International call for education to be centred on Human Rights

Saturday, 30 November 2024 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Announcement of Je’anna Clements and Sifaan Zavahir’s session at INSPIRE Education Summit where Declaration of Child Rights-Centric Education was launched

The Rights Centric Education Network (“RCE Network”), an international movement of Human Rights defenders advocating for Rights in, to, and through education, launched the “Declaration of Child Rights-Centric Education” on the 35th Anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), amplifying the call of the United Nations to centre education on Human Rights.

The Declaration calls for education of children, wherever it takes place and whatever form it takes, to be fundamentally reworked to ensure that it is consistent with human rights values and principles, especially the UNCRC, which, for the first time in history, recognised children as subjects of their own rights.

The launch took place with Je’anna Clements (South Africa) and Sifaan Zavahir (Sri Lanka), both founding members of the RCE Network, speaking at the INSPIRE Education Summit. Here they detailed how the presently mainstreamed system of education is in violation of the articles of the UNCRC, elaborating on the futility of simply trying to overlay human rights on a system of education intentionally designed to suppress human rights. The pair further articulated what education truly centred on child rights looks like, drawing on real life examples from around the world, some of which have been in place for over a 100 years.

The declaration is available online for public signatures at https://rights-centric.education/declaration. Signatories can be children, adults, or organisations. Children are especially welcome to sign as an exercise of their Freedom of Expression (Article 13 of the UNCRC) and Right to be Heard (Article 12).

While the Human-Rights based approach to education has dominantly focused on access (the Right to Education), the Declaration emphasises – using existing statements in the UN Human Rights discourse – the importance of safeguarding Rights in Education (that the process of education must be consistent with human rights values and principles) and Rights through Education (that education must be organised to enable rights-holders to advocate for, and work towards the realisation of, their human rights).