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HUMAN RIGHTS

EDUCATION

Human Rights are legal rights, safely


enshrined in the Universal Declaration of
human rights. Various human rights
covenants, conventions, treaties, and
declarations, regional charters, national
constitutions, and laws.
Human rights are much more than legal
rights, they define our existence and work
to protect it from inequality and harm.

Human rights provide the values,


principles, and standards that are essential
to safeguard our most precious- the right to
be human
MYTHS AND MISCONCEPTIONS
ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS
Human rights are Western and alien to
many cultures.
Economic, social, and cultural rights are
nor true rights.
Human rights overemphasize the individual
over the community.
Human rights encourage adversarial and
litigious approaches over one word and
consensus.
Human rights favor the status quo over
social change.
UNDERSTANDING HUMAN RIGHTS
EDUCATION

Human rights education (HRE) is an


important field of education, both from the
perspective set out above as well as from
the objective of empowerment, But for HRE
to be empowering, it is important that HRE
start again with a blank slate.
HRE, as practices in the developed world
has focused too much on international right
on law in books rather than on law in
real-life, especially for the poor, the
vulnerable, and the marginalized. HRE
needs to focus much more on the
responsibilities of the duty bearers and
right-holders, including the nature of the
rights they are claiming.
HRE needs to focus on the values,
principles, and standards of human rights
and how they can be translated into day-to-
day actions that become a way of life and
ultimately, a human rights culture.
HUMAN RIGHTS ARE UNIVERSAL
AND INVISIBLE

Human rights are comprehensive. Human


rights apply everywhere and to everyone
without distinction of color, sex, country,
religion, wealth, or opinion they are based
on universal values.
Dignity

Freedom Which represent an ideal


for humanity as well as
principles capable of
Equality governing the lives of men,
women, and children.
Justice
TYPOLOGY OF HUMAN RIGHTS

1. CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS


Right to life

Prohibition of torture

Prohibition of slavery and forced labor


2. SOCIO ECONOMIC
Right to education

Right to housing

Right to adequate standard of living

Right to health

Right to science and culture


3. COLLECTIVE DEVELOPMENTAL
Right to combine with other individual

Right to adopt and implement policies

Right to free and meaningful participation


WHAT DOES EDUCATION FOR
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
MEAN?
ESD is a dynamic and collective endeavor
that envisions a world where everyone has
the chance to benefit from educational
opportunities and to learn the life styles,
values and behaviors necessary to create a
sustainable future.
ESD means education that enables people to
foresee, face up to and solve the problems that
threaten life on the planet. It is education that
understands the concepts and inculcates the
values and principles that are the bases of
sustainable development such as:
Intergenerational equity

Tolerance of difference

Environmental protection and restoration


Natural resources conservation
Just and peaceful societies

Gender parity

Poverty reduction

It is education that recognizes the


complexities and interdependence of the
social, cultural, economic, and environmental
dimensions of SD (UNESCO, 2004)
AIMS AND STRATEGIES FOR
EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT

1. Promote and improve the quality of


education to focus lifelong education on the
acquisition or knowledge skills and values
needed by citizens to improve the quality of
their lives.
2. Re-orient, re-think and reform the
curriculum to be a vehicle of knowledge,
through patterns and values needed to build a
sustainable world.

3. Raise awareness, develop enlightened,


responsible and committed citizens.
4. Create synergies with initiatives of other
sectors to adopt sustainable and responsible
modes of production and consumption, to
work together towards a common vision: a
peaceful and sustainable future for
generations to come (UNESCO, 2004)
SEVEN INTERLINKED
STRATEGIES ARE SUGGESTED:
1. Advocacy and vision building
2. Consultation and ownership
3. Partnership and network
4. Capacity-building and training
5. Research and innovation
6. Use of appropriate and expanded ICTs
7. Monitoring and evaluation (UNESCO
2004)
WHAT IS SUSTANABLE
DEVELOPMENT?
Sustainable Development: An Evolving
Concept
Means having a different vision of the
world. It is a constantly evolving concept,
including the will to improve the quality of
life at present and in the future. By
reconciling economic growth, social and
cultural development and environmental
protection.
Improving the quality of life involves a
shift from our traditional ways of learning
to more holistic and integrated approaches
that recognize the interrelationships and
interconnectedness of the various
dimensions of development
The key idea is that sustainable
development is for all. It can be achieved
only with the support and cooperation of all
it is based on the interdependence of the
economy. The social dimension implies an
understanding of social institutions and their
role in change and the cultural, an
awareness and appreciation of a peoples
history, tradition and total lifestyle.
The economic dimension shows sensitivity
to the limits and potentials of economic
growth while the environmental deals with
the protection and care of natural resources
and the environment.
Sustainable development was first defined
in 1987 by the world Commission on
environment and development in its report.
Our common future (Bruntland, 1987), as
that development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs.
In 1992, at the Rio de Janerio earth
summit, the main points of sustainable
development are defined by Agenda 21, its
action program for the 21st century adopted
by governments, non-governmental
organizations, and the private sector.
Education was regarded as critical form
promoting sustainable development and
improving the capacity of people to address
environmental and development issues.

In 2002, Sustainable Development became


an integral part of the UN Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) Goal 7 states:
Ensure Environmental Sustainability.
Integrate the principles of sustainable
development into country policies and
reverse the present trend of loss of natural
resources.
Reduce by half the proportion of people
without sustainable access to safe drinking
waters.
Achieve significant improvement in lives of
at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020.
TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT: A HOLISTIC
CONCEPT
In 2002, the Johannesburg Summit its
collective determination to promote the
pillars of sustainable development-
economic development, social development
and safeguarding the environment as
interdependent and mutually reinforcing.
The recognition of the interdependence of
society, the environment and the economy
led to a more holistic concept of sustainable
development as advocated by the Decade of
Education for Sustainable development.
Education for sustainable development
addresses the pillars of society, economy
and environment in their cultural context,
advocating a harmonious and appropriate
sustainable development. Thus, the holistic
concept of sustainable development places
people and the quality of life, present and
future at the center of any development
strategy in the context of their particular
society, economy, environmental and
culture, as interdependent and interrelated
dimensions
People are the heart of SD, SD is for people to
improve the quality of their lives.
FIGURE A: A holistic Concept of Sustainable
Development
An appropriate, balance and human-
centered sustainable development may be
likened to a house of happiness where
people live and work together in peace and
harmony. The house is supported by the
four interrelated and interdependent pillars
of society, culture, economy, and
environment, in harmony with each other.

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