Human rights are moral norms protected by national law or the international law to protect the human behavior. Human rights are committed to refining personality through upholding the universality of the human nature. Regardless of the nationality, religion or ethnicity, human rights are inherent and inalienable for everyone. Education is regarded as an aspect of human rights. Specifically, education and the human rights are inseparable by virtues of the knowledge and understanding required to sustain and exercise human rights entirely. Accordingly, this study focuses on finding the relative discourse attributed to education and human rights, the social strata that promote or oppose this discourse, the social movements related to the discourse and contingencies that influence education and human rights discourse.
While education and human rights would mean different things by definition, the two items are combined to make the essence of human rights execution. Education refers to the acquisition of knowledge or skills aimed at developing a particular proficiency. Education is disseminated to learners through various forms such as teaching, training, and discussions. Education and human rights stem back to the year 1945 on the establishment of the United Nations. After the World War II and the holocaust, there was an adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The United Nations General Assembly held in Paris in 1948 saw the articulation of rights and freedoms that would govern the global human liberties which in the present-day form an extensive area of discussions among various jurisdictions (Smith, 2018). It is in the UDHR arena where human rights education first emerged as a written law for the educators in achieving a social order. The UDHR was a standard achievement for the peoples of all nations in the struggle of teaching and educating on the need to respect and promote human rights and freedoms. Instinctively, human rights are meant to be understood and understood by every person they affect to attain their efficiency. This stride can only be achieved through education and training especially for the young generations who grow culminating practicing what the human rights code depicts.
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Later, education on human rights was emphasized in the year 1995 through the emergence of the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education. The UN Decade for Human Rights Education would stretch from 1995 to 2004 in attempts to strengthen the knowledge on human rights (UN Decade). The Commission for Human rights noted that the human rights education stated by the UDHR is the pathway through which other human rights clauses will be stressed and thus promoting the strengthening and consolidation of democratic processes. The UN Decade for Human rights education prioritized the integration of the human rights learning in the school curriculums which would facilitate a theoretical framing of human rights provisions as well as their practical applicability (Huckle & Wals, 2015). Consequently, education and human rights are rooted in each other in that only those who gain the bits of intelligence provided by the human rights clauses can elaborate and interpret them. Education is the way through which the provisions would make meaningful protection of the human rights. Otherwise, the restrictions and liberties portrayed in the UDHR would have remained passive. Even though human rights education would enable the collective achievement of distributable knowledge, the educated can also act on violations of the human rights.
Struggling for jurisdictional justice necessitates that every human being should be in a position to stand and defend their rights. This is only attainable through education. Moreover, learning avails more understandings of the economic, social and cultural rights that together with the human rights can be blended to safeguard the people of a nation. Education is the avenue to social justice and the democracy of a country. (Gebremedhin & Joshi, 2016). Through educational training, humans develop personalities that are aware of the provisions of the general law and what exemptions they are entitled to. Learners can distinguish between moralities and immoralities attributed to the general rule on human rights thereby governing the human conscience.
Social strata depict that humans are categorized into different groups based on their wealth, income or the social status. These classifications have affected the implementation of education and human rights. Contextually, education is significantly stratified around the world. Despite the universal address of the human right education, availability of education is still a deficit that most countries, especially the developing ones, have to deal with. UNESCO states that more than half of children and youths in the world are not subscribed to any learning processes (United Nations Sustainable Development, 2018). Such stratifications are currently contributed by the inequality fostered by the distribution of the national resources. The policies that govern educational systems vary among the United Nations subscribers resulting in some citizens growing in illiterate orientations while others are enriched to understand their human rights as young as in the junior schools. Such social stratification inhibits the human rights discourse that is obligated to liberate the conscious of every person in understanding their basic human rights.
However, the fact that most countries have developed their education policies is undoubtedly an enormous stride towards achieving conventional sobriety on human rights education. A UN report on education as sustainable development goals indicates that the developing countries have attained a 91% primary school enrolment, but 57 million children remain out of school (United Nations Sustainable Development, 2018). Many UN nations such as the United States, Fiji, Brazil and Kenya among others have adopted free primary education. Free higher education remains a proposed clause for the many United Nations in the attempt to make education available to everyone and consequentially bring about human rights education at a broader scope.
Additionally, the quality of education among the said nations projects a disparity in the quality and reliability of the human rights education disseminated to learners. Students do not get the right form of education if not the quality. The UNESCO statistics indicate a massive global shortage of teachers where sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia are the most affected (United Nations Sustainable Development, 2018). Also, these deficiencies include insufficient teaching aids, infrastructure, and trainers. While these amenities foster a problem in most developing countries, the lack is experienced by the disadvantaged persons of the society. In the same dominions, the wealthy have better chances of attaining appropriate education as well as outsource better programs from better national education structures. Jurisdictions should aim for normalized and standardized education avenues to achieve the equitable understanding of the law other than concentrating on educating a few who will represent the rest of violations and restriction of human rights. Without a doubt, education achievable by all will impact the democracy of countries positively as most citizens will learn and understand their human rights nobly.
Social movements formed around human rights contentions portray relative involvement on education structures adopted by the authority at the time of the struggle. Firstly, the Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) initiated the Academic boycott Campaign which was a struggle to streamline South Africa's education sector in 1965 (Mutua, 2013). The school systems segregated against the non-whites and upheld racism and extended it to the higher education. At the apartheid era, the white South Africans constrained the activities of the black South Africans, and the Asian South Africans education should have been a model to disseminate knowledge on human rights, but the separateness of the South African nation had triumphed.
Consequentially, through the Academic boycott campaign, the AAM instructed that their members would not enroll for academic posts in the universities which practiced racial discrimination. Also, they led a protest against racial discrimination and a ban imposed on two elite professors, Jack Simmons and Eddie Roux (Mutua, 2013). Moreover, in the year 1966, the AAM movement collaborated with the United Nations to facilitate the sanctions and the provisions of their boycotts which relayed a collective public opinion on the apartheid acts against humanity. Nevertheless, the education sector in South Africa has since evolved to offer better curriculums that assimilate humans of all orientation hence sustaining the struggle to attain better human rights reception and advocacy through education.
The Civil Rights Movement spearheaded the efforts of desegregating public schools in the United States. Stating that separateness was not equal, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) filed lawsuits that would give every learner in the USA a chance to learn equally regardless of their color, races and other differences. In this sequence, in 1954, the case of Brown v. Board of Education outlawed school segregation (The Library of Congress, 2018). However, many schools did not act to the change until several years later. Several other cases followed leading to liberation of the minorities in the United States. Contemplations around education disparities indicate that human rights were not as universal as they are today. Also, human rights education was not exercised to reach every member of the society as the segregation put some learners in advantageous positions than the others. Although different social waves challenged the changeover, the Civil rights movement facilitated the collective integration of schools in the United States today which significantly contributes to the literacy and a sense of belonging for the minority races.
Despite the focal point played by the United Nations on human rights discourse, human rights non-governmental organizations aid the process of enlightening and advocating for collective human rights observance by jurisdiction. Human rights organizations interpret what the UDHR code inscribes of the law alongside the amendments as the UN Decade for Human Rights Education. Also, these organizations scrutinize what governments fail to implement to sustain their citizens' rights. For instance, Children's Defense Funds (CDF) is a non-governmental organization that enables the children to attain equal opportunities by changing and uplifting them from poverty and abuse as well as backing them in their quest for health care and education ( Donnelly, 2013) . By pressuring the relevant authority, they get to change different provisions by the local governments to establish better policies that nourish the growth of human rights corresponding to the principalities of the United Nations. However, these promotions by the human rights NGOs are faced with different troubles such as the ideologies confined to different cultures.
In my opinion, education and human rights are delineable from each other. Through school, persons of different ethnicities and cultures come across the basics of understanding the global code for human rights and access to freedom. Human rights integrate other facets such as the civil rights, social economic, cultural and political rights. Understanding the different human rights surfaces infers that education is inevitable for the literacy of nations. Through consistent dissemination of information and scholarly participation, humans acquire a better understanding of the legal rights they should blend into their daily activities. Through human rights education, people can stand up and protest against human rights violations; they respect other people and their dignity. Education on human rights is the primary weapon to equip people living in faulty democracies and socially stratified regions. Through empowerment and knowhow, they can rebuke such malpractices. In addition, political activists emanate from the excellent understanding of the human rights bill. Through activists who are driven by the respect for the human race, we experience changes in the regimes and the authorities that have long suppressed the citizens. Thus, the need for human rights education is undoubtedly a matter of constant concern. As the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights indicates, humans have a right to education. Through the covenant established, nations should structure access to free primary education and subsequently, higher education should be subsidized to possible levels. Through such adjustments, more humans will acquire knowledge on human rights and the disparity of social stratification as a result of poverty and power will not exempt any soul from their right to education.
Conclusively, education is perceived as an integral part through which persons understand global human rights. Also, human right discourse is subject to social stratifying factors and social movement which oppose or promote their relevance to the community. Since 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights included a clause on human rights education to conjoin the two elements in the effort to make education the pathway through which citizens coexist better by upholding respect and dignity for humanity. Additionally, the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education set a transitional period through 1995 to 2004 to strengthen the perception of education on human rights by building a literate global community. However, social stratifying factors such as access to education and learning facilities inhibit the quality of human rights education where some nations are better suited compared to others. Social movements such as the Anti- Apartheid Movement and the Civil Rights Movement advocated for a change in the education structure to strip off the segregation and discrimination that subverted the consolidated appeal of the UN provisions. Curbing those disparities gave the South Africans and the Americans better receptions to attain the human rights education alongside general curriculum development education. Finally, the non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty International and Children's Defense Funds are the among the forefront bodies that promote human rights education today amid most developing countries where human rights revelations are confined by the few political elites and the powerful.
References
Donnelly, J. (2013). Universal human rights in theory and practice . Cornell University Press.
Gebremedhin, Abrehet, & Joshi, Devin. (2016). Social justice and human rights in education policy discourse: Assessing Nelson Mandela's legacy. Education as Change, 20(1), 172-198. https://dx.doi.org/10.17159/1947-9417/2016/899
Huckle, J., & Wals, A. E. (2015). The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development: business as usual in the end. Environmental Education Research , 21 (3), 491-505.
Mutua, M. (2013). Human rights: A political and cultural critique . University of Pennsylvania Press.
The Library of Congress. (2018). School Segregation and Integration - Civil Rights History Project. [online] Available at: https://www.loc.gov/collections/civil-rights-history-project/articles-and-essays/school-segregation-and-integration .
Smith, R. (2018). International Human Rights Law . Oxford University Press.
United Nations Sustainable Development. (2018). More than half of children and youth worldwide 'not learning' – UNESCO. [online] Available at: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2017/09/more-than-half-of-children-and-youth-worldwide-not-learning-unesco .
