Problem-based learning beyond borders: Impact and potential for university-level human rights education

The position and the validity of the Declarations on Human Rights (1948) accepted by the United Nations (UN), and the subsequent declarations on Human Rights Education and Training (2010) are questioned by many scholars in their respective fields. These discourses manifest around the universality of human rights and its applications in human rights education suitable for global, contextual, diverse and particular societies. The proclamation of the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education (1995–2004) (Resolution, 49/184), the World Programme for Human Rights Education (2004/71), the reassessments of UN Declarations on Human Rights Education (March, 2011) and UNESCO publications on human rights education (2011), illustrate the need to infuse shared values into every sphere of society. However, scholars are questioning the ontology and epistemology of human rights as a universal declaration and as the only means for legitimising human rights education for its transformative competencies and to offer its shared values for a sustainably just society. The legitimacy of this ideal of a universality of human rights as a binding factor drawn from a Western liberal philosophy, is arbitrary and limited. These limitations of human rights expose the ideal of an interconnectedness between human rights and human rights education in multilayered and multicomplex social environments. Human rights literacies and its new languages on human rights is a progressing nexus between human rights and human rights education and offers an epistemology in understanding human rights in human rights education.

Development of human rights and citizenship rights is based on publication of its concepts among the people in global society. This publication of concepts and introduction of the people from different nations to human rights are done through education. Media with their role in transfer of information and knowledge have educational function. Media with their educational function ensured education right as one of the human rights while informing the public thoughts with their own rights and increasing their demands through human rights and citizenship rights education. Human rights and citizenship rights education activate the people of society in normalization of the related rules and this media education which is directly and indirectly related to obligation of states to right of education binds the states to respond to increased demands of human rights and citizenship rights and take action regarding development of the human and citizenship rights in national and international level. Human rights and citizenship rights have exclusive capability which leads to increased awareness of states with human and citizenship rights and increased demands of states and international society considering high number of media addresses and diversity of their content in presentation of materials about human and citizenship rights in education for all society levels and increased demand leads states and international society to develop norms of the human and citizenship rights through legislation, codification and enactment of the conventions on human rights and this process leads to development of human and citizenship rights at local and global levels.

This article provides a critical overview of the history of the development of human rights education in Africa and the influence it has on social work education and human rights. The research is based on an in-depth integrative literature review and provides a context for an understanding of human rights education in social work in Africa. This history is part of the history and development of human rights on the continent. The discussion will indicate that Africa was at a disadvantage regarding human rights education from the beginning, as most African countries had adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) only by 2019. In Africa, human rights education has focused on curriculum initiatives, particularly ones incorporating human rights concepts into local schools; by contrast, human rights education for professional groups has been infrequent. As social workers interact with marginalized groups and populations, the profession is very well positioned to advance human rights in Africa, provided that social work education incorporates human rights in the curricula. This article will indicate how the history of human rights education in Africa creates the backdrop of understanding the need for advancing human rights education in social work in Africa.

The article analyzes the provisions of international legal acts at the universal and regional levels (Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966, Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers of 1990, Committee of Ministers Recommendation Rec (2004) 4 to member states on the European Convention on Human Rights in university education and professional training etc.) regarding education in the field of human rights for representatives of legal professions. It is noted that representatives of legal professions who are at the center of human rights protection should be able to obtain high-quality education in the field of human rights in order to effectively perform their human rights function and prevent human rights violations. Human rights education programs were described (the UN World Programme for Human Rights Education, Council of Europe Programme for Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals). It is indicated that the UN World Programme for Human Rights Education consists of a number of stages aimed at specific issues: the first stage (2005-2009) was aimed at including human rights in the educational program of primary and secondary schools; the second stage (2010-2014) was dedicated to education in the field of human rights in the higher education system and professional training programs for teachers, lecturers, civil servants, law enforcement officers and military personnel; the third stage (2015-2019) was aimed at employees of mass media, and the fourth stage (2020-2024) identified youth as the target group. It is noted that the Council of Europe Programme for Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP) consists in strengthening the potential of judges, lawyers and prosecutors, etc. on the application of European standards in the field of human rights through online courses that cover a range of topics in this field.

Globalization is an on-going process in the world, today, demonstrating both dynamics of standardization and differentiation in the spheres of politics, economy and culture. On one hand, certain values and modes of communication are universalized, and on the other there is growing advocacy of local, ethnic and other multicultural forms of identification. Globalization encourages international institutions and global/domestic networks of non-governmental organizations to expand their influence, and curtails the autonomy and sovereignty of nation states.With respect to human rights, global standards as represented by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other human rights instruments prevail over national standards. The idea of universal human rights, which honor individual dignity, increasingly limits the scope of national jurisdiction. In addition, the concept of locally-specific human rights is also advocated, particularly by some non-Western countries, and the effective coordination of universal standard of human rights and the local cultural values and concerns is becoming a significant political issue. Today, it is generally maintained that the universal standards should be properly translated according to local contexts.In the field of human rights education as well, there has been a clear shift from the conventional approach, which emphasizes specific human rights issues, to one which focuses on strategies to design and implement comprehensive human rights education. The latter approach aims to educate agents of human rights as global citizens equipped with certain knowledge, skills and attitudes. It actively incorporates various theories, methods and perspectives of global human rights education. Recently, we notice that various initiatives on human rights education, such as “Dowa education”(education related to the Buraku issue in Japan), intercultural education, development education, gender education and others have increasingly come to use the common frameworks and language of global human rights education. The next challenge is how to infuse the universal perspective of human rights education into the concrete practice of education based on specific human rights issues.

This study aims to investigate the mediating role of child self-esteem in the relationship between parental abuse and children's human rights attitude, while exploring the moderating effect of children's participation in human rights education on these associations. Using data from 2020 Children and Youth Human Rights Survey (N = 5,673 students, 50% female, mean age = 15.53), we conducted structural equation modeling to assess the conceptual model's validity. Parental abuse showed a negative relationship with human rights attitude. For children not participating in human rights education, self-esteem acted as a partial mediator, while for participating children, self-esteem served as a full mediator. Paradoxically, human rights education may be linked to lower self-esteem in certain groups of children. The magnitude of the negative association between parental abuse and self-esteem was stronger for those who participated in human rights education compared to those who did not. This implies that the psychological well-being maintained through dysfunctional protective systems may momentarily crumble when faced with contradictory information. These compelling findings furnish valuable perspectives on the significance of equipping children with knowledge and principles related to human rights, a crucial aspect in molding their outlooks, coping mechanisms, and fortitude when confronted with challenging situations. Based on these results, the importance of human rights education and the need for careful composition of human rights education content for abused children were discussed.

Created by those involved in the liberation movement of Buraku people (members of a formerly outcaste group), the Osaka Human Rights Museum has been the most established human rights museum in Japan. I examine education at the museum as a product of the interaction between global and local efforts to promote human rights education, looking into how the curators have adopted and appropriated the universal concept of human rights according to changing strategies of human rights activism and education locally acted out in the context of Osaka, Japan. In doing so, I demonstrate how the concept of human rights is understood and implemented differently in different socio-cultural contexts.

CHAPTER 11 - Human Rights Education in Schools

The Korean Framework Act on Education cherishes the quality necessary as a democratic citizen. Meanwhile, as the National Human Rights Commission Act was enacted in 2001, and many local governments, including Gwangju Metropolitan City, enacted ordinances to guarantee and promote human rights in the mid to late 2000s, human rights education was emphasized but not studied theoretically and practically. This paper presents a methodology that can be used to realize the common public interest goals of both by comparing the concept and actual status of democratic citizenship education and human rights education. To this end, first of all, the concept of democratic citizenship education and related discourses are considered in light of the preceding studies of Democratic Peace Research and related laws and ordinances. Subsequently, it analyzes the status of the people's human rights consciousness, systems related to human rights education, human rights education seen in democratic citizenship education programs, and ordinances related to human rights education in Gwangju Metropolitan City. As a result, it emphasizes the fact that human rights education has the purpose of confirming the basic rights of mankind and the people and holding both the state and civilians responsible for guaranteeing it, while democratic citizenship education can provide a practical methodology to maximize its effectiveness. This study is of significance in that it proposed an alternative that could harmonize the two in a state where democratic citizenship education and human rights education were indiscriminately mixed.

Background: Human rights are an important part of nursing care, and nurses deal with human rights matter daily. Despite their relevance and acknowledgement of their importance, human rights issues remain limited in nursing education. Aim: The study’s aim was to describe how human rights education has been addressed in nursing education. Method: A scoping review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR) and Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) recommendations. The search was conducted in March 2023, with an updated search in February 2024. We searched in the following databases provided by EBSCO: Academic Search Elite, CINAHL, Education Source, ERIC, ScienceDirect and MEDLINE. Additionally, we also searched in Embase via Ovia and Scopus. The papers were screened for eligibility by title, abstract and full text independently by at least two reviewers, and the whole research team was involved in this process. Ethical considerations: The scoping review was guided by ethical conduct and scientific guidelines. Findings: Nine papers matched the inclusion criteria. Three thematic groups were identified: (a) focus of human rights education, (b) the learning design of the coursework and (c) learning outcomes in human rights education. Conclusion: Human rights education can benefit from being tailored to the students’ experiences and including voices from the rights-holders. Bringing in the students’ experiences and rights-holders’ voices can enable self-reflection and discussion regarding human rights concerns. Hence, if the intention is to support nursing students to develop an awareness and act upon human rights concerns, the curriculum ought to include opportunities for reflection and discussion around human rights concerns and experiences in the students’ own context.

Since the year 2000, the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights (IIHR) has been developing a new research methodology on human rights based on a system of progress indicators about three groups of rights: access to justice, political participation and human rights education. The approach was initially applied in 6 countries of the region, and produced the Progress Maps on Human Rights. This experience set the foundations for the annual preparation of the Inter-American Report on Human Rights Education, which IIHR distributes every December 10th, since 2002. The paper explains the oldest and more widely used approaches for research on human rights: (i) the registration of violations and (ii) the analysis of human rights situations. Then, it introduces the approach of measuring progress, its tools (progress indicators), the main methodological considerations, and the application of this approach, up to date, in 19 countries of the American continent that subscribed and/or ratified the San Salvador Protocol. Such application constitutes the first two Inter-American Reports on Human Rights Education, which are part of a series of 4 reports. El main objective of the series is to investigate the variations produced regarding the incorporation of Human Rights Education in formal and non-formal education, in the selected countries, during the period 1990-2002/03. The I Report (2002) focused on the legal developments of Human Rights Education at the national level, and the II Report (2003) examined the advanced in the curriculum and the textbooks in the elementary and high school levels of the formal education system. The conclusions and recommendations of both Reports are transcribed in the appendices.

ABSTRACTThe overarching aim of this paper is to explore how key principles inherent in human rights declarations and conventions are translated into practices associated with human rights education within school contexts. It is argued that this translation from discourse to practice opens up the potential for children and young people to encounter inequitable experiences of human rights education, and that this is an ethical issue that needs addressing. Within the paper, human rights education relates to both direct teaching about human rights, and to children and young peoples’ experiences of how school practitioners acknowledge and uphold their rights. In both national and international contexts, knowledge and understanding about school‐based human rights education is lacking; this paper aims to address this issue by developing a theoretical framework through which to view human rights education practices within school settings.

This article presents the results of a qualitative, phenomenological case study focused on teachers’ perceptions about human rights education in light of the Holocaust. Results are based on interviews with six participants in a professional teacher program upholding human rights education. Data analysis reveals three core perceptions about human rights education: (a) human rights education is excluded from the curriculum, (b) focus on human rights is supported by Holocaust survivor testimony, and (c) teachers’ perceptions about human rights education are strengthened through the “Freedom Writers Institute”. This work is grounded in critical theory linked to social and educational justice. The study has relevance for secondary teachers of literature and history, and particularly for those who work with disenfranchised students.

Human rights education provides a unique approach to bringing the fields of law, education and international development together to work on the most important global human rights challenge of our time, the eradication of poverty. In the Charter of the United Nations (1945) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), nations around the world committed to promote education, human rights and social progress as means to eradicate poverty and achieve global peace. Since the turn of the Millennium, human rights scholars and practitioners have advocated specifically for the integration of human rights into the framework of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which set the international development agenda for 2001–2015. While they were largely unsuccessful in securing a human rights-based approach to the MDGs, the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which establish the 2016–2030 agenda, are more promising. In this context, this chapter proposes comprehensive universal human rights education during the compulsory years of schooling as an integral part of the SDG framework because human rights education is required by international law, it is effective in building a culture of respect for human rights and it will build bridges between law, education and international development communities toward the common aims of eradicating poverty, realizing human rights and achieving global peace.

This article presents evidence of the links between human rights education and social change by analyzing the long-term effects on 88 trainers engaged in a non-formal adult training program sponsored by a women’s human rights group in Turkey, Women for Women’s Human Rights – New Ways. In this article, I show the transformative impacts of carrying out human rights education on the trainers themselves: in their identity; knowledge, skills, and attitudes; and behaviors in their family and in the workplace. This article extends the treatment of an emerging question within social change theory – that of the long-term influence on activists brought about by their very engagement in these activities. At the same time, because the activists are trainers associated with a human rights education program that infuses critical pedagogy with a feminist perspective, this qualitative case study provides the opportunity to explore ‘situated empowerment’ on trainers in both their personal and professional domains. The article concludes that further studies of human rights educators engaged as long-term trainers will further enrich the social change literature and the treatment of activists.