The theoretical literature on the topic of human rights education proves that it is an important and a crucial part in curriculum as it helps young people and adults to understand the problem of discrimination and protection of human rights. The book Human Rights Education for the Twenty-First Century by Andreopoukos abd Clande, (2003) states that human rights play a crucial role in social relations and relations between the state and citizens. In general, in the integral approach human rights are not made subservient to any ideology. Rather they constitute a basic political philosophy per se. the book is based on a theoretical approach and uses vivid real life examples to illustrate numerous cases. The book consists of several chapters devoted to theories and contexts of human rights, approaches to teaching, special training for human rights professionals, community-based education and available resources and funding. The authors shows that life must be livable, which requires both a reasonable standard of living and a decent quality of life. Man is both an individual and part of a community. In reality negative freedom cannot be separated from positive freedom (“freedom to”). A right to food, for example, is meaningless when people are not free to say that they are hungry and the press is not free to report on it. Freedom, on the other hand, does not mean much to those who are hungry while lacking any form of food entitlement.
The article “Human Rights Education” discusses importance and possibilities of human rights education at schools. The author concludes that civil/political rights, social/economic rights, cultural rights and ecological rights (a “generation” of human rights still to be created) all go hand in hand. It would be a fundamental mistake to set priorities in their implementation. The integral approach to human rights and their implementation is found more among non-governmental organizations than among states. In a world in which many states make human rights subservient to their own ideologies and their own views of the “national interest,” the concepts of sovereignty and non-interference would have to be rethought. An integral approach is severely hampered by the primary role of the nation-state. The article shows that despite the collective dimension of all human rights, and the fact that all individuals are part of a group, human rights should nevertheless be considered the rights of individuals as against the state or group.
The website, Human Rights Education (2009) is one of the best sources about real life cases and importance of human rights education today. While collective rights do exist, and can often be important, they should not be named “human” rights, as this would detract from the essential meaning of the term “human rights” and lead to conceptual vagueness. To the extent that human rights claims are politically effective–that is, to the extent that political and legal relationships and practices are altered in conformity with the demands of human rights–the need to make such claims is reduced or eliminated.
The three sources agree that human rights education should be part of curriculum as it helps millions of people to protect their respect and dignity. The idea to implement the human rights framework is based on necessity to improve internal culture and introduce new relations based on universal moral and human values. The framework should be of a functional nature. In some cases, existing framework should be divided into several units. But much more often the proper response is to maintain the sovereign unit but to organize partial, functional self-control by sub-state units of issues that are important to them and which do not constitute a challenge to the other sub-state units. In some cases, sub-state control over language and culture is enough–and this should be allowed to be coordinated with similar efforts by peoples of the same language or culture living inside other units.
References
Andreopoukos, G. J., Clande, R. P. 2003. Human Rights Education for the Twenty-First Century (Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights). University of Pennsylvania Press.
Human Rights Education Can Be Integrated throughout the School Day. 2005. Childhood Education, 81 (3), 158.
Human Rights Education. 2009. Amnesty education USA. Web.