Round Table on Human Rights Education

A ‘Round Table’ on Human Rights Education was jointly convened by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the Karnataka Women’s Information and Resource Centre (KWIRC) on 10 & 11 October 2002 to discuss the possibility of utilizing certain dossiers edited by KWIRC as source material for human rights education in Indian universities. The dossiers relate to economic, social and cultural rights and the efforts made to spread an awareness of these rights.

The dossiers, seven in number, were prepared under the Human Rights Project funded by the Ford Foundation. They pertain to Child Rights, the Home Based Workers’ Movement, Fish Workers’ Rights, the Right to Environment, Dalit Rights, Land and Housing Rights and the Right to Information. Each of the dossiers was authored by an expert who is deeply involved in, or closely associated with, the relevant movement.

The method adopted was to record the efforts of the movement in such a way that it showed the genesis of the idea, its milestones including its clashes with the law and society, the violations that occurred, and the redressal achieved through broad-based campaigns and negotiations within the politico-legal framework.

The main purpose of the Round Table was to bring together the narrators and the ‘users’ i.e., those in the educational system, so that they could jointly assess the usefulness of these dossiers and, if approved, adopt them as source material for curriculums for courses on Human Rights and Duties.

The Round Table was inaugurated by Justice Shri J.S. Verma and was attended, among others, by Shri Virendra Dayal and Justice Smt. Sujata V. Manohar, Members of the Commission.