for the social and economic problems that lead to low high-school graduation rates. Pearson also invests in low-cost private education around the world. The essay highlights how access to education can be improved through new educational technology for students with disabilities and outreach to underserved communities. Since this article was sponsored by Pearson, it doesn’t look at what other companies or organizations are doing, but it provides a good model for the kinds of actions that can help.

Jan Lee is an award-winning editorial writer and former news editor, whose work can be found Triple Pundit, JustMeans, and her blog The Multicultural Jew. On Triple Pundit, she’s written stories on a variety of topics, such as Leadership & Transparency, Data & Technology, and Energy & Environment.

“ Higher Education Is A Human Right ” – Heidi Gilchrist

It’s established that primary education is a human right, but what about higher education? In her essay, Heidi Gilchrist argues that it is. Looking specifically at the United States, her reason is that in order to access the American dream- which she calls the “ideal it [the country] was founded on” – people need higher education. As global society starts to depend more on technology and other complex systems, more and more jobs will require advanced degrees. In order to truly succeed and achieve their dreams, people will need higher education. Gilchrist offers another perspective on the issue, as well, writing that countries need people with advanced degrees to protect national security. Having higher education remain a luxury means only the wealthy can access it, and that harms a society in every regard.

Heidi Gilchrist is a Lecturer-in-Law at Columbia Law School and an Assistant Professor of Legal Writing at Brooklyn Law. In her previous career, she served as a national security analyst in the federal government, and as a laison to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York City. She writes on national security and how it converges with human rights law and civil rights.

“ Public schools for private gain: The declining American commitment to serving the public good ” – David F. Larabee

In an essay that is both a history lesson and critical look at the pursuit of education as a “private benefit,” Larabee argues that this new view of schooling is dangerous. While in the past, school had been seen as a community where students of all backgrounds and finances mingle and receive opportunities, it’s morphing into just another capitalist arena. Wealthy parents are choosing private schools and focusing their resources there, while public schools and students struggle. School is becoming “a means of private advancement,” Larabee says, instead of a source of public good. This has serious long-term consequences.

David Larabee is a Lee L. Jacks Professor of Education, emeritus, at the Standard University Graduate School of Education. He describes himself as a “sociologically oriented historian of education.” He is also an author, most recently of 2017’s A Perfect Mess: The Unlikely Ascendancy of American Higher Education.

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Right to education

This page is about the right to education and how it must be put into place for every child as a fundamental human right.

What is the right to education, how many people are denied the right to education, why does it matter, what do we mean by a right to education, who is responsible for enforcing the right to education, ​what do governments need to do to about the right to education​, what must countries do to meet their obligations.

Education is a basic human right for all and is important for everyone to make the most of their lives. Other human rights include the right to freedom from slavery or torture and to a fair trial.

Having an education helps people to access all of their other human rights. Education improves an individual’s chances in life and helps to tackle poverty.

According to the the most recent figures available from the  UNESCO Institute for Statistics in July 2016 , 263 million children and youth are out of school.

This includes 61 million children who should be in primary school, 60 million of lower secondary school age (ages 12 to 14) and 142 million who are aged between 15 and 17.

Girls and children from sub-Saharan Africa are most likely to be missing out on their education.

Armed conflict also means that children struggle to get an education – 22 million children of primary school age are affected by this. 75 million children and adolescents have had their education directly affected by conflict and emergencies.

Education reduces poverty, decreases social inequalities, empowers women and helps each individual reach their full potential.

It also brings significant economic returns for a country and helps societies to achieve lasting peace and sustainable development. Education is key to achieving all other human rights.

Every person is entitled to a quality education without discrimination, which means:

• A compulsory free primary school education for every child
• Secondary school (including technical training) must be available to everyone – states must work towards providing this for free
• Higher education must be equally accessible, with countries working towards the goal of making this free
• Fundamental education for those who missed out on primary school should be encouraged and available

It also means parents have the right to choose schools for their children and for individuals and organisations to set up schools that meet minimum standards.

Theirworld also believes that every child should have access to two years of free, quality pre-primary education.

Governments must provide good quality education and make sure all children can access it, without discrimination.

This is an international legal obligation and governments can be held accountable for failing to provide education for all its citizens.

Education has been recorded as a basic human right in international law since 1948. It is included in many documents and treaties including:

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
• Convention Against Discrimination in Education (1960)
• International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966)
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979)
• African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (1986)
• Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)
• World Declaration on Education for All: Meeting Basic Learning Needs (1990)
• The Dakar Framework for Action: Education for All (2000)
• Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006)
• UN General Assembly Resolution on the Right to Education in Emergency Situations (2010)

Governments must guarantee that education in their country or state is:

• Available.  There must be adequate materials, classrooms, trained teachers and so on – so that a quality education is available to every child.
• Accessible.  Schools must be within reach, suitable for disabled children and fit for purpose. They must be affordable for all children. There must be no discrimination for gender, race, religion or any other reason.
• Acceptable.  Education must be of a high quality and include relevant information that is appropriate. Children with disabilities have the right to the same quality of education.
• Adaptable.  Schools and school systems must be suitable for the communities they serve.

Governments have to make sure all children can get the education they are entitled to by doing the following:

• Removing anything that prevents access to quality education, such as repealing laws that cause discrimination
• Preventing individuals or groups from stopping children from being educated
• Taking steps to make sure children can get a quality education – this could include building schools or training teachers

The international community knows that achieving the full extent of the right to education will take time and resources.

Governments must put plans in place to meet the minimum standard of free, compulsory primary education and then take steps to extend the right to education to every child.

The right to education without discrimination is part of the minimum standard and must be created immediately.

It’s very important that governments continue to work towards the full right to education and don’t allow plans to stall or be delayed.

As well as governments, other organisations and individuals play a part in making sure that all children can access quality education. These include intergovernmental agencies such as UNESCO, international financial institutions, businesses, civil societies and parents.

The right to education and human rights education

Richard pierre claude.

O artigo recapitula os debates dos elaboradores da Declaração Universal dos Direitos Humanos em relação ao direito à educação. Discute as propostas iniciais e apresenta exemplos de programas contemporâneos de educação para os direitos humanos, projetados para atingir cada uma daquelas propostas específicas.

Education is intrinsically valuable as humankind’s most effective tool for personal empowerment. Education takes on the status of a human right because it is integral to and enhances human dignity through its fruits of knowledge, wisdom and understanding. Moreover, for instrumental reasons education has the status of a multi-faceted social, economic and cultural human right. It is a social right because in the context of the community it promotes the full development of the human personality. It is an economic right because it facilitates economic self-sufficiency through employment or self-employment. It is a cultural right because the international community has directed education toward the building of a universal culture of human rights. In short, education is the very prerequisite for the individual to function fully as a human being in modern society.

In positing a human right to education, the framers of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) axiomatically relied on the notion that education is not value-neutral. In this spirit, Article 26 lays out a set of educational goals analyzed in this essay along with discussion focusing on education about human rights in the light of Article 26.

Human Rights Education (HRE) is a long-term strategy with sights set on the needs of coming generations. Such education for our future will not likely draw support from the impatient and the parochial, but it is essential to construct innovative education programs to advance human development, peace, democracy and respect for rule of law. Reflecting these aspirations, the UN General Assembly proclaimed a United Nations Decade of Human Rights Education (1995-2004) (Res. 49/184). In so doing, the international community referred to human rights education as a unique strategy for the “building of a universal culture of human rights”.

The right to education in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

In the wake of World War II, the globe lay in shambles, torn by international violence from Poland to the Philippines, from the tundra to the tropics. Discussion about the importance of education as indispensable for post-World War II reconstruction emerged in the earliest work of the United Nations Human Rights Commission. That body was set up in 1946 by the Economic Social and Cultural Council of the UN, to make recommendations for promoting respect and observance of human rights on the untested theory that human rights-respecting regimes do not make war on other such regimes.

Thereby to bring peace to the world, members began their work in 1947, and Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt was elected to chair the Commission. The Commission’s Rapporteur, Dr. Charles Malik (Lebanon) said that from the beginning all the Commission members knew that their task of composing a declaration of human rights was in itself an educational undertaking. He said: “We must elaborate a general declaration of human rights defining in succinct terms the fundamental rights and freedoms of [everyone] which, according to the Charter, the United Nations must promote. … This responsible setting forth of fundamental rights will exert a potent doctrinal and moral and educational influence on the minds and behavior of people everywhere”. 1

Malik’s statement echoed the Preamble to the Universal Declaration proclaiming the instrument as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations who should “strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms …”. This entirely new global “bottom up” program of educating people regarding their human rights marked a challenge to the “top down” strategies of diplomatic state-craft, balance of power manipulations, and Realpolitik that were insufficient to forestall the calamity of two world wars.

Formulating the right to education

The Universal Declaration shows its framers realized that education is not value-neutral, and in drafting the document, the Soviets, being most ideologically sensitive, were the first to speak on this point. Mr. Alexandr Pavlov for the USSR argued that one of the fundamental factors in the development of Fascism and Nazism was “the education of young people in a spirit of hatred and intolerance”. 2   As it finally turned out, Article 26 took up Pavlov’s point that education inescapably has political objectives, but ignored his ideologically rigid ideas substituting several goals in positive terms. Thus Article 26, in its most contentiously debated section says that the right to education should be linked to three specific educational goals: (1) the full development of the human personality and the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms; (2) the promotion of understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups; and, (3) the furthering of the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

The first goal

This arresting notion of the development of the human being’s full personality, while abstract, is important as a thematic thread running through the UDHR. Its significance in framing a holistic concept of human nature as essentially free, social, potentially educated, and entitled to participation in critical decision-making is bolstered by repetition at several points:

• Article 22 says everyone’s rights to social, economic and cultural rights are “indispensable” … for the “free development of his personality”.

• Article 26 posits a right to education, and states: “Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality”.

• Article 29 repeats the holistic vision of human rights, saying: “Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible”.

The language linking these provisions in “full development” terms illustrates the organic nature of the Declaration whereby diverse rights flow from a belief in the equality of all human beings and the fundamental unity of all human rights. The often reiterated right to “the full development of the human personality” was seen by most framers as a right reinforced by community and social interaction. It linked and summarized all the social, economic and cultural rights in the Declaration. Given the goal of the full development of the human personality in the context of society – the only context in which this can occur – it follows that the right to education is a social right, a social good, and a responsibility of society as a whole.

Latin Americans took a leading role in framing the right to education. Belarmino Austregésilo de Athayde for Brazil provided a keynote statement on the importance of value-based education and was the first to argue that education provides the individual with the wherewithal “to develop his personality, which is the aim of human life and the most solid foundation of society”. 3   An Argentine proposal put substance on these abstractions mimicking Article 12 of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man. “The one-year old Declaration of Bogotá said: “Every person has the right to an education that will prepare him to lead a decent life, to raise his standard of living, and to be a useful member of society”. 4   Calling for greater conciseness, Mrs. Roosevelt cautioned against language that would overload the right to education. In this spirit, the framers settled on alternative simpler language – “Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality”. 5

The “full development” goal was intended to capture the enabling qualities of the right to education, and of education about human rights to capacitate people to their potential faculties so as to ensure human dignity. This view follows from a close reading of the key phrase – “full development of the human personality” – which is immediately followed without so much as a comma by the phrase: “and to the strengthening of human rights and fundamental freedoms”. Using a standard approach to statutory construction, one might fairly conclude that the joining of the two elements was deliberate and meaningful, especially in view of Mrs. Roosevelt’s injunction to seek conciseness.

The logic of the two ideas in combination tells us that education promoting the full development of the human personality and the dignity it entails also promote human rights. And for such full development, education for dignity should take into account the total menu of human rights, personal rights like privacy, political rights like participation and the right to seek and disseminate information; civil rights like equality and non-discrimination; economic rights like a decent standard of living; and the right to participate in the community’s cultural life. This analysis pre-figures the Brazilian Paulo Freire’s views advocated in his book, The Pedagogy of the Oppressed. 6  Freire emphasizes the connections between popular empowerment and self-realization as the consequence of people learning and exercising their human rights.

The second goal

Article 26 calls for education to “promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups …”. This idea started out under the guise of different language. Professor René Cassin, the influential French delegate and Vice President of the Human Rights Commission, drew support for asserting that one goal of education should involve “combating the spirit of intolerance and hatred against other nations and against racial and religious groups everywhere”. 7   But again, the Latin American delegations had the last word, showing their voting strength in supporting the view of Mr. Campos Ortiz of Mexico that educational goals should be framed in positive terms instead of negative goals such as “combating hatred”. He convincingly said that Article 26 should link the right to education with the positive goal of “the promotion of understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations and racial and religious groups …”. 8

The third goal

Article 26 says education should “further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace”. In the final consideration of the Declaration before the General Assembly, the Mexican delegate said that the right to education should be connected to the peaceful objectives of United Nations activities. Mr. Watt from Australia promptly objected and urged support for a broader reference to all the “purposes and principles of the United Nations”. 9   Again, Mrs. Roosevelt expressed distaste for any formulation lacking conciseness and specificity, and said for that reason she associated herself with the simpler Mexican proposition. She thought that for educational purposes, United Nations activities for the maintenance of peace should be recognized as “the chief goal of the United Nations”. 10   True to pattern, other Latin American voices chimed in, supporting the Mexican initiative. Mr. Carrera Andrade of Ecuador lyrically concluded that when the world’s youth became imbued with “the guiding principles of the United Nations, then the future [would promise] … greater hope for all nations living in peace”. 11

Finally, the reference to UN peace activities was adopted and all dissent was swept away with the final version of Article 26 winning a unanimous 36 votes with 2 abstentions. As a result, Article 26, with three separate sections, now reads:

1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

2. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

3. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

On 10 December 1948, the General Assembly solemnly adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That body showed it realized such a document could have little effect unless people everywhere knew about it and appreciated its significance for every human being. Therefore, the Assembly also passed Resolution Number 217 urging that the widest possible publicity be given to the Declaration and inviting the Secretary General and UN specialized agencies and non-governmental organizations to do their utmost to bring the Declaration to the attention of their members. One present-day result is that the Universal Declaration can be obtained from the United Nations in any of 300 languages: http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/index.htm .

As noted, the educational directives of Article 26 point to three distinguishable goals. Using this tripartite framework affords a glimpse at present day examples of human rights education directed to each of the three goals.

Human rights education today

Education involves more people than any other institutionalized activity worldwide, according to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education. In her 2002 report to the UN Commission on Human Rights, Katarina Tomaševski said that while a commitment to institutionalized education is globally ubiquitous, the commitment everywhere is “to ‘hardware’ at the expense of ‘software’”. 12   In these terms, she “lamented a … disequilibrium between the formal institutional structure and contents of schooling on the one hand and the value-oriented substance of teaching and learning on the other. … the disequilibrium [is manifested in] fierce disputes about the orientation and content of schooling [which] are thus endless”.

While the obligation for states, schools, and all of us to promote human rights through education is a 50-year-old internationally defined duty, it has only recently become more actively and widely accepted. Among the several reasons for this, perhaps none is more important than the end of the Cold War which made more realistic than heretofore the announcement of the UN Decade for Human Rights Education whereby the United Nations intervened in the “fierce disputes” referenced by Tomaševski by calling for the insertion of human rights content into the orientation and material dealt with in the classroom.

In 1993, the World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna asked the UN for action to accelerate the promotion of human rights. One important result was that the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the years 1995-2004 as the World Decade for Human Rights Education. The UN proclamation says the decade has as its aim “the full development of the human personality in a spirit of peace, mutual understanding and respect for democracy and the rule of law”. The resolution says that such education should be introduced at all levels of formal education (the conventional school system) and should be adopted in non-formal education (called “popular education” as promoted by NGOs). The resolution also speaks to issues of methodology, favoring interactive, participatory and culturally relevant learning methods. 13

There are many examples of programs entailing these goals and methods. Having tracked the Article 26 human rights education goals of (1) full personal development, (2) the promotion of tolerance, and (3) advancement of UN peace goals, it is instructive to link recent HRE programs with each of the Declaration’s goals. The thumbnail profiles that follow will draw from both formal education and non-formal education where various activist groups target specialized constituencies.

Examples were chosen to illustrate how wide-ranging the human rights education project has become since its recent inception. The “software” is very diverse. For example, some of these projects are short-term and others reflect long-term educational commitments. Some are addressed to values clarification and cognitive development. Another set focus on analytical skills and problem-solving, and others on changing attitudes and behavior. Some are embedded in formal educational programs and others in programs of popular education. All manifest one or more of the educational goals specified in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration.

Full personal development and respect for human rights

Popular education on the rights of the child in nepal.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted by the General Assembly in 1989 and rapidly came into force as an international treaty. states parties are obliged to make its principles and provisions widely known to both adults and children and to file a report on such activities with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, a ten-person group of experts. Nepal is one of 192 countries (as of 2004) which have ratified the treaty. Despite episodes of civil strife, NGOs in the Himalayan kingdom have shown ingenuity in propagating its provisions and in seizing the state’s reporting duties as an opportunity to launch a nationwide educational program on the rights of the child.

In 1992,many Nepali NGOs along with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) organized a workshop on the Children’s Convention in the capital of Katmandu. The workshop supplied educational opportunities to inform policy makers, to prompt questions from members of the media, and to raise the consciousness of the general public regarding children’s issues and Nepal’s duties under the Convention. The workshop was replicated in five administrative regions of the country and finally in all 75 provincial districts. Drawn from many localities, children also participated in a National Seminar of NGOs, after which, they went back to their communities to share their learning and then return to the capital with friends.

The resulting Children’s Seminar discussed the status of children and their responsibilities as well as the related duties of parents, the community, local government bodies, and political parties. As an outcome of this process, the government’s National Planning Commission – with responsibility to prepare Nepal’s treaty report required by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, did so by forming a joint committee with NGOs representation. Thus the National NGOs Workshop and the Children’s Seminar, as well as various declarations and plans of action developed in their wake, became the basis for NGOs input in the national report to the United Nations. The resulting report was important, but no more so than the nationwide NGOs-led process of education on the subject of the rights of the child.

The NGO’s objective of values enhancement and clarification took place at many levels as Nepal prepared to take up its responsibility under the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, including the incorporation of human rights and the rights of the child into the formal school curricula. The Convention says such education shall be directed to: “… the development of the child’s personality, talents and mental and physical ability to their fullest potential; [as well as] the development of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and for the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations”.

Women’s rights in Ethiopia

A project in Ethiopia initiated by a group called Action Professionals Association for the People stresses the importance of education for full personal development with particular attention to respect for the human rights of women. In 1995, the Action Professionals were looking for a teaching program to promote women’s rights, taking into account that Ethiopia had ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). This author documented their work, observing them setting up community-based programs of human rights including one called “Bringing CEDAW Home”. Their curriculum planning was meticulous, and the resulting training manual, The Bells of Freedom, is accessible on-line. 14

The CEDAW exercise begins with the announced objective of promoting behavioral change and women’s empowerment through community-based non-formal education to break the old curse of domination by one gender over the other and to take action to eliminate discrimination. They designed simple ways and simple language to introduce CEDAW – article by article, explaining that the Government has promised to abide by its provisions. Then, people were asked to speak from experience about any specific provision of CEDAW such as Article 5 saying customary practices based on the idea of the inferiority of the sexes should be eliminated.

Most important, using a problem-solving approach, participants designed programs of action and selected the one action-plan, among several they designed, that they all actually would be willing to put into effect, including one specifically addressed to removing barriers to the full development of the woman’s personality. In one significant outcome, for example, women agreed to stop using coercion and even force to back up arranged marriages for their pre-teenage daughters, so as to abide by Article 16 of the Universal Declaration saying everyone has a right freely to choose a spouse.

Promoting tolerance among groups and international friendship

Cambodian exercise on prejudice and discrimination.

Cambodian NGOs, like those in many developing countries, have tried to avoid duplicating efforts and have found ways to undertake their work sorting out a division of labor among themselves. Some specialize on the problems of the disabled, some with war-widows, and others with issues relating to domestic violence. In 1999, under the sponsorship of the Asia Foundation, this author worked with a creative Cambodian NGO specializing in grassroots educational programs for ethnic minorities: the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Human Rights Association (KKKHRA). The group conducts needs assessments among poor minority groups and organizes educational sessions for citizens, including those prone to prejudice and discrimination. Between 1993 and 1999, the NGO had reached 23,716 Cambodians with its popular education programs.

In the example below which reflects the work of KKKHRA, the entire lesson plan is laid out to illustrate the organized mode of presentation. Followers of Paulo Freire will recognize the Brazilian methodology at work. The lesson includes five standardized key parts: (1) anoverview statement explaining in historical and social terms why the exercise is important; (2) the objectives of the exercise from the point of view of the participants and of the desired learning competencies expected of them; (3) procedures, giving some pointers to the facilitator, for example about using some visual reference points for non-literate audiences, such as “stick figure” drawings; (4) materials, including specific relevant provisions of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia as well as international human rights standards applicable to the country; and (5) sequence, in which step-by-step advice is given to the facilitator.

1. Overview. First, the facilitator must become familiar with basic information important to the historical and demographic context of the exercise as well helpful in analyzing related problems. In this case, the facilitator is told that an understanding of prejudice, discrimination, racism, sexism and ethnocentrism is an important part of human rights education. These forms of moral exclusion are fundamentally manifestations of the central problem of the denial of human dignity that makes possible various types of discrimination, especially against minorities. Groups suffering from discrimination include ethnic and language minorities, refugees and displaced persons, religious and other minorities. Ethnic minorities suffered badly during the early 1970s in Cambodia, called “Pol Pot times”. Before 1975, the nation had a population of about 7.2 million; within four years this had dropped to around 6 million (some were the victims of genocide, others became refugees). By the end of the 1990s, the population rebounded to 10 million. Ethnically, the Khmers are the dominate group and there are significant Chinese and Vietnamese minorities as well as a small percentage of tribal groups. It is prejudice and ignorance that promote the dehumanization of ethnic minorities and which in turn foster and support many forms of discrimination.

2. Objectives: Participants should:

• reflect on the meaning and nature of prejudice; • reflect on the process and characteristics of discrimination and its origins in prejudice; • be able to identify minority group problems of prejudice and discrimination; • recommend a course of action for a problem of discrimination faced by members of an ethnic minority and base their plan on national and international human rights standards.

3. Procedures.The facilitator must use creativity to explain the distinction between prejudice and discrimination and to ensure the participants understand the connections involved. As this can be a very sensitive topic for many, it will be important to allow adequate time for diverse views to be expressed. The facilitator should not try to “correct” views that sound prejudiced, but allow others to comment on them. Steps 5 and 8 are rather complex, so the facilitator should plan to “float” among various groups to ensure that they understand their tasks.

4. Materials. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), articles 26 and 27; Cambodian Constitutional provisions on discrimination, articles 31 and 45.

5. Sequence

Step 1. Ask the participants to name different ethnic minorities in Cambodia. Tell them that they should identify a group with which they are familiar and explain whether that group suffers from prejudice.

Step 2. Facilitator input: Explain that prejudice and discrimination are closely related, and that prejudice leads to discrimination. Undertake some brief lecturing along the following lines:

Prejudice involves beliefs, feelings and attitudes [add emphasis]. Feelings of prejudice stem from the belief and attitude that certain people are inferior and should be treated in an undignified way or even with contempt. Prejudice is the fertile ground in which custom, habit and attitudes take root and grow into systematic oppression. Prejudice and ill-feeling are often directed at women, as well as other groups in society: refugees and displaced persons, members of various religions, ethnic and language groups, etc. Prejudice tends to be strongest in persons and societies where reasoned judgment is weak and where ignorance explains prejudicial processes of moral exclusion of others and the process of denial of the right to equal and fair treatment. It is ignorance that says that exclusion and denial are “natural”. Prejudice is often hidden, but becomes evident when people (1) use bad names to refer to a minority, such as “juan” a pejorative and mean-spirited reference to Cambodians of Vietnamese origin, and (2) use stereotypes – “oh, the X group, they are all lazy and stupid”.

Discrimination involves action [emphasis], often based on unfair rules. Acts of discrimination are based on the prejudice that one group, considering itself better than others, deserves to deny the other group basic human rights and access to the benefits of society. Thus discrimination is a denial of human dignity and equal rights for those discriminated against. The actions involved deny human equality and impose a life of problems and struggles upon some, while endowing others with privileges and benefits. Just as prejudice gives birth to discrimination, so discrimination gives birth to exploitation and oppression, and when exploitation and oppression are reinforced by custom and tradition, they are difficult but not impossible to uproot and change. In the Khmer context, ethnic minorities suffer from prejudice and discrimination, and the subservience of women involves both exploitation and oppression.

Ask the participants if they understand these distinctions and ideas and urge them to ask questions.

Step 3. Show the participants a picture of four “stick figures” with a cloud above their respective heads looking at another such figure identified as a member of an ethnic minority. Name that person’s ethnic minority status, e.g., ethnic Vietnamese. Ask the participants to discuss in small groups how to fill in the cloud space, with a bad name designed to reinforce the notion that the minority member is inferior or less than human, and other idea-clouds with a stereotypes (they are all greedy, cruel, etc.). Encourage discussion of how these names and stereotypes reflect ignorance and lack of understanding. Explain that these are all indications of prejudice which, like poison, leads to a socially unhealthy result in terms of discrimination.

Step 4. Draw an arrow from each stick figure to the minority member saying the arrow shows action involving discrimination, e.g., acts of denial and exclusion including those deciding that an ethnic Vietnamese child should be excluded from a community social event or from a local school.

Step 5. Divide the participants into small groups, each one to deal with a different ethnic minority. Each group should have (1) a reporter who reports on problems of prejudice and attitudes that people have about the category of people discussed, including bad names and stereotypes; and (2) a reporter to report on problems of discrimination or acts of exclusion, exploitation and oppression, directed against the category of people being discussed. The two reporters present the discussion and conclusions of the group to the plenary sessions. Urge the participants to ask the “prejudice reporter” to explain how prejudice leads to discrimination. Urge the participants to ask the “discrimination reporter” to tell them how prejudice is the basis for discrimination and why it is hurtful to the community.

Step 6. Facilitator input:Tell all participants that when minorities are victimized by discrimination, considered inferior or treated with little or no tolerance, a grave human rights violation is committed. Human rights require that minorities are to be treated with respect and dignity. Any form of discrimination or intolerance violates their respect and dignity. Therefore any form of discrimination should be taken seriously. Ask them if they understand.

Step 7. Tell them that the following are methods in seeking justice when minority rights are violated:

• filing a complaint with a court that can take action; • informing the police and asking them to take action; • informing a defender organization that can supply legal assistance; • telling a human rights NGO that is able to investigate and report on the incident; • informing the media: newspaper, radio, television; • informing a representative of the National Assembly from the province; • telling the commune leader to investigate and act upon the allegation; • conducting an NGO-sponsored human rights education class for the community.

Step 8. Ask the participants to reconvene in groups imagining they are minority members and as such to decide which remedial step they would recommend selected from the previous instructions but adding to their recommendation those provisions of the ICCPR and the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia which apply. Finally, the groups should report back with their action recommendation.

The exercise described above is used by NGOs in the context of a full program of many human rights popular education lessons. 15

Arab-Israeli education planning

In 2003, the Council of Europe brought together educators from Northern Ireland, Palestine and Israel to compare educational techniques for advancing the cause of toleration.

Palestinian and Israeli participants involved in preparing school textbooks learned how education authorities in Northern Ireland try to overcome the problems of teaching in a divided society. The Council’s Rapporteur on the Situation in the Middle East, Mikhail Margelov (Russia), hailed the “spirit of tolerance” that prevailed during the meetings on suppressing inflammatory language and incitements to hatred in school textbooks. Participants heard examples of provocative language used in current Palestinian and Israeli schoolbooks, but agreed on making changes to promote the values of tolerance. Taking into account the fact that the majority of hostile interactions, acts of violence and destruction in Israel and Palestine are conducted by and victimize the young, too often prompted by adults, the Rapporteur said: “What makes me optimistic is the level of self-criticism and cooperation we have heard”.

For their part, Arab and Israeli educators were able to share a positive example of educational planning directed at the promotion of inter-group understanding among youth at the secondary school level in Israel. “The Rules of the Game” is called by its designers a “bottom-up” curriculum. This term draws attention to the fact that, from its inception, the project was developed with the full participation of an equal number of Arab and Jewish high school teachers.

The objective of the group of 20 educators was to cooperate in developing a curriculum to foster the understanding of human rights and democratic principles including both majority rule and minority rights. The teachers’ planning phase encompassed a year of debate and discussion with intensive workshops drawing materials from Al-Haq and B’Tselem, respectively Arab and Jewish human rights NGOs.

The teachers’ participatory learning project is supposed to build and reinforce attitudes of tolerance, mutual respect and individual freedom. To these ends, the curriculum primarily emphasizes a cognitive approach aimed at helping students distinguish empirical findings from value judgments, eye-witness evidence from hearsay, and a logical argument from an emotional one. The teacher-planners of the project expressed the hope that “… a ‘grass roots’ curriculum, introduced by the very same teachers by whom it was developed, might secure good will and cooperation that are so direly needed in order to overcome negative attitudes and resistance to change” (Felsenthal & Israelit, p. 95). 16

In the Israeli example, teachers from both sides of the divisive conflict came together cooperatively to plan a program promoting the values inherent in their collaborative process: conflict resolution, tolerance of diverse perspectives and mutual respect for the human rights of others.

Furthering activities of the UN for the maintenance of peace

The peace-building handbook.

In 2003, scholars at the Columbia University Center for the Study of Human Rights (CSHR), published a ground-breaking and highly specialized planning and evaluation handbook sponsored by the United States Institute of Peace. Human Rights Education for Peace Building is a multi-authored research project reflecting several years of analytical brainstorming and fieldwork by J. Paul Martin, Tania Bernath, Tracey Holland, and Loren Miller. They gathered educational materials and conducted interviews in post-conflict areas such as El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, where the international community sought to restore peace. The resulting manual is replete with lessons drawn from these zones of conflict and presented to help future planners, administrators and teachers in implementing HRE in violence-ridden areas where peace-building programs are targeted.

Martin and colleagues give human rights practitioners a detailed vade mecum on how, under challenging conditions, to conceive, plan and manage HRE programs in their cognitive, attitudinal, behavioral and skill-building components. The peace-building handbookpresents a rich mix of theoretical wisdom, anecdotal and practical prescriptions for advancing reconstruction and transitions to peace with educational components. The contribution of human rights in such environments lies in the vision of living without violence it offers to those beset by powerlessness. Human Rights Education for Peace Building argues for long term educational projects that offer a conceptual alternative to violence as a means of social action.

With strong analytical guidance, the book shows that HRE objectives may be appropriate at one level of peace-building but not at another. HRE planners are guided by a “stage approach” model along the continuum from conflict to peace and suggesting variations in HRE objectives suitable, among others, for the pre-peace and settlement stage, the negotiation stage, and the reconstructive stage. For example, educational objectives for the pre-peace stage are reactive and emphasize monitoring skills and the need for meticulous accuracy in recording violations for possible legal process. As reconstruction activities develop, HRE programs become pro-active and forward looking, focusing on expanded notions of human rights beyond legal claims and to norms for everyday living, including non-discrimination, empathy and respect for everyone’s human dignity.

In answer to the question: “How does HRE differ from other peace-building activities?”, the CSHR co-authors write:

In the eye of the storm, where everything seems negotiable and thus subject to the fiat of the most powerful, HRE can provide both structure and standards. HRE introduces an alternative, namely a set of laws or codes as defined by the international community away from the heat of the crisis as a way towards preventing human right abuses. This was precisely the motivations of the world’s states after the horrors of the World War when in 1948 they approved the UN Declaration on Human Rights.

Philippine HRE for military and police

Despite the origins of the Freire pedagogy in Brazil, in some respects Asia shares credit as a cradle of human rights education because such programs were first commenced on a national basis in the Philippines as required by their Constitution of 1987. It is a charter composed by people who themselves had suffered under the previous tyrannical rule of Ferdinand Marcos, so the resulting new Constitution is strongly reactive to that historical record. Through human rights education, the framers explicitly sought to change the political environment and prevailing values, attitudes and behavior of citizens and law enforcement officials. They reasoned that human rights education and training have both preventive and curative impacts – they can empower people to prevent problems from arising by nurturing respect for other people’s rights, and, as well put officials on notice that people are informed of the possibilities of redress.

Philippine NGOs use the constitutional mandate to build their own programs of community development and practical self-help networks for women and children, farmers, the handicapped, slum dwellers, etc. Such programs carry less risk of provoking elite-based opposition when linked with human rights education because of the well-known constitutional stamp of approval. Moreover, NGOs in the Philippines found their programs had higher prospects for success in shaping values as they linked human rights with concrete community improvements that respond to peoples’ needs as they define them.

Since 1987 when the new Constitution mandated the teaching of human rights, police, military and teacher-training in the island nation has been implemented with varying degrees of success. For lack of well-planned models, efforts to implement HRE for security services were initially shaky and notably uncertain. 17   For example, the military made seven coup d’étatattempts against the new government within three years until a Philippine Senate Committee focused sharply on the need for stronger discipline supplemented by education “with teeth”. They concluded (apud Claude, p. 73):

A more effective education program is needed for the military and government personnel in order for them to have a better understanding of their duties and responsibilities in the protection and promotion of human rights in accordance with the Constitution, laws and internationally accepted human rights norms and standards.

The demand for the restoration of domestic peace served as a rebuke to the National Human Rights Commission because it is constitutionally responsible for human rights education for the military and police.

After several failed attempts at implementing HRE, and in response to the Senate’s criticism, fresh efforts to gain military acceptance of effective human rights education were launched under the leadership of the Human Rights Commission’s education officer, Amâncio S. Donato. A PhD in philosophy, in interviews in Manila he told this author that his ideas about how to approach HRE for the police and military were partially influenced by Johan Galtung and Anders Helge Wirak’s “Human Needs and Human Rights”. 18   Under the new program Donato planned with the help of social scientists and law professors, thousands of police and military officers began undergoing periodic eight-day “conscientization programs” on human rights, constitutional law and humanitarian law. The “teeth in the programs” derived from Presidential orders specifying that promotions and pay increases should be withheld for officers failing to pass the required course on human rights and international humanitarian law.

The Human Rights Commission was faced with the challenge of how to ensure acceptance of the program within the military ranks among whom were many who held elected officials in contempt. With such attitudes prevailing, the educational challenge was to design a model adding attitude and behavior change to cognitive skills development. As a related matter, the Commission had to deal with the sensitive issue of the program’s “legitimacy”. Acceptance by the officer corps remained problematic so long as they had no hand in its design and little basis to relate to its provisions. The Commission responded by proposing several ways to increase endorsement of human rights education by military and police. For this author, Dr. Donato summarized his methods for military HRE, reducing the planning directives colloquially to a set of maxims:

Make it folksy:instructors should use common vernacular and “avoid legalese”, emphasizing the Filipino culture and community context so as to ensure sympathetic understanding.

Make it their’s:encourage the development of their own drafting of a professional code of ethics after a thorough understanding emerges in discussion of human rights and humanitarian law norms.

Make it personal:trainers should creatively underscore the point that respecting human rights is consistent with the trainee’s own human needs (e.g., family interests, the education of their own children, etc.) tied to respecting the human needs of others.

Make it pay:Success in the program should be shown to be in each officer’s best interests evidenced by reliance on incentives (promotions and pay increases) rather than sanctions (threats of investigations, punishment and humiliation).

In 1995, recognizing the importance of HRE program evaluation where military and police training are concerned, the University-based Development Academy of the Philippines designed an assessment program focusing on security services training at two levels. First, at the individual level, an attitude and skills survey instrument helped to evaluate trainees’ changes in psychological attitude and behavior norms. Second, a community-level impact assessment canvassed the incidence of increases and decreases in human rights violations among those who have gone through the program of human rights education and training. Professionals conducting such programs recognize that critical evaluation is always important to ensure that long-term programs adjust to changing circumstances and meet their stated objectives.

Global resources and support for Human Rights Education

By many standards, the original UN Decade for Human Rights Education (1995-2004) was a success. By its completion, HRE programs could be found in the majority of countries worldwide. They were strengthened and facilitated with various reinforcements. Many were:

• facilitated by UN and regional support and technical assistance;

• funded by international agencies;

• converted into long-term programs with the aid of university certificates and teacher training; and

• supplemented by creative popular education projects of NGOs targeting specialized groups such as women and children, the disabled, the rural poor, and those unreached by the formal school systems.

The supporting structures at the international level include UNESCO’s Division of Human Rights, Democracy, Peace and Tolerance which provides strategies for teaching human rights on an international and regional level. Also from the United Nations, the “UN Cyber School Bus” – http://www.un.org/ Pubs/CyberSchoolBus/humanrights – is an attractive website to facilitate infusing classroom activities with human rights information and materials. The site includes an interactive Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a plain language version of the Universal Declaration, questions and answers, definitions of human rights terms appropriate for primary and secondary school classes, and an ingenious Global Atlas of Student Activities.

Regional support for human rights education are evident in the work of the European Union, the Asian Regional Resource Center, the All African Annual Workshop on Human Rights Education, and the publications and instructional programs of the Interamerican Human Rights Institute. International and national funding agencies have favored the use of HRE. The chief sources of financial support have included the European Human Rights Foundation, the Canadian Human Rights Foundation, United States Agency for International Development, and many private foundations including the Ford Foundation, Redd Barna (Norway), the Fredrick Neuman Foundation (Germany), the Dutch Foreign Ministry, the Asia Foundation and many others. 19

A new step was taken at the level of international financial institutions when the Asia Development Bank, not traditionally known for progressive initiatives, nevertheless assessed the region’s legal systems at the beginning of the twenty-first century as “plagued by corruption and interests vested in maintaining the statu quo”. The Bank concluded that their funded development projects would benefit by including programs of “legal literacy training” a term less controversial to Asian governments than “popular human rights education”. Linked to development projects, “legal literacy” training, according to the Bank, should promote improved governance based on “citizen knowledge of rights, demands for accountability, and participation in decision-making” to foster a “legal system’s responsiveness to the needs of the disadvantaged”. 20

There are many Internet sites established to support HRE programs, and they are especially useful to classroom teachers and NGOs undertaking educational projects for the first time. A few examples suggest the range and diversity of such resources. “All Different, All Equal” is a project of the Council of Europe which includes curriculum to promote inter-cultural education. Amnesty International USA supports a Human Rights Education site offering a monthly e-mail newsletter for human rights educators. BBC World Service: “I Have a Right to …” supplies case studies used to teach students about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Other sites with substantial HRE materials are hosted by the “Human Rights Internet”, “Human Rights Education Associates”, “The People’s Movement for Human Rights Education”, “Partners in Human Rights Education”, etc.

Many observers, activists and educators now perceive the beginnings of an international movement in support of human rights education. It is more viable for having globally available UN resources in combination with a burgeoning international network of cooperating public and private groups. The vision shared by those involved is directed to constructing a “universal culture of human rights”, no longer a utopian fancy but now a challenge for a globalizing world in need of shared positive values. We are faced with the obligation at the international, national, local and personal levels to implement effective programs of human rights education and to employ methodologies that will ensure that the task is well done, consistent with the goals of world peace and respect for human rights everywhere.

To reinforce our responsibilities to support human rights education, consider this poignant comment by Eleanor Roosevelt. As if talking to us today, she said in 1948:

It will be a long time before history will make its judgment on the value of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the judgment will depend, I think, on what the people of different nations do to make this document familiar to everyone. If they know it well enough, they will strive to attain some of the rights and freedoms set forth in it, and that effort on their part is what will make it of value in clarifying what was meant in the Charter in the references to human rights and fundamental freedoms.

1. Charles Malik, These Rights and Freedoms.UN Department of Public Information, 1950, pp.4-5.

2. E/CN.4/SR.67, Commission on Human Rights, Third Session. Summary Record of the 69th Meeting (Lake Success), 11 June 1948, p. 13.

3. Official Record of the Third Session of the General Assembly,Part I, “Social Humanitarian and Cultural Questions”, 3d Committee, Summary Records of Meeting, 21 September–8 December 1948, reporting the 147th Meeting of the Commission, held at the Palais de Chaillot, Paris, 19 November 1948, p. 597.

4. Argentine Amendment (A/C.3/251).

5. Cuban Amendment (A/C.3/261).

6. P. Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Seabury Press, 1973.

7. Official Record, op. cit., p. 587.

8. Id., p. 584.

9.  Id., p. 594.

10. Id., ibid.

11. Id., p. 589.

12. Annual Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Katarina Tomaševski, submitted pursuant to Commission on Human Rights Resolution 2001/29, paragraph 46, E/CN.4/2002/60.

13. UN General Assembly, Res. 49/184.

14. Action Professionals Association for the People (APAP), The Bells of Freedom. Adis-Abeba, 1996. Available at http://www.umn.edu/humanrts/education/belfry.pdf.. Last access on 9 January 2004.

15. A variation on this “prejudice exercise” can be found in a more generalized format as Activity 15 in Richard Pierre Claude, Educación popular en derechos humanos: 24 guías de actividades participativas para maestros y facilitadores. San José de Costa Rica: Instituto Interamericano de Derechos Humanos, 2003.

16. Ilana Felsenthal & Israelit Rubinstein, “Democracy, School, and Curriculum Reform: The ‘Rules of the Game’ in Israel”. In: Roberta S. Sigel & Marilyn Hoskin (eds.), Education for Democratic Citizenship: A Challenge for Multi-Ethnic Societies, pp. 87-102. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1991.

17. R.P. Claude, “Civil-Military/Police Relations”. In: Educating for Human Rights: The Philippines and Beyond, pp. 71-101. Manila/Honolulu: University of the Philippines – University of Hawaii, 1996.

18. Galtung & Wirak, “Human Needs and Human Rights – A Theoretical Approach”. Bulletin of Peace Proposals 8, pp. 251-258, 1977.

19. Funding agencies supporting human rights education are listed in Frank Elbert (ed.),Human Rights Education Resources Book. Cambridge/Amsterdam: Human Rights Education Associates, 2000.

20. Asian Development Bank, “Legal Literacy for Supporting Governance”. Manila: Regional Technical Assistance Study RETA 5856, 1999.

Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland. Founding Editor of Human Rights Quarterly. Author of Science in the Service of Human Rights, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002.

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About education

UNESCO believes that education is a human right for all throughout life and that access must be matched by quality. The Organization is the only United Nations agency with a mandate to cover all aspects of education. It has been entrusted to lead the Global Education 2030 Agenda through  Sustainable Development Goal 4 . The roadmap to achieve this is the  Education 2030 Framework for Action  (FFA).

UNESCO provides global and regional leadership in education, strengthens education systems worldwide and responds to contemporary global challenges through education with gender equality an underlying principle.

Its work encompasses educational development from pre-school to higher education and beyond. Themes include global citizenship and sustainable development, human rights and gender equality, health and HIV and AIDS, as well as technical and vocational skills development.

How we work

UNESCO leads the coordination and monitoring of the  Global Education 2030 Agenda  through Sustainable Development Goal 4  and using the  Education 2030 Framework for Action  as a roadmap.

The  UNESCO Education Strategy 2014-2021  has three strategic objectives:

The education sector is shifting and evolving towards a more explicit, active commitment to addressing gender-related barriers within and beyond the education system. This shift is being accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic with more NGOs, local governments as well as national governments recognizing the role education has in promoting gender-transformative change. Many are responding to this shift with innovations that aim to address the persistent challenges faced by girls and women in education. By highlighting these key practices through the Prize, we can contribute to inspiring more action for girls and women.

We speak about the importance of gender-transformative change both in and beyond education. Can you define what this means for you?

Gender-transformative education aims not only to respond to gender disparities within the education system but also to harness the full potential of education to transform attitudes, practices and discriminatory gender norms. Education can support critical changes for gender equality, such as promoting women’s leadership, preventing gender-based violence, and catalyzing boys' and men's engagement to embrace gender equality.

I have been very impressed by the capacity shown by many organizations and individuals nominated to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure they could maintain the delivery of their programmes. We know that fewer girls and women have access to and use the internet, and the digital gender gap is growing, particularly in developing countries. Many found new ways of delivering educational content and finding solutions to conduct fully online or blended approaches to learning, often in low-resource settings where access to the internet is extremely limited.  

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• SDG: SDG 4 - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

Essay On Right To Education

500 words essay on right to education.

Education enables individuals to put their potentials to optimal use. Moreover, it makes them a thinker and correct decision-maker. This is possible because of getting access to knowledge from the external world. Thus, education opens new windows to the outside world. Through an essay on right to education , we will discuss its importance and benefits.

Importance of Right to Education

Education is an essential condition to free individual development. It is what can make a person fit for the tasks of citizenship. Moreover, when you are not educated, you will hardly understand politics or stay vigilant about national interests.

Thus, participation in state affairs is going to be negligible only. In other words, a citizen like that will be no less than a slave to others. This will prevent them from rising in the stature of their personality. Usually, others will make decisions for that person.

Consequently, it will be a failure of democracy. The right to education is a civil right that safeguards individuals from all this. While it does not guarantee an identical intellectual training of everyone nonetheless, it does provide provisions for that type of education.

Without the right to education, people won’t be able to get live their life as they wish to, especially those who cannot afford it. It ensures that everyone gets an equal right to education so that we all can develop as a society without leaving anyone section out.

Thus, the right to education can be life-changing for people who wish to change their lives and break the old-age cycle. It helps individuals to get equal access to education like any other citizen without any discrimination.

Benefits of Right to Education

There are many benefits which the right to education provides us with. Firstly, it has brought many changes in society in terms of ease of education. Further, it ensures a consistent fee structure for all.

In other words, schools cannot make any sudden hikes in fees so people don’t suffer from it. After that, it also ensures that everybody gets an education easily by making it available to everyone.

A lot of underprivileged students cannot find ample resources despite having talent. Thus, it ensures that they can rightfully pursue their education. Consequently, it increases the literacy rate of a nation.

This is without a doubt a great advantage for any country. Moreover, it removes any kind of discrimination especially for people belonging to different economic backgrounds. Similarly, it applies to disabled people as well.

Most importantly, it ensures that schools offer seats to those who cannot afford to pay their fees. Thus, it helps the underprivileged people to partake in it thereby making education reach all sectors of society.

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Conclusion of Essay on Right to Education

All in all, every citizen must get a chance to get access to education which will enable them to judge, weigh and make decisions for themselves. It is a life-changer for many people all over the world especially those belonging to the underprivileged sector to outshine.

FAQ of Essay on Right to Education

Question 1: Why is education important for child development?

Answer 1: Education offers children to learn with diversity. Thus, children will develop healthy social interaction by blending in with other kids belonging to different cultures and backgrounds. Moreover, it can boost their self-esteem and self-confidence.

Question 2: Why is the right to education important?

Answer 2: The right to education is essential as it is a human right and indispensable for the exercise of other human rights. Quality education strives to guarantee the development of a fully-rounded human being. Similarly, it is one of the most powerful tools which can lift socially excluded children and adults out of poverty.

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Access to education is not a privilege, it’s a right. And yet, 61 million children are not in school, most of them girls. Educating children no matter where they are is one of the biggest steps we can take toward ending extreme poverty. The Global Partnership for Education is the only multilateral partnership devoted to getting all these children into school for a quality education. To make this happen, we work together with a diverse group of governments, civil society/non-governmental organizations, international organizations, private sector, and teachers.

Teachers are particularly important because learning happens between student and teacher. Take a look at one of our recent blog posts about Pov who has been working as a teacher in Cambodia for the past 25 years. She says: “Investing in education is investing in the future of the country and therefore should have high priority. It is not only important for economic reasons but also because we have a commitment to children to fulfill their right to education. This means that we have to find ways to include the children that are currently out of school. This means that we need more teachers, more classrooms, ongoing training for teachers, a variety of educational materials and an effective curriculum to make sure children can read and write when they leave school and that they are provided with the necessary basic skills to participate well in their communities.”

The Global Poverty Project’s video highlights that a child’s dreams can come true with the right education and that it is our joint responsibility to help children realize their dreams. We were proud to be a part of the Global Citizen Festival concert where this video premiered, and where GPE pledged $500 million for education in areas affected by conflict and humanitarian emergencies. After you’ve looked at the video, tell us why you think education is important, and get involved in our work to help children learn and grow.

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Talking about the education as a right or a privilege I would say that should be a RIGHT. In some countries it is, however we always need to spend some money on education. But I would say as well that in some other countries it is a PRIVILEGE. Getting back to the point, it should be a RIGHT until a certain age, because people must be conscientious that education as from family, society and life as from school is really necessary to a society be developed, to know how do we need to behave thinking about the future and the people who surround us. In other hand we are directly involved by education, because day-by-day we are learning new things new experiences. So on these points we can include bad things that we learn too, which mostly we think those are good and pleasurable things, but only at that moment. Getting this point I would say and include the Social Media as a bad influence to the new generate-education, I cannot explain why but I truly believe on this and I know this is true, because mostly of the time it influencing me, like music, I cannot stand without listen to music. So based on these points and other that were not mentioned, I totally agree with EDUCATION as a RIGHT. It is a part of the society.

In reply to Is education a Right or Privilege? by Victor Morais

I say it is a right because us kids we need,no it is our right to learn and get education.We need education!We have to get education!It is our right!

In reply to Right by Crystal

Sorry, but you can’t award yourself a “right” based upon your subjective feelings. In some countries, education is formally enshrined as a “right” to its citizens. In others, it is not. It all depends upon the Constitution of the particular nation or State.

It is and should be a privilege. Like anything with real value it should be earned. If it's just given away it no longer holds any value. Pretty basic;)

In reply to Privilege by foghead

Such a narrow view to consider education a privilege. The real value of education comes when it is offered to those who cannot afford it. The progress of mankind, can only be done if we offer education to all minds. This will create opportunities that will make everyone's life better. Just think at the return on the investment, if one kid, without access to education but brilliant, receives the education and through his work he discovers something that has the potential to improve everyone's life. And the downside... keep him in the dark. his mind will be wasted. how many opportunities haven't we waste? I think that education is not even a right... it is a necessity. Cheers.

In reply to about education by Lucian Fulger

I think educativo is a right and a priviledge people should be able to get an education no matter what their backgrownd is, but also they should value all the tools that they are given just by being respectivo with their teachers and classmates. Some Kiss just manipulate education yo their own individual benefit and take ir for grandes especialista trouble children with anger issues and such

Great post and we also took an initiative to support this truth!

The team of Principal Nation think that education must be available for all without discrimination. It must be affordable; in fact primary education must be free for those who need this. And it must be adaptable so that it meets the different circumstances and changing needs of each individual student. Our main motto is to expand early childhood and education. Provide free and compulsory primary education for all and Improve the quality of education. Underlying each of these goals there is recognition of and respect for the right to quality education. Full realization of the right to education is not merely a question of access. A rights-based approach to Education for All is a holistic one, encompassing access to education, educational quality (based on human rights values and principles) and the environment in which education is provided.

You can support them by making a contribution to the funds of Principal Nation Primary School. Help them to stop child labor. You can see there details at: http://principalnation.jprinfoserve.com/

In reply to Education is a Right, Not a Privilege by Akash Roy

The perceived value of a product or service does not determine its status as a right or privilege. And there is absolutely no such thing as a “free” education. Teachers and staff are paid, construction labor and materials cost money as does routine maintenance. The money must be paid by someone. Education itself is a privilege. Equal access (i.e., non-discrimination) to these services is a right in most countries.

All humans deserve and education. Just because of your race, color, gender, or religion does not mean you don't have a future. Everyone has a right to an education, females tend to be a lot smarter then males. most kids want to go to school, and most kids would rather stay home. Just do what you got to do to get away and be an adult.

When I visited Kenya, I had about 8000 children around me begging me to find them sponsors so that they could go to school. In Kenya, the government does not even have schools (unless only for the children of government employees), much less pay for children to go. The only schools I saw were little tiny ones operated by humanitarian relief organizations like "World Vision" and "Compassion International" and also little individual pastors struggling to educate the children of their communities. It's very sad that Kenya is apparently one of the richest countries in Africa due to Safari business, but the government does not in any way whatsoever share that money with the extremely poor citizens of the country, but instead line their own pockets while the parents go without food, and blankets and clothing and roofs over the head, and the children are lucky if they get to sleep under a roof or get to eat one meal a day, much less go to school. I'd like to know what is being done about "the educational rights of children" in countries like Kenya.. and Uganda; (In Uganda, the gov't only pays 1/2 the cost so the vast vast majority of children can not go unless someone from a more privileged country like the USA hands them or the school the money to cover the rest. The schools which do exist are very few, held together by timbers and falling apart and generally run by pastors and such until the gov't, shuts them down but does not provide them with a dime to make them safer or build their own schools.) I'm sure there are many more countries like this. I am adapting an episode for a cartoon from another country right now, and I find it very sad that they talk about education as a right to all children, but do not talk about the fact that in many countries children CAN NOT go to school because the governments are so utterly corrupt or the country is just too poor.

You do not have the right to other people's labor or property. Education requires other people's labor and/or property (in the case of automated education). Therefore, education is not a right.

However, you certainly do have the right to seek an education. As with many other things, you have the right to try to get it, and other people have the right to give it to you, but you do not have the right to get it.

In reply to Default Subject by <<<>>>

Actually, the United Nations enshrined education as a right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948. See article 26 of the Declaration here: https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/

In short education is education

nice information keep sharing,nice article

Kids should have an education, it is nothing to discuss. the kids from today are the future and if they don't have an education our society and economy will be the one affected.

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Education as a human right: Principles for a universal entitlement to learning

By Tristan McCowan. Bloomsbury Academic, London, 2013, 208 pp. ISBN 978-1-4411-2277-3 (hbk), ISBN 978-1-4725-8507-3 (pbk), ISBN 978-1-4411-5059-2 (ePUB), ISBN 978-1-4411-1888-2 (ePDF)

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• Published: 23 November 2014
• Volume 60 , pages 863–865, ( 2014 )

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De Waal, F. (2013). The Bonobo and the atheist: In search of humanism among the primates . New York/London: W. W. Norton & Company.

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Guadalupe, C. Education as a human right: Principles for a universal entitlement to learning. Int Rev Educ 60 , 863–865 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-014-9461-x

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Education Is a Human Right

The world celebrates the 4th International Day of Education today, reminding us that education is essential both for lifting people out of poverty and for unlocking each person’s full potential.

According to Article 26 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), “Everyone has the right to education,” no matter their background, creed, color or gender.

Although the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, today more than 258 million children and youth are not in school. Fewer than 40 percent of girls from sub-Saharan Africa complete lower secondary school (grades 6 through 9). Some 617 million children and adolescents cannot read or count.

Lacking these skills, they are also denied many other rights such as decent work conditions and wages, the opportunity to support their families and the knowledge they need to demand equal justice under the law.

Youth for Human Rights International believes that human rights education is the key to making the right to education and all 30 human rights a reality—because those who understand the rights enshrined in the UDHR will demand their own rights and will defend and protect the rights of others. Youth for Human Rights volunteers work with government bodies and civil society to make human rights education mandatory.

One example of their advocacy is Costa Rica, where an estimated 8 percent of children have no access to education and 65 percent of girls do not finish high school.

These statistics plummet when describing the country’s indigenous people. In these communities, 30 percent are illiterate. And on average, indigenous children receive only 3.6 years of schooling.

Working with Costa Rica Legislative Assembly Deputy Jorge Luis Fonseca Fonseca, Youth for Human Rights helped accomplish an important milestone for Costa Rican children. Mr. Fonseca spearheaded a bill mandating human rights education in schools throughout the country, which was passed into law in August 2021.

“We believe that we have made a great contribution to the Costa Rican education system,” said Fonseca. “Youth for Human Rights International took the initiative. Now young students will know which rights are theirs simply because they are human beings.”

In December 2011, the UN General Assembly adopted the resolution, United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training, which reaffirms that “every individual and every organ of society shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.” And it calls on member states to “implement human rights education and training, such as through its integration into school and training curricula.”

Youth for Human Rights International acknowledges all governments, lawmakers, NGOs, educators, human rights activists and volunteers who are working to make human rights education a reality, with special thanks to its main sponsor, Church of Scientology International, for enabling them to provide their secular human rights educational materials free of charge.

For more information, visit the Youth for Human Rights website at www.youthforhumanrights.org .

A basic introduction to human rights, this booklet outlines their development through history, up to the present day. It also introduces the world’s most important human rights documents and includes the full text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

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The right to education as a fundamental human right

2017, Contemporary Educational Researches Journal

The right to education is a fundamental human right proclaimed by Articles 13 and 14 of the United Nations International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966). Ratifying this document, state parties fully agree ‘that education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity, and shall strengthen the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms’. The right to education is considered as a fundamental human right in a series of other 20th century international documents, which guarantee and protect this right for everyone, irrespective of race, colour, religion, gender, social status, etc. This paper aims to respond to questions on the observance of this right and whether it has been limited. The research is based on international documents that regulate this specific category, as well as on the respective legislation and practice within educational institutions in the Republic of Macedonia.

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Macedonia has implemented bilingualism in schools for more than a decade. However, this bilingualism has been realized in a step-by-step program in the Macedonian schools by introducing minorities to bilingual programs first starting from primary, then secondary and lately tertiary education in mother language of minorities. This approach was originally thought to help minority students learn the majority language and in that way find their way in the market economy. In practice, bilingual programs in Macedonian schools as well as teacher training programs in the state universities have limited view of what it means to have bilingual education, professional bilingual teachers, and how these teachers should teach bilingual students. This paper explores how political, social, and economic developments in one country influences by further developing or limiting bilingual education in all levels in Macedonia and how bilingualism in schools can be misused for the government to keep the minorities oppressed. This paper will overview the major political and educational events that took place in Macedonia that concern and seriously affected further development of bilingual education in the country.

Senada Zatagić

descrizione pubblicazione Tempi Moderni Edizioni Simple

GIUSEPPE MAFFEO

This paper examines the universal and regional normative standard on the right to education. In examining the minimum or core content of the human right to education under both international conventional and customary human rights law, it is evident that such a right is not only concerned with equitable access issues but with the contents as well. Precisely with regard to this latter aspect, the different sensitivities of individual States and the different approaches at the level of regional cooperation are recorded. If the goal is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, then it is necessary to find how best to reconcile upholding the universality of human right to education with local practices, that are often justified, depending on the circumstances, recalling concepts such as "individual freedom", "socialist material and spiritual civilization", "Islamic values", etc. «In this regard, regional and sub regional human rights instruments are especially valuable since they reflect local perspectives and goals and by definition are attuned to local context».

Accountability from a human rights perspective: The incorporation and enforcement of the right to education in the domestic legal order

Stephan Anagnost

This essay allowed the author to conduct research related to two Schools of Thought she has a particular passion for: Feminism and Human Rights. It lends itself to the author’s future academic plans regarding her desire to enter the political science field. She realized that the scope of a paper like this could potentially be so large that it was necessary to focus on specific key concepts: women’s rights, the right to education and gender equality, through two case studies of Iran and Saudi Arabia. What made this topic interesting is the fact that inequality is still present for women. Therefore, the research question explored was: To what extent can it be argued that a Relativist implementation of human rights still be considered acceptable from a Universalist standpoint? The focus, related to the Third Wave of Feminism, the 1st and 2nd generation of Human Rights, included the follow concrete sources: the UDHR, UIDHR, CEDAW, Iran and Saudi’s Constitutions. The author reached out to different government organizations and undertook a number of supplementary interviews to complement her academic research and improve the accuracy of her paper. She drew on the knowledge acquired in her GPS course. Hardworking, diligence and perseverance were what guided this paper. The author came to the conclusion that women’s rights were addressed with difficulty in certain regions due to cultural/religious beliefs, or reluctances to let aside Relativists standards to integrate more Universalism standards. This debate remains an ongoing struggle, on the domestic and regional level, which is constantly playing a major role in the implementation of rights, like education. Women’s situation in Iran and Saudi are still at a stage where they are suffering from discrimination. Even if the world constantly evolves, such prejudices or interdictions are held against them for simple virtue of being females.

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There have been considerable efforts by the government of Uganda to protect and promote the right of children to education as well as fostering equality of children in education. This has been done through the 1995 Ugandan Constitution and the Children’s Act Cap. 59. More resources have also been allocated to lower educational public sector through the Universal Primary Education programme in order to enhance equity of access at that level between boys and girlsEducation for All (EFA) Policy.Uganda in addition, implemented the policy of decentralization, under which the central government has channeled public service. Under the local Government Act of 1997, nursery, primary schools, special and technical schools fall under the administration and management of District Councils.The key policy thrust in the educational sector for both rural and urban Uganda includes providing equitable access to quality and affordable education to all Ugandans, propelling the nation towards achieving the goals of Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP), meeting commitments to achieve Education for All (EFA) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, providing relevant education, enhancing efficiency and strengthening partnerships in the education sector.

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Essay on Education As A Human Right

Students are often asked to write an essay on Education As A Human Right in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Education As A Human Right

Introduction.

Education is a basic human right. This means that every person, young or old, should have the chance to learn. This is important because education helps people grow, understand the world, and make good choices.

The Importance of Education

Education is not just about reading and writing. It’s also about learning skills for life, like how to solve problems and work with others. Education helps us become good citizens who can contribute to society in positive ways.

Education and Equality

Education is a powerful tool for equality. It gives everyone, no matter their background, a chance to succeed. When everyone has access to education, we can all have equal opportunities to achieve our dreams.

Barriers to Education

Sadly, not everyone gets the chance to go to school. Some people face problems like poverty, war, or discrimination. It’s important to fight these problems so that everyone can enjoy their right to education.

In conclusion, education is a human right that everyone should have. It helps us grow, understand the world, and achieve our dreams. We must work hard to make sure that everyone has the chance to learn.

250 Words Essay on Education As A Human Right

Understanding education as a human right.

Education is like a key. It opens doors to knowledge, skills, and opportunities. It is not just something nice to have, but a basic human right. This means every person, no matter who they are or where they come from, should have the chance to learn.

Education helps us understand the world around us. It teaches us how to read, write, and count. But it also teaches us about different cultures, how to solve problems, and how to work together. Education makes us better citizens, ready to contribute to our communities.

The Role of Governments

It is the job of governments to make sure everyone gets an education. This is because education is a right, just like the right to be safe or the right to be treated fairly. Governments should provide schools, hire teachers, and make sure learning is accessible for everyone.

Sadly, not everyone gets the education they deserve. Some people live in places with no schools. Others cannot afford to learn. Some are kept out of school because of their gender or disability. These barriers are not fair and go against the idea of education as a human right.

The Way Forward

To make education a reality for everyone, we need to work together. We should support policies that make schools available and affordable. We should also fight against discrimination that keeps some people out of school. By doing so, we uphold education as a human right.

In conclusion, education is more than a privilege, it’s a human right. It’s a powerful tool that empowers individuals and transforms societies. Hence, it should be accessible and available to all without any discrimination.

500 Words Essay on Education As A Human Right

What is education.

Education is a process where we learn new things. It is not just about reading books or doing homework. It is about understanding the world around us. It helps us to think, ask questions, and find answers. Education is like a key that opens the door to knowledge and wisdom.

Education as a Human Right

The right to education means that every person, no matter who they are or where they come from, should be allowed to learn. This right is so important that it is written in a special list of rights called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This list was made by the United Nations, an organization of countries from around the world. They agree that education is a basic human right.

Why is Education a Human Right?

Education is a human right because it helps people live better lives. When we learn, we can make good decisions. We can find jobs that we like and that pay us well. We can understand what is happening in the world and make choices that are good for us and for others. Education also helps us to respect other people and their rights. It teaches us that everyone is equal and deserves to be treated fairly.

Governments have a big job to make sure that everyone can go to school. They need to build schools, train teachers, and make learning materials. They also need to make sure that schools are safe places for everyone. Sometimes, this can be hard. Some countries do not have enough money. Some places are too far away from schools. But, even when it is hard, governments must try their best to make education available for all.

Our Role in Education

We also have a role to play in making sure that everyone can learn. We can speak up when we see that someone is not able to go to school. We can help our friends with their studies. We can also learn about the rights of others and respect them. When we all work together, we can make sure that education is a right for everyone.

Education is a key that can open many doors. It is a right that belongs to all of us. We must make sure that everyone, no matter who they are or where they come from, can use this key. When we do this, we make the world a better place for everyone.

Remember, education is not just about going to school and getting a degree. It’s about understanding right from wrong and having the knowledge to stand up for your rights. It’s about gaining the skills to do the job you want to do. It’s about being able to make good choices in life. So, let’s all work together to make sure everyone gets the education they deserve.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

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Education IS a Human Right!!!

This is the theme chosen for the 2012 Conference of UNAI Partner Committee on Teaching about the United Nations (CTAUN), Friday 3 February at UN Headquarters. The United Nations first articulated the right to education in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights . Article 28 stipulates that everyone has the right to a free and compulsory elementary education, with technical, professional and higher education equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. The purpose of education is to promote the full development of the human personality and to strengthen respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. Yet worldwide today, it is estimated that 69 million children are not in school and approximately one adult in six is unable to read or write. Two out of three illiterate adults are women. CTAUN's Conference will investigate the many causes of this disparity between the stated goals and the actualities of the human right to education for so many children and adults around the world. We will focus on how access to and quality of education, seen by some as two sides of the same coin, can steadily improve the educational experience for all learners. Conference Programme Conference Registration

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Essay on Human Rights: Samples in 500 and 1500

• Updated on  
• Dec 9, 2023

Essay writing is an integral part of the school curriculum and various academic and competitive exams like IELTS , TOEFL , SAT , UPSC , etc. It is designed to test your command of the English language and how well you can gather your thoughts and present them in a structure with a flow. To master your ability to write an essay, you must read as much as possible and practise on any given topic. This blog brings you a detailed guide on how to write an essay on Human Rights , with useful essay samples on Human rights.

This Blog Includes:

The basic human rights, 200 words essay on human rights, 500 words essay on human rights, 500+ words essay on human rights in india, 1500 words essay on human rights, importance of human rights, essay on human rights pdf.

Also Read: Essay on Labour Day

Also Read: 1-Minute Speech on Human Rights for Students

What are Human Rights

Human rights mark everyone as free and equal, irrespective of age, gender, caste, creed, religion and nationality. The United Nations adopted human rights in light of the atrocities people faced during the Second World War. On the 10th of December 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Its adoption led to the recognition of human rights as the foundation for freedom, justice and peace for every individual. Although it’s not legally binding, most nations have incorporated these human rights into their constitutions and domestic legal frameworks. Human rights safeguard us from discrimination and guarantee that our most basic needs are protected.

Did you know that the 10th of December is celebrated as Human Rights Day ?

Before we move on to the essays on human rights, let’s check out the basics of what they are.

Also Read: What are Human Rights?

Also Read: 7 Impactful Human Rights Movies Everyone Must Watch!

Here is a 200-word short sample essay on basic Human Rights.

Human rights are a set of rights given to every human being regardless of their gender, caste, creed, religion, nation, location or economic status. These are said to be moral principles that illustrate certain standards of human behaviour. Protected by law , these rights are applicable everywhere and at any time. Basic human rights include the right to life, right to a fair trial, right to remedy by a competent tribunal, right to liberty and personal security, right to own property, right to education, right of peaceful assembly and association, right to marriage and family, right to nationality and freedom to change it, freedom of speech, freedom from discrimination, freedom from slavery, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of movement, right of opinion and information, right to adequate living standard and freedom from interference with privacy, family, home and correspondence.

Also Read: Law Courses

Check out this 500-word long essay on Human Rights.

Every person has dignity and value. One of the ways that we recognise the fundamental worth of every person is by acknowledging and respecting their human rights. Human rights are a set of principles concerned with equality and fairness. They recognise our freedom to make choices about our lives and develop our potential as human beings. They are about living a life free from fear, harassment or discrimination.

Human rights can broadly be defined as the basic rights that people worldwide have agreed are essential. These include the right to life, the right to a fair trial, freedom from torture and other cruel and inhuman treatment, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to health, education and an adequate standard of living. These human rights are the same for all people everywhere – men and women, young and old, rich and poor, regardless of our background, where we live, what we think or believe. This basic property is what makes human rights’ universal’.

Human rights connect us all through a shared set of rights and responsibilities. People’s ability to enjoy their human rights depends on other people respecting those rights. This means that human rights involve responsibility and duties towards other people and the community. Individuals have a responsibility to ensure that they exercise their rights with consideration for the rights of others. For example, when someone uses their right to freedom of speech, they should do so without interfering with someone else’s right to privacy.

Governments have a particular responsibility to ensure that people can enjoy their rights. They must establish and maintain laws and services that enable people to enjoy a life in which their rights are respected and protected. For example, the right to education says that everyone is entitled to a good education. Therefore, governments must provide good quality education facilities and services to their people. If the government fails to respect or protect their basic human rights, people can take it into account.

Values of tolerance, equality and respect can help reduce friction within society. Putting human rights ideas into practice can help us create the kind of society we want to live in. There has been tremendous growth in how we think about and apply human rights ideas in recent decades. This growth has had many positive results – knowledge about human rights can empower individuals and offer solutions for specific problems.

Human rights are an important part of how people interact with others at all levels of society – in the family, the community, school, workplace, politics and international relations. Therefore, people everywhere must strive to understand what human rights are. When people better understand human rights, it is easier for them to promote justice and the well-being of society. 

Also Read: Important Articles in Indian Constitution

Here is a human rights essay focused on India.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. It has been rightly proclaimed in the American Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Created with certain unalienable rights….” Similarly, the Indian Constitution has ensured and enshrined Fundamental rights for all citizens irrespective of caste, creed, religion, colour, sex or nationality. These basic rights, commonly known as human rights, are recognised the world over as basic rights with which every individual is born.

In recognition of human rights, “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was made on the 10th of December, 1948. This declaration is the basic instrument of human rights. Even though this declaration has no legal bindings and authority, it forms the basis of all laws on human rights. The necessity of formulating laws to protect human rights is now being felt all over the world. According to social thinkers, the issue of human rights became very important after World War II concluded. It is important for social stability both at the national and international levels. Wherever there is a breach of human rights, there is conflict at one level or the other.

Given the increasing importance of the subject, it becomes necessary that educational institutions recognise the subject of human rights as an independent discipline. The course contents and curriculum of the discipline of human rights may vary according to the nature and circumstances of a particular institution. Still, generally, it should include the rights of a child, rights of minorities, rights of the needy and the disabled, right to live, convention on women, trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation etc.

Since the formation of the United Nations , the promotion and protection of human rights have been its main focus. The United Nations has created a wide range of mechanisms for monitoring human rights violations. The conventional mechanisms include treaties and organisations, U.N. special reporters, representatives and experts and working groups. Asian countries like China argue in favour of collective rights. According to Chinese thinkers, European countries lay stress upon individual rights and values while Asian countries esteem collective rights and obligations to the family and society as a whole.

With the freedom movement the world over after World War II, the end of colonisation also ended the policy of apartheid and thereby the most aggressive violation of human rights. With the spread of education, women are asserting their rights. Women’s movements play an important role in spreading the message of human rights. They are fighting for their rights and supporting the struggle for human rights of other weaker and deprived sections like bonded labour, child labour, landless labour, unemployed persons, Dalits and elderly people.

Unfortunately, violation of human rights continues in most parts of the world. Ethnic cleansing and genocide can still be seen in several parts of the world. Large sections of the world population are deprived of the necessities of life i.e. food, shelter and security of life. Right to minimum basic needs viz. Work, health care, education and shelter are denied to them. These deprivations amount to the negation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Also Read: Human Rights Courses

Check out this detailed 1500-word essay on human rights.

The human right to live and exist, the right to equality, including equality before the law, non-discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth, and equality of opportunity in matters of employment, the right to freedom of speech and expression, assembly, association, movement, residence, the right to practice any profession or occupation, the right against exploitation, prohibiting all forms of forced labour, child labour and trafficking in human beings, the right to freedom of conscience, practice and propagation of religion and the right to legal remedies for enforcement of the above are basic human rights. These rights and freedoms are the very foundations of democracy.

Obviously, in a democracy, the people enjoy the maximum number of freedoms and rights. Besides these are political rights, which include the right to contest an election and vote freely for a candidate of one’s choice. Human rights are a benchmark of a developed and civilised society. But rights cannot exist in a vacuum. They have their corresponding duties. Rights and duties are the two aspects of the same coin.

Liberty never means license. Rights presuppose the rule of law, where everyone in the society follows a code of conduct and behaviour for the good of all. It is the sense of duty and tolerance that gives meaning to rights. Rights have their basis in the ‘live and let live’ principle. For example, my right to speech and expression involves my duty to allow others to enjoy the same freedom of speech and expression. Rights and duties are inextricably interlinked and interdependent. A perfect balance is to be maintained between the two. Whenever there is an imbalance, there is chaos.

A sense of tolerance, propriety and adjustment is a must to enjoy rights and freedom. Human life sans basic freedom and rights is meaningless. Freedom is the most precious possession without which life would become intolerable, a mere abject and slavish existence. In this context, Milton’s famous and oft-quoted lines from his Paradise Lost come to mind: “To reign is worth ambition though in hell/Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven.”

However, liberty cannot survive without its corresponding obligations and duties. An individual is a part of society in which he enjoys certain rights and freedom only because of the fulfilment of certain duties and obligations towards others. Thus, freedom is based on mutual respect’s rights. A fine balance must be maintained between the two, or there will be anarchy and bloodshed. Therefore, human rights can best be preserved and protected in a society steeped in morality, discipline and social order.

Violation of human rights is most common in totalitarian and despotic states. In the theocratic states, there is much persecution, and violation in the name of religion and the minorities suffer the most. Even in democracies, there is widespread violation and infringement of human rights and freedom. The women, children and the weaker sections of society are victims of these transgressions and violence.

The U.N. Commission on Human Rights’ main concern is to protect and promote human rights and freedom in the world’s nations. In its various sessions held from time to time in Geneva, it adopts various measures to encourage worldwide observations of these basic human rights and freedom. It calls on its member states to furnish information regarding measures that comply with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights whenever there is a complaint of a violation of these rights. In addition, it reviews human rights situations in various countries and initiates remedial measures when required.

The U.N. Commission was much concerned and dismayed at the apartheid being practised in South Africa till recently. The Secretary-General then declared, “The United Nations cannot tolerate apartheid. It is a legalised system of racial discrimination, violating the most basic human rights in South Africa. It contradicts the letter and spirit of the United Nations Charter. That is why over the last forty years, my predecessors and I have urged the Government of South Africa to dismantle it.”

Now, although apartheid is no longer practised in that country, other forms of apartheid are being blatantly practised worldwide. For example, sex apartheid is most rampant. Women are subject to abuse and exploitation. They are not treated equally and get less pay than their male counterparts for the same jobs. In employment, promotions, possession of property etc., they are most discriminated against. Similarly, the rights of children are not observed properly. They are forced to work hard in very dangerous situations, sexually assaulted and exploited, sold and bonded for labour.

The Commission found that religious persecution, torture, summary executions without judicial trials, intolerance, slavery-like practices, kidnapping, political disappearance, etc., are being practised even in the so-called advanced countries and societies. The continued acts of extreme violence, terrorism and extremism in various parts of the world like Pakistan, India, Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, Somalia, Algeria, Lebanon, Chile, China, and Myanmar, etc., by the governments, terrorists, religious fundamentalists, and mafia outfits, etc., is a matter of grave concern for the entire human race.

Violation of freedom and rights by terrorist groups backed by states is one of the most difficult problems society faces. For example, Pakistan has been openly collaborating with various terrorist groups, indulging in extreme violence in India and other countries. In this regard the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva adopted a significant resolution, which was co-sponsored by India, focusing on gross violation of human rights perpetrated by state-backed terrorist groups.

The resolution expressed its solidarity with the victims of terrorism and proposed that a U.N. Fund for victims of terrorism be established soon. The Indian delegation recalled that according to the Vienna Declaration, terrorism is nothing but the destruction of human rights. It shows total disregard for the lives of innocent men, women and children. The delegation further argued that terrorism cannot be treated as a mere crime because it is systematic and widespread in its killing of civilians.

Violation of human rights, whether by states, terrorists, separatist groups, armed fundamentalists or extremists, is condemnable. Regardless of the motivation, such acts should be condemned categorically in all forms and manifestations, wherever and by whomever they are committed, as acts of aggression aimed at destroying human rights, fundamental freedom and democracy. The Indian delegation also underlined concerns about the growing connection between terrorist groups and the consequent commission of serious crimes. These include rape, torture, arson, looting, murder, kidnappings, blasts, and extortion, etc.

Violation of human rights and freedom gives rise to alienation, dissatisfaction, frustration and acts of terrorism. Governments run by ambitious and self-seeking people often use repressive measures and find violence and terror an effective means of control. However, state terrorism, violence, and human freedom transgressions are very dangerous strategies. This has been the background of all revolutions in the world. Whenever there is systematic and widespread state persecution and violation of human rights, rebellion and revolution have taken place. The French, American, Russian and Chinese Revolutions are glowing examples of human history.

The first war of India’s Independence in 1857 resulted from long and systematic oppression of the Indian masses. The rapidly increasing discontent, frustration and alienation with British rule gave rise to strong national feelings and demand for political privileges and rights. Ultimately the Indian people, under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, made the British leave India, setting the country free and independent.

Human rights and freedom ought to be preserved at all costs. Their curtailment degrades human life. The political needs of a country may reshape Human rights, but they should not be completely distorted. Tyranny, regimentation, etc., are inimical of humanity and should be resisted effectively and united. The sanctity of human values, freedom and rights must be preserved and protected. Human Rights Commissions should be established in all countries to take care of human freedom and rights. In cases of violation of human rights, affected individuals should be properly compensated, and it should be ensured that these do not take place in future.

These commissions can become effective instruments in percolating the sensitivity to human rights down to the lowest levels of governments and administrations. The formation of the National Human Rights Commission in October 1993 in India is commendable and should be followed by other countries.

Also Read: Law Courses in India

Human rights are of utmost importance to seek basic equality and human dignity. Human rights ensure that the basic needs of every human are met. They protect vulnerable groups from discrimination and abuse, allow people to stand up for themselves, and follow any religion without fear and give them the freedom to express their thoughts freely. In addition, they grant people access to basic education and equal work opportunities. Thus implementing these rights is crucial to ensure freedom, peace and safety.

Human Rights Day is annually celebrated on the 10th of December.

Human Rights Day is celebrated to commemorate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UNGA in 1948.

Some of the common Human Rights are the right to life and liberty, freedom of opinion and expression, freedom from slavery and torture and the right to work and education.

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We hope our sample essays on Human Rights have given you some great ideas. For more information on such interesting blogs, visit our essay writing page and follow Leverage Edu .

Sonal is a creative, enthusiastic writer and editor who has worked extensively for the Study Abroad domain. She splits her time between shooting fun insta reels and learning new tools for content marketing. If she is missing from her desk, you can find her with a group of people cracking silly jokes or petting neighbourhood dogs.

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Human Rights Education

Why Are Human Rights Important Essay

The concept of human rights is actually relatively recent and our current standard for human rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, was only published in 1948. But why are human rights important in the first place? Human rights are important because they ensure that each person has their basic rights of freedom, dignity, education, equal opportunity, health and justice protected. They protect people from bias and provide a support for fighting corruption and injustice. Even though most nations have adopted the Universal Declaration as a guide, there are still millions of people who suffer human rights violations every day. The human rights outlined in the Universal Declaration give individuals, advocacy organizations, governments and legal entities the ability to challenge, hold responsible and prosecute those who infringe upon those rights (United Nations, Universal).

Human rights are important for a number of reasons that, today, are often taken for granted. They protect vulnerable populations such as immigrants, prisoners, children, minorities and disabled people. Until recently, there were few, if any laws to protect these populations, resulting in unfair and exploitive circumstances, discrimination and lack of societal structure and support. Additionally, human rights ensure equal employment opportunities. Today in many countries it’s illegal for companies to hire people based on gender, race, sexuality or physical disabilities which opens up employment opportunities to segments of the population who might have previously had difficulty gaining employment due to the preferences and bias of employers (Kalin 29). Human rights also protect religious freedom, providing support for people to worship as they wish. It is a violation of human rights for members of the dominant religion to persecute those who worship a different religion. Such persecution has been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of millions of people. For example, the Hindu persecution of the Muslims in the northern Indian state of Kashmir and the Chinese persecution of the Tibetans are tragic examples of human rights violations (Cato Institute). In the case of Burma it was reported that, “In 2019, the Burmese government continued to commit widespread and egregious religious freedom violations, particularly against Rohingya Muslims. Ethnic‐driven conflict and degradation of other civil rights often coincide with religious differences, thereby severely restricting freedom of religion or belief.”

While to some what constitutes human rights may seem obvious, differing cultural customs and beliefs can sometimes raise a question about whether a practice is a human rights violation. In many cases, the Universal Declaration serves as a support to protect people from cultural practices that infringe upon their rights. For example, the right to education is a human right, however, in some countries, women are prohibited from studying for religious and cultural reasons. Punishments for violating this rule can be severe, including beatings, disfigurement and the common practice of throwing acid on the woman’s face. Additionally, in some areas of Africa, cultural beliefs allow for the continued practice of female genital mutilation which is largely performed on children who have no voice or agency. Those who enforce these practices claim that they are important parts of their social structure and cultural belief system, however, by robbing an entire gender of their right to education and subjecting a gender to physical mutilation, there is strong evidence that these practices in fact represent human rights violations (Egan 12).

Human rights are also closely linked with environmental rights. Since humans inhabit the planet, environmental issues such as the pollution of freshwater, air and the soil all affect human rights to health. When pollution becomes so pervasive that it results in illness or even death, that is considered an infringement on human rights. Air pollution alone kills an estimated 4.2 people every year (World Health Organization, Air). Such issues have come to the forefront of political talks in recent years and in October 2021, the UN Human Rights Council declared in resolution 48/13 that having a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment is a human right (United Nations, Access).

In summary, human rights are important because they protect vulnerable populations and help fight against unjust cultural and religious practices that infringe on an individual’s rights. Human rights are also important because they help reinforce the need for stricter laws to protect the environment with the aim of providing unpolluted and healthy environments for all humans.

Works Cited

Bandow, Doug. Religious Persecution Around the Globe: A Guide, May 3, 2020: https://www.cato.org/commentary/religious-persecution-around-globe-guide .

Egan, Suzanne. The UN Human Rights Treaty System: Law and Procedure. Bloomsbury Professional , 2011.

Kalin, Walter, and Jorg Kunzli. The Law of International Human Rights Protection. Oxford University Press, USA , 2010.

United Nations, Access to a healthy environment declared a human right by UN rights council, October 8, 2021: https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/10/1102582 .

United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights: https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights .

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About half of americans say public k-12 education is going in the wrong direction.

About half of U.S. adults (51%) say the country’s public K-12 education system is generally going in the wrong direction. A far smaller share (16%) say it’s going in the right direction, and about a third (32%) are not sure, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in November 2023.

Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to understand how Americans view the K-12 public education system. We surveyed 5,029 U.S. adults from Nov. 9 to Nov. 16, 2023.

The survey was conducted by Ipsos for Pew Research Center on the Ipsos KnowledgePanel Omnibus. The KnowledgePanel is a probability-based web panel recruited primarily through national, random sampling of residential addresses. The survey is weighted by gender, age, race, ethnicity, education, income and other categories.

Here are the questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and the survey methodology .

A majority of those who say it’s headed in the wrong direction say a major reason is that schools are not spending enough time on core academic subjects.

These findings come amid debates about what is taught in schools , as well as concerns about school budget cuts and students falling behind academically.

Related: Race and LGBTQ Issues in K-12 Schools

Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say the public K-12 education system is going in the wrong direction. About two-thirds of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (65%) say this, compared with 40% of Democrats and Democratic leaners. In turn, 23% of Democrats and 10% of Republicans say it’s headed in the right direction.

Among Republicans, conservatives are the most likely to say public education is headed in the wrong direction: 75% say this, compared with 52% of moderate or liberal Republicans. There are no significant differences among Democrats by ideology.

Similar shares of K-12 parents and adults who don’t have a child in K-12 schools say the system is going in the wrong direction.

A separate Center survey of public K-12 teachers found that 82% think the overall state of public K-12 education has gotten worse in the past five years. And many teachers are pessimistic about the future.

Related: What’s It Like To Be A Teacher in America Today?

Why do Americans think public K-12 education is going in the wrong direction?

We asked adults who say the public education system is going in the wrong direction why that might be. About half or more say the following are major reasons:

• Schools not spending enough time on core academic subjects, like reading, math, science and social studies (69%)
• Teachers bringing their personal political and social views into the classroom (54%)
• Schools not having the funding and resources they need (52%)

About a quarter (26%) say a major reason is that parents have too much influence in decisions about what schools are teaching.

How views vary by party

Americans in each party point to different reasons why public education is headed in the wrong direction.

Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say major reasons are:

• A lack of focus on core academic subjects (79% vs. 55%)
• Teachers bringing their personal views into the classroom (76% vs. 23%)

In turn, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to point to:

• Insufficient school funding and resources (78% vs. 33%)
• Parents having too much say in what schools are teaching (46% vs. 13%)

Views also vary within each party by ideology.

Among Republicans, conservatives are particularly likely to cite a lack of focus on core academic subjects and teachers bringing their personal views into the classroom.

Among Democrats, liberals are especially likely to cite schools lacking resources and parents having too much say in the curriculum.

Note: Here are the questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and the survey methodology .

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About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts .

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Guest Essay

The Two-State Solution Is an Unjust, Impossible Fantasy

By Tareq Baconi

Mr. Baconi is the author of “Hamas Contained” and the president of the board of al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network.

After 176 days, Israel’s assault on Gaza has not stopped and has expanded into what Human Rights Watch has declared to be a policy of starvation as a weapon of war. More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed, and the international community has reverted to a deeply familiar call for a two-state solution, under which Palestinians and Israelis can coexist in peace and security. President Biden even declared “the only real solution is a two-state solution” in his State of the Union address last month.

But the call rings hollow. The language that surrounds a two-state solution has lost all meaning. Over the years, I’ve encountered many Western diplomats who privately roll their eyes at the prospect of two states — given Israel’s staunch opposition to it, the lack of interest in the West in exerting enough pressure on Israel to change its behavior and Palestinian political ossification — even as their politicians repeat the phrase ad nauseam. Yet in the shadow of what the International Court of Justice has said could plausibly be genocide, everyone has returned to the chorus line, stressing that the gravity of the situation means that this time will be different.

It will not be. Repeating the two-state solution mantra has allowed policymakers to avoid confronting the reality that partition is unattainable in the case of Israel and Palestine, and illegitimate as an arrangement originally imposed on Palestinians without their consent in 1947. And fundamentally, the concept of the two-state solution has evolved to become a central pillar of sustaining Palestinian subjugation and Israeli impunity. The idea of two states as a pathway to justice has in and of itself normalized the daily violence meted out against Palestinians by Israel’s regime of apartheid.

The circumstances facing Palestinians before Oct. 7, 2023, exemplified how deadly the status quo had become. In 2022, Israeli violence killed at least 34 Palestinian children in the West Bank, the most in 15 years, and by mid-2023, that rate was on track to exceed those levels. Yet the Biden administration still saw fit to further legitimize Israel, expanding its diplomatic relations in the region and rewarding it with a U.S. visa waiver . Palestine was largely absent from the international agenda until Israeli Jews were killed on Oct. 7. The fact that Israel and its allies were ill prepared for any kind of challenge to Israeli rule underscores just how invisible the Palestinians were and how sustainable their oppression was deemed to be on the global stage.

This moment of historical rupture offers blood-soaked proof that policies to date have failed, yet countries seek to resurrect them all the same. Instead of taking measures showing a genuine commitment to peace — like meaningfully pressuring Israel to end settlement building and lift the blockade on Gaza or discontinuing America’s expansive military support — Washington is doing the opposite. The United States has aggressively wielded its use of its veto at the United Nations Security Council, and even when it abstains, as it did in the recent vote leading to the first resolution for a cease-fire since Oct. 7, it claims such resolutions are nonbinding. The United States is funding Israel’s military while defunding the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, a critical institution for Palestinians, bolstering the deeply unpopular and illegitimate Palestinian Authority, which many Palestinians now consider to be a subcontractor to the occupation, and subverting international law by limiting avenues of accountability for Israel. In effect, these actions safeguard Israeli impunity.

The vacuity of the two-state solution mantra is most obvious in how often policymakers speak of recognizing a Palestinian state without discussing an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory. Quite the contrary: With the United States reportedly exploring initiatives to recognize Palestinian statehood, it is simultaneously defending Israel’s prolonged occupation at the International Court of Justice, arguing that Israel faces “very real security needs” that justify its continued control over Palestinian territories.

What might explain this seeming contradiction?

The concept of partition has long been used as a blunt policy tool by colonial powers to manage the affairs of their colonies, and Palestine was no exception. The Zionist movement emerged within the era of European colonialism and was given its most important imprimatur by the British Empire. The Balfour Declaration, issued by the British in 1917, called for a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine without adequately accounting for the Palestinians who constituted a vast majority in the region and whom Balfour referred to simply as “non-Jewish communities.” This declaration was then imposed on the Palestinians, who by 1922 had become Britain’s colonized subjects and were not asked to give consent to the partitioning of their homeland. Three decades later, the United Nations institutionalized partition with the passage of the 1947 plan, which called for partitioning Palestine into two independent states, one Palestinian Arab and the other Jewish.

All of Palestine’s neighboring countries in the Middle East and North Africa that had achieved independence from their colonial rulers and joined the United Nations voted against the 1947 plan. The Palestinians were not formally considered in a vote that many saw as illegitimate; it partitioned their homeland to accommodate Zionist immigration, which they had resisted from the onset. The Palestine Liberation Organization, established more than a decade later, formalized this opposition, insisting that Palestine as defined within the boundaries that existed during the British Mandate was “an indivisible territorial unit”; it forcefully refused two states and by the late 1970s was fighting for a secular, democratic state. By the 1980s, however, the P.L.O. chairman, Yasir Arafat, along with most of the organization’s leadership, had come to accept that partition was the pragmatic choice, and many Palestinians who had by then been ground down by the machinery of the occupation accepted it as a way of achieving separateness from Israeli settlers and the creation of their own state.

It took more than three decades for Palestinians to understand that separateness would never come, that the goal of this policy was to maintain the illusion of partition in some distant future indefinitely. In that twilight zone, Israel’s expansionist violence increased and became more forthright, as Israeli leaders became more brazen in their commitment to full control from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Israel also relied on discredited Palestinian leaders to sustain their control — primarily those who lead the Palestinian Authority and who collaborate with Israel’s machinations and make do with nonsovereign, noncontiguous Bantustans that never challenge Israel’s overarching domination. This kind of demographic engineering, which entails geographic isolation of unwanted populations behind walls, is central to apartheid regimes. Repeating the aspiration for two states and arguing that partition remains viable presents Israel as a Jewish and democratic state — separate from its occupation — giving it a veneer of palatability and obfuscating the reality that it rules over more non-Jews than Jews .

Seen in this light, the failed attempts at a two-state solution are not a failure for Israel at all but a resounding success, as they have fortified Israel’s grip over this territory while peace negotiations ebbed and flowed but never concluded. In recent years, international and Israeli human rights organizations have acknowledged what many Palestinians have long argued: that Israel is a perpetrator of apartheid. B’Tselem, Israel’s leading human rights organization, concluded that Israel is a singular regime of Jewish supremacy from the river to the sea.

Now, with international attention once again focused on the region, many Palestinians understand the dangers of discussing partition, even as a pragmatic option. Many refuse to resuscitate this hollowed-out policy-speak. In a message recently published anonymously, a group of Palestinians on the ground and in the diaspora state wrote: “The partition of Palestine is nothing but a legitimation of Zionism, a betrayal of our people and the final completion of the nakba,” or catastrophe, which refers to the expulsion and flight of about 750,000 Palestinians with Israel’s founding. “Our liberation can only be achieved through a unity of struggle, built upon a unity of people and a unity of land.”

For them, the Palestinian state that their inept leaders continue to peddle, even if achievable, would fail to undo the fact that Palestinian refugees are unable to return to their homes, now in Israel, and that Palestinian citizens of Israel would continue to reside as second-class citizens within a so-called Jewish state.

Global powers might choose to ignore this sentiment as unrealistic, if they even take note of it. They might also choose to ignore Israeli rejection of a two-state solution, as Israeli leaders drop any pretenses and explicitly oppose any pathway to Palestinian statehood. As recently as January, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel “must have security control over the entire territory west of the Jordan River.” He added, “That collides with the idea of sovereignty. What can we do?”

And yet the two-state solution continues to be at the forefront for policymakers who have returned to contorting the reality of an expansionist regime into a policy prescription they can hold on to. They cycle through provisions that the Palestinian state must be demilitarized, that Israel will maintain security oversight, that not every state in the world has the same level of sovereignty. It is like watching a century of failure, culminating in the train wreck of the peace process, replay itself in the span of the past five months.

This will not be the first time that Palestinian demands are not taken into account as far as their own future is concerned. But all policymakers should heed the lesson of Oct. 7: There will be neither peace nor justice while Palestinians are subjugated behind walls and under Israeli domination.

A single state from the river to the sea might appear unrealistic or fantastical or a recipe for further bloodshed. But it is the only state that exists in the real world — not in the fantasies of policymakers. The question, then, is: How can it be transformed into one that is just?

Source photographs by Jose A. Bernat Bacete, Daily Herald Archive and Lior Mizrahi, via Getty Images.

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