Contemporary Issues In Human Rights Education

This collection of essays highlights the many problems and challenges facing human rights law today. Bringing together academics, practitioners and NGOs, it examines some of the contemporary challenges facing human rights law and practice in England, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, France and America. It is clear that we live in a time where human rights are in crisis. A decade of austerity measures at the domestic, regional and international levels evidently has had a detrimental effect on the protection of human rights. Cuts to social spending have resulted a failing social welfare system, a health service buckling under pressure, unprecedented rises in homelessness and child poverty, and the emergence of the ‘working poor’ and zero hours contracts. Austerity, famine, civil war, oppressive governmental regimes and climate change have seen vast migrations, resulting in a resurrection of far right-wing ideology. In the UK, this is seen in what can only be described as propaganda and scaremongering during the campaign for Brexit and in subsequent political elections evidenced by the increase in racially motivated hate crime within the UK. The landscape of human rights is such that it has resulted in some beginning to question, are human rights rights at all?

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This collection addresses human rights and development for researchers, policymakers and activists at a time of major challenges. ÔCritical issuesÕ in the title signifies both the urgency of the issues and the need for critical rethinking. After exploring the overarching issues of development and economic theory, gender, climate change and disability, the book focuses on issues of technology and trade, education and information, water and sanitation, and work, health, housing and food.

This volume brings together a host of scholars to address curriculum development and teaching methodologies for integrating human rights into social work education. Contributors discuss the theoretical framework and practical applications of the human rights approach in the areas of diverse human rights orientations to curriculum development; policy, research, and social justice; travel study and exchange models; and special populations. The authors press readers to address not only the human rights violations reported widely in the media, but also more familiar issues such as child welfare, poverty, food insecurity, racism, and violence against women. In addition, readers will find ideas for course design and teaching strategies and ample reference material, such as specialized treaties of specific relevance to social work, country and shadow reports, and complaint mechanisms. This book illustrates how the powerful idea of human rights can inform and transform social work education, and ultimately, professional practice.Contributors: Joseph Wronka, David Androff, Jane McPherson, Elaine Congress, Nivedita Prasad, Sandra Chadwick-Parkes, Michael Reisch, Louise Simmons, Christina Chiarelli-Helminiak, Brunilda Ferraj, Viviene Taylor, Rosemary Barbera, Shirley Gatenio Gabel, Hugo Kamya, Dennis Ritchie, Laura Guzmán Stein, Jody Olsen, Anusha Chatterjee, Robin Spath, Joyce Lee Taylor, Kirk James, Julie Smyth, Uma A. Segal, Filomena M. Critelli, DeBrenna LaFa Agbényiga, Sudha Sankar, S. Megan Berthold, Rebecca L. Thomas, Lynne M. Healy, and Kathryn R. Libal.

This book engages with human rights and human rights education (HRE) in ways that offer opportunities for criticality and renewal. It takes up various ideas, from critical and decolonial theories to philosophers and intellectuals, to theorize the renewal of HRE as Critical Human Rights Education. The point of departure is that the acceptable “truths” of human rights are seldom critically examined, and productive interpretations for understanding and acting in a world that is soaked in the violations these rights try to address, cannot emerge. The book cultivates a critical view of human rights in education and beyond, and revisits receivable categories of human rights to advance social-justice-oriented educational praxes. It focuses on the ways that issues of human rights, philosophy, and education come together, and how a critical project of their entanglements creates openings for rethinking human rights education (HRE) both theoretically and in praxis. Given the persistence of issues of human rights worldwide, this book will be useful to researchers and educators across disciplines and in numerous parts of the world.

Study conducted among the selected school students of Sivaganga District, Tamil Nadu, India.

This book pushes the theoretical boundaries of human rights education, engaging with complex questions of climate-related injustices, re-imagining education through a decolonising lens, and problematising the relationship between rights and responsibilities. It presents international studies of HRE in varied contexts (e.g. Uganda, Japan, Ireland) to explore the views and experiences of children who identify as human rights defenders, initial teachers’ understandings of concepts such as teacher agency in conflict-affected settings, and the barriers to children’s political agency. The book also highlights HRE in practice including participatory research with very young children as co-researchers and realising rights through play pedagogies, creative writing approaches and picturebooks. An HRE lens is also brought to bear on emerging subjects such as relationships and sexuality education and well-being. Aimed at educators, researchers and practitioners, and engaging with a range of concepts, contexts and contemporary challenges, this book offers new insights into HRE, particularly in the context of issues relating to children’s rights education and participation.