Human rights education

Abstract

Human rights education has been defined by various international instruments because of its importance in the protection and promotion of human rights. To achieve this purpose. The international community proposed various educational policies. Those policies consist in formal education. that is through school, vocational and professional training, and/or in non-formal education which concerns institutions of civil society, the mass media and the family. Nevertheless, human rights education is a difficult task because of the obstacles it faces. The obstacles to human rights education are mainly caused by the dilemma that opposes those who see human rights as universal and those who consider them as culturally relative. These obstacles can be related to the impact of tradition on the promotion of universal human rights, to religious beliefs or to economic factors that may be not coherent with the international human rights standards. To illustrate these obstacles I dealt with one case study from each of them. These case studies consist in female genital mutilation, the Muslim religion and child labour. I do not pretend bringing solutions to these obstacles. However, I propose some educational strategies that can help promote tolerance, understanding and solidarity which are necessary to maintain respect for the human dignity and peace in the world. The struggle for the protection of human rights never ends and the role of education is to persist.