National Conference on Human Rights Education
The National Human Rights Commission organized a day-long national conference on 'Human Rights Education' in New Delhi on the 14th December, 2012. Inaugurating the conference, Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Chairperson, NHRC said that with the changing times, the old religious worldview and values of social and national solidarity have also changed. Despite increased awareness about human rights in the country, the violations thereof remained a matter of deep concern. People are growing highly individualistic, they are particular about their own rights but not of others. The reason is that our education system had failed to inculcate human rights values among students.
He said that there was a need to engage all the stakeholders in a serious debate on the issue. The NHRC had developed some modules on human rights education which needed to percolate down the system of education through NCERT and CBSE. In fact, human rights education curriculum, both at school and university level, needs to be implemented in a more meaningful manner so that all, including students, teachers and management have an orientation towards them.
Some of the suggestions, which came up following the discussions, were as follows:-
o Revise school curriculum throughout the country by conducting a thorough enquiry on the status of human rights education and content analysis of different subjects vis-à-vis human rights;
o Train all teachers both in theoretical and practical aspects of human rights;
o Organize mock courts of school children on violations of human rights to build awareness and understanding thereof;
o Observe Human Rights Education month from 11th November to 10th December;
o Prepare inter-disciplinary basic course module for higher education level, which may be replicated for all streams of studies instead of limiting it only to specific qualifications like graduate, post-graduate and Ph.D. in human rights in the field of social sciences.
o The NHRC, in consultation with the UGC, may develop a uniform basic training module for students of higher education;
o E-learning of human rights should be promoted.
The speakers included Dr. Justice V.S. Malimath, Chairman, Law Commission of Karnataka and former Member, NHRC, Mr. Rajarshi Bhattacharya, Secretary, Dept. of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Prof. (Dr.) Ranbir Singh, Vice-Chancellor, National Law University, Delhi, Prof. (Ms.) P. Sinclair, Director, NCERT, Mr. Mathew Philip, Executive Director, South India Cell for Human Rights Education and Monitoring, Vice-Chancellors, State Education Board representatives, NGOs, NHRC Members and senior officers.
He said that there was a need to engage all the stakeholders in a serious debate on the issue. The NHRC had developed some modules on human rights education which needed to percolate down the system of education through NCERT and CBSE. In fact, human rights education curriculum, both at school and university level, needs to be implemented in a more meaningful manner so that all, including students, teachers and management have an orientation towards them.
Some of the suggestions, which came up following the discussions, were as follows:-
o Revise school curriculum throughout the country by conducting a thorough enquiry on the status of human rights education and content analysis of different subjects vis-à-vis human rights;
o Train all teachers both in theoretical and practical aspects of human rights;
o Organize mock courts of school children on violations of human rights to build awareness and understanding thereof;
o Observe Human Rights Education month from 11th November to 10th December;
o Prepare inter-disciplinary basic course module for higher education level, which may be replicated for all streams of studies instead of limiting it only to specific qualifications like graduate, post-graduate and Ph.D. in human rights in the field of social sciences.
o The NHRC, in consultation with the UGC, may develop a uniform basic training module for students of higher education;
o E-learning of human rights should be promoted.
The speakers included Dr. Justice V.S. Malimath, Chairman, Law Commission of Karnataka and former Member, NHRC, Mr. Rajarshi Bhattacharya, Secretary, Dept. of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Prof. (Dr.) Ranbir Singh, Vice-Chancellor, National Law University, Delhi, Prof. (Ms.) P. Sinclair, Director, NCERT, Mr. Mathew Philip, Executive Director, South India Cell for Human Rights Education and Monitoring, Vice-Chancellors, State Education Board representatives, NGOs, NHRC Members and senior officers.