(2005). The Human Right to Water–Market Allocations and Subsistence in a World of Scarcity. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, v12 p59-85 Nov. More than one billion people do not have access to an adequate water supply. In Gambia and Haiti, people live on less than 4 liters of water per day. By contrast, most toilets in the West use several times that amount of water for a single flush. The global distribution of water is making it increasingly difficult for poor people to access it, and movements to commodify water and privatize the industries that provide it exacerbate this situation, trapping the poorest in a cycle of water poverty. Much research has been done on the problem of water scarcity. However, the link between scarcity and water as a human right is rarely articulated, even the current index of the website of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has no entry for water. This paper proposes a human right to water. It then considers the consequent obligations the right to water imposes on those who control water resources, such as governments, water corporations, and international lending… [PDF] [PDF]
(2012). Scholars, Spies, and Global Studies. Chronicle of Higher Education, Aug. No one doubts that globalization is one of the most important trends of today. As American universities expand their global footprint with branch campuses in Singapore, Abu Dhabi, and elsewhere, many faculty are concerned about oppressive governance, human-rights violations, and lack of academic freedom abroad. Meanwhile administrators grapple with how these new ventures–and globalization in general–will change teaching and research in the United States. As higher education seeks new audiences, will it be able to maintain the significance and character of the liberal arts, which have played such a crucial role in the educational mission of the American university? Similarly educators increasingly agree that all undergraduates ought to pursue some study abroad. But should it involve language study and full cultural immersion? Or short-term travel and networking through internships and other kinds of programs? What does \global\ really mean? It took a world war to propel Americans to… [Direct]
(1985). Beyond Themselves: Students Work for Human Rights. Social Education, v49 n6 p515-17 Sep. How students and teachers in a private secondary school started a chapter of Amnesty International, the international human rights organization that received the 1977 Nobel Prize for Peace, is described. The many positive results of the experience are discussed. (RM)…
(2010). Social Justice in Education Revisited. Education Inquiry, v1 n4 p269-287. Social justice is a primary concern of politicians and human rights practitioners, but has lost much of its currency as it has been elevated through philosophical debates to the level of an idealised or "imagined social order" of modern state formations. This article is based on a conceptual analysis of social justice and the trajectory of philosophical discourse. It is argued that much of the social justice discourse ignores the specificity of the geo-historical and social contexts of developing countries and it is premised that social justice in education should be based on a more holistic approach that takes these situational factors into account. Based on the conceptual analysis forwarded, it is postulated that social justice is not an external condition or system. If it were an external condition or system, we could simply have learned social justice as we would have learned any other content-based subject. But social justice is an ideal — a vision that must become… [Direct]
(2003). Academic Freedom as a Human Right: An Internationalist Perspective. Academe, v89 n3 p25-28 May-June. Asserting that the university as a transnational community of professors and students poses challenges to traditional conceptions of academic freedom, explores the rethinking of academic freedom as part of a human right to education. (EV)…
(1995). Human Rights and People with Disabilities. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, v42 n1 p7-16. This lecture transcript discusses human rights issues related to people with disabilities in Australia, focusing on concepts of discrimination, legislation, and social justice. Findings from recent federal inquiries into homeless children and mental illness highlight major deficits in services for people with disabilities. (Author/DB)…
(1983). Human Rights and Charter Rights in Special Education. B. C. Journal of Special Education, v7 n3 p205-20 Fall. The article reviews problems and benefits of four approaches for developing the legal law right to education for handicapped children in Canada: (1) case law, (2) provincial law (3) Education and Human Rights Acts, and (4) the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. (CL)…
(2010). Teaching "The Reckoning": Understanding the International Criminal Court. A Facing History and Ourselves Study Guide. Facing History and Ourselves Facing History and Ourselves has developed "Teaching The Reckoning" to help classrooms explore essential questions about judgment by studying the creation of the International Criminal Court. Ever since the Nuremberg Trials, individuals around the world have imagined how an international judicial body could be used to prevent genocide, crimes against humanity, and other violations of civil and human rights. In 2002, more than 100 nations made this vision a reality with the establishment of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. To help classrooms explore some of the successes and challenges this new court has faced, Facing History has partnered with Skylight Pictures, the producers of the film "The Reckoning: The Battle for the International Criminal Court to" create three short video modules–each one focusing on an important dilemma raised by the court related to issues of sovereignty, impunity, and peace. These resources help students confront the… [Direct]
(1992). National and International Views. Canadian Social Studies, v27 n1 p8-9 Fall. Discusses Canadian government policy dealing with internal matters of party politics and international questions of human rights. Describes the political situation in Burma as an oppressive military regime. Urges the Canadian government to take a firmer stand to influence the international community against tolerating regimes that are guilty of human rights abuses. (DK)…
(1997). Human Dignity, Decency and Integrity as the Sine Qua Non of Human Rights Education: A Proactive Conceptual and Practical Framework for Promotion of World Peace. This paper underscores the significance of personal dignity, decency, and integrity as the core values and symbionic concepts to promote human rights education. It proposes a proactive model with philosophical ramifications and practical applications proposed for educators, researchers, and mental health practitioners interested in human rights issues and global peace. The model assumes that matters relating to ethics and values rather than economic and political structures play a prominent role in causing and resolving problems at all levels: local, social, and international. The goal of the model is to inculcate moral sensitivities that are necessary for people to become responsible, genuine, and caring global citizens. The paper states that human rights actions have to become a priority, and educators have to develop new attitudes of empathy, genuineness, and respect. Major emphasis is placed on developing and enhancing critical thinking. The paper also lists some of these… [PDF]
(1970). United Nations General Assembly Official Records. Twenty-fourth Session, Third Committee, 1650th to 1661st meetings, and Plenary Meetings, 1792nd Meeting. This document is made up of Agenda item 62–Education of youth in the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms: report of the Secretary-General; and Agenda item 92–The problems and needs of youth and its participation in national development. Agenda item 62 included: an introduction; action taken by member states to ensure that young people are educated and brought up in a spirit of respect for human rights everywhere and given the opportunity of playing their part in the implementation and protection of human rights; and seminars within the framework of the program of adivsory services in the field of human rights. Agenda item 92 contains a brief note by the Secretary-General and The Report of the Third Committee. In the draft resolutions, amendments, and recommendations it was agreed that youth need to accept the values of peace and humanism, while rejecting philosophies contrary to these ends. (SD)… [PDF]
(1981). A Thematic Survey of the Documents of the Moscow Helsinki Group. To assess Soviet compliance with the provisions of the Helsinki Accords (the Helsinki Final Act), the Moscow-Helsinki Group collects and publishes documented human rights abuses in the USSR. The Moscow-Helsinki Group was formed by 11 participants in the human rights movement in 1976 and has prepared documentation regarding human rights violations for major international human rights conferences since that time. The group bases its reports on information gleaned from letters, phone calls, and personal reports from Soviet citizens. Information is checked for accuracy by various means, including referring to official documents such as secret instructions regarding trials and legal decisions and sending group members to evaluate alleged violations. The group believes that the information it provides regarding abuse of humanitarian provisions of the Helsinki Accords by the USSR should be considered at future international human rights meetings such as those which have been held recently…
(2011). A Nation at Risk to Win the Future: The State of Public Education in the U.S. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, v9 n1 p267-316 May. Mounting evidence is exposing how merit pay incentives, charter schools, vocational curriculum, and high-stakes testing regimes do not fulfill their purported objectives, and instead are enormously detrimental to students, education workers, marginalized groups, social equality and ultimately the collective good. While the wealthy continue to thrive and their children attend abundantly resourced private schools with robust curriculum, poor and working people are increasingly being subjected to forcefully controlled, profit generating vocational schools. Opposition to the transformation of public schools into competitive and profit-making enterprises is increasing amongst and between parents, youth, teachers, unions, and their allies. Only through mass and sustained collective action, both inside and outside of schools, can public education not only survive, but also live up to its potential to become a pedestal for a society that provides equality of opportunity and equality of… [PDF]
(2007). Genocide Claiming a Larger Place in Middle and High School Lessons. Education Week, v27 n9 p1, 15 Oct. The debate in the U.S. House of Representatives over whether the mass killings of Armenians that began in 1915 should be declared \genocide\ has been resolved in practice in many American classrooms. That era has become intertwined with lessons on the Holocaust in the history curriculum. This article describes how teachers are finding ways to give their students a more comprehensive look at genocide historically and in current events. Human rights is one of the themes being highlighted in the annual conference of the National Council for the Social Studies next month, and more than a dozen sessions–the most in recent years–will take up teaching about genocide. The council has also crafted sample lessons for teachers on a variety of human-rights issues. The United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines genocide as any act committed with the idea of destroying in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. Though… [Direct]
(2004). Education and Democracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina. International Journal of Educational Development, v24 n5 p495-509 Sep. Content analysis of the curriculum and textbooks for the last four grades of compulsory education used in Bosnia and Herzegovina are presented. The major aim in this research has been to identify how issues related to democracy and human rights are presented.–Do the curriculum and textbooks support the ideas and behaviours recognized as democratic? No, the analysis shows that the curriculum is not emphasizing democratic values and human rights to any considerable extent. The major conclusion in the textbook analysis is that the textbooks present human rights and democracy mostly in negative form, i.e. the student is given a negative model of these topics…. [Direct]