Strengthening Human Rights Education in the National School
Curriculum

Australian College of Educators
National Conference, University of Technology, Sydney

Speech by the Hon Catherine Branson QC

14 July 2011

Check against delivery

I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on
which we meet, the Gadigal peoples of the Eora nation and pay my respects to
their elders, both past and present.

I thank Margaret Clark and the Australian College of Educators for the
invitation to address you all this afternoon. It is a great honour and a
pleasure to speak to you today.

Introduction

I would like to speak this afternoon about the importance of strengthening
human rights education in the national school curriculum – for students,
for the school community and for society as a whole. I would also like to
propose how I think we can achieve meaningful human rights education in the
curriculum.

I value education immensely. I value it not only for the intrinsic value of
exposure to new ideas, concepts and knowledge. But because I, like you, know
that education is the means through which people can achieve better life
outcomes for themselves and those around
them.^[1] In this respect, not only is
education a right in itself, but it can also be seen as a facilitative right,
through which the myriad of other human rights might, or might not be enjoyed,
depending on the individual’s access to education. The theme of this
conference, ‘equity in education’, is therefore a critical one to
ensure all young people, and in turn all of society, are able to benefit from
the right to education.

I also value education for the role it can play in fostering values,
attitudes and behaviours that promote a more inclusive and rights respecting
society.

I believe human rights education is a vehicle for fostering strong human
rights values in our community and creating a more equal, respectful and
inclusive society. This is because of its capacity to impart information and
develop skills; to change attitudes and build empathy; and to motivate a sense
of agency and participation – active citizenship, if you like. All of
these can help to dispel stereotypes and encourage mutual understanding and
respect.

While we should be proud that Australia is a generally free and prosperous
nation in which most people enjoy the protection of their human rights, there
are still many areas in which we fall short of protecting human rights for
everyone, everywhere, every day. For example, the right to education itself is
not sufficiently realised for many people in Australia. Children with
disability, children from low income backgrounds and Indigenous children have
significantly lower levels of access to education from preschool to tertiary
levels.^[2]

Beyond education we know that there are many groups of people who are not
able to fully enjoy many of their human rights and who face persistent
discrimination.

Yet, on the whole, we find it hard to identify with, and therefore feel
empathy for, those whom we consider different; those from whose experiences we
remain distant and seemingly powerless to change. We see this perhaps most
starkly in the highly politicised and divisive debates around asylum seekers in
Australia. Yet as the SBS documentary ‘Go Back to Where You Came
From’ so vividly illustrated, when we are
able to put a face to the experience of others and ‘put ourselves in their
shoes’ then we can empathise. Exposure to the lived experiences of asylum
seekers changed perceptions of participants and the audience in a way that the
words of public figures or politicians could not. This then is a form of human
rights education in action.

Human rights education is a core part of the work of the Australian Human
Rights Commission. Our human rights education work is diverse. With priority
focuses on building respect for rights and addressing bullying, including
cyber-bullying, we conduct training, hold public forums and produce human rights
education resources. For example, our Face the
Facts^[3] publication aims to
debunk myths and stereotypes about Indigenous Australians, migrants, asylum
seekers and refugees. It details current research that shows, for example, no
evidence of a causal connection between crime and ethnicity. In reality, the
crime rate of the overseas born population has been lower overall than that of
the Australian born population, with Face the Facts revealing that
unemployment, education, socio-economic disadvantage and lack of access to
services have more bearing on crime rates than ethnicity. When people are
exposed to the facts in this way, we can then proceed to more fruitful debates
about how to address the particular challenges before us.

Human rights education therefore, is critical to building a human rights
respecting culture in Australia where the rights of all people are understood
and respected.

I believe the current development of a national school curriculum is a unique
opportunity to ensure that all young people in Australia learn about their
rights and the rights of others and in turn contribute to the process of
creating a human rights respecting culture in Australia.

What does formal human rights education look like?

Human rights education is not only about providing knowledge on the basic
freedoms and protections to which all people are entitled and the mechanisms
that protect them, but also about imparting the skills needed to promote, defend
and apply human rights in daily life.

Human rights are best protected when they are embedded in the way we think
and therefore in the ways we act. As was rightly observed as long ago the
1940’s, if we don’t believe in human rights, then no law, no
charter, no parliament and no court will save
them.^[4]

In 1948 the United Nations affirmed in the preamble to the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) that respect for human rights and fundamental
freedoms are to be advanced through teaching and
education.^[5] The central importance
of human rights education as a tool for advancing protection and enjoyment of
rights in Australia was also recognised in the first recommendation arising from
the National Human Rights Consultation in Australia in
2009.^[6]

There are three major elements to human rights education: ^[7]

• first, the acquisition of knowledge and skills,
• second, the development of respectful values and attitudes and changed
  behaviour, and
• third, the motivation of social action and empowerment of active
  citizenship.

Equipped with human rights knowledge and skills, and
motivated by human rights values and attitudes, students can find the confidence
to lay claim to their own rights, as well as to defend the rights of others.

As I have outlined, human rights education can come in many forms, however,
critical to all successful human rights education is its ability to connect with
its audience. As human rights educators, it is our job to use practical examples
and activities that instil an understanding of what human rights values mean in
students’ daily lives – to make human rights a part of their own
lived experience.

What
is the value of human rights education in the national school
Curriculum?

I believe human rights education has direct and immediate benefits for
students, for the school environment, as well as enormous long-term benefit for
society as a whole.

This audience knows well that our mindset, attitudes and behaviours are set
early in life and these are heavily influenced by our environment, including our
school education. This demands that we engage children in discussion around
their rights and the rights of others at a very young age.

Human rights education in the national curriculum provides an opportunity to
impart human rights knowledge, skills, values and attitudes to all young people
in Australia.

Assisting young people to incorporate human rights values into their daily
lives is a concrete way to prevent bullying and discrimination, to promote
inclusion and respect for diversity. Human rights provide a valuable framework
for good inter-personal relations and for making informed and proportionate
decisions.

Research in Australian schools shows that where education around values is
embedded in the content and pedagogy of the classroom, there is evidence of
improved student engagement with schooling, better learning outcomes, and
enhanced social and emotional
wellbeing.^[8] As a result of values
education, schools have reported increased empathy, tolerance and respect, and
increased student confidence to address
bullying.^[9] Schools have also
reported a reduction in disciplinary measures, an increase in school attendance,
and positive shifts in classroom and playground relationships as well as
relationships at home.^[10]

In the United Kingdom, UNICEF has been pioneering a program called the
‘Rights Respecting Schools Awards’
(Program).^[11] The Program awards
schools that have incorporated the Convention on the Rights of the
Child^[12] into their planning,
practice and ethos. This includes teaching and learning about the Convention,
creating a rights-respecting culture and empowering children to become active
citizens. In doing so, it has improved self-esteem, behaviour and relationships;
reduced bullying and discrimination; increased discussion and engaged children
in planning and reviewing their own learning. Moreover, it is has provided
schools with a framework of common values.

In
turn, we know that these attitudinal and behavioural changes will be carried
forward by students into their adult life and will benefit society as a
whole. Through the effective delivery of human rights education in schools,
young people will learn the skills and achieve the competence necessary for
effective citizenship and for participating in and promoting a democratic and
human rights-based culture that we will all benefit from.

So what does this tell us about how best to include human rights in the
Curriculum?

Clearly, human rights education needs to go well beyond ‘civics and
citizenship’ education. If we want students to acquire more than just
knowledge about human rights and to actually adopt values and attitudes that
reflect human rights then human rights education needs to be a cross-cutting and
visible element of the curriculum that relates to and provides an interpretative
framework for students’ daily lives.

At present the draft national curriculum contains very few references to
human rights. The Australian Human Rights Commission proposes the following
complementary approaches to strengthening human rights education in the national
curriculum:

• The
  inclusion of a specific general capability or cross-curriculum priority focused
  on human rights and Australian values

The inclusion of a
general capability or a cross-curriculum priority focused on understanding and
applying human rights and Australian values. This will ensure that human rights
feature as a visible and central priority across the Curriculum. It will also
highlight the close relationship between human rights and Australian values such
as justice, equality, a fair go and democracy.

In the absence of a specific general capability or cross-curriculum priority
focused on human rights, at a very minimum, the Commission believes that a focus
on human rights and Australian values needs to be integrated into existing
general capabilities, cross-curriculum priorities and across all learning areas.

• The
  integration of human rights principles and values in the descriptions of
  relevant existing general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities

There are several general capabilities that resonate with human
rights values and learning, namely ‘ethical understanding’,
‘personal and social competence’ and ‘inter-cultural
understanding’. The existing cross-curriculum priorities also reflect
important areas of focus for developing an understanding of human rights. The
Commission believes it is important for human rights to be expressly integrated
within these. This will ensure the relevance and importance of human rights to
students’ learning is highlighted throughout the Curriculum – both
as a body of knowledge and as values and principles to guide attitudes and
behaviours.

• The
  inclusion of relevant human rights issues and examples in each learning
  area

While human rights and Australian values will be touched on
in some learning areas including civics and citizenship, history and geography,
this alone is insufficient to impart an understanding of human rights and
Australian values as a cornerstone of our social fabric and national ethos. It
is important that the relevance of human rights and Australian values to all
learning areas is reinforced – from using mathematics as a lens to address
questions around equity and fairness, to using English to encourage an
appreciation of the diversity of cultures in Australia and globally. As I have
already suggested, it is through the use of examples and case studies that
students are able to empathise and understand human rights, and incorporate
human rights attitudes into their daily lives.

The Commission’s position and previous submissions on human rights in
the curriculum can be found on our website.

Conclusion

I would like to conclude by emphasising that effective human rights education
cannot be achieved through the simple introduction of human rights content in an
already over-burdened
curriculum.^[13] Instead, it requires
that the environment within which students learn reflects human rights values.
It is when human rights values are embedded in content and in pedagogy that
human rights can translate into our attitudes, behaviours and
actions.^[14]The Commission will be
working towards supporting teachers and schools to achieve this through
developing resources and materials and exploring ways in which we can support
professional development programs for teachers focused on human rights. We hope
to partner with human rights educators, like you, to make human rights education
in the curriculum a vivid reality.

^[1] Australian Council of Social
Service, A Fair Go for All Australians: International Comparisons, 2007:
10 Essentials (2007) 18 available at http://www.australiafair.org.au/upload/site/pdf/publications/3078__Australia%20Fair%20Report.pdf (viewed 13 May 2011).

^[2] NGO
Submission to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Freedom,
Respect Equality, Dignity: Action, (2008).

^[3] Australian Human
Rights Commission, Face the Facts (2008), p 34. At http://humanrights.gov.au/racial_discrimination/face_facts/index.html (viewed 13 May 2011).

^[4] Billings
Learned Hand, ‘The Spirit of Liberty’, Speech delivered in New York
on 21 May 1944.

^[5] Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, GA Resolution 217A(III), UN Doc A/810 (1948),
preamble. At http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml (viewed 13 May 2011).

^[6] National Human Rights Consultation Report, (2009) p 353. At http://www.humanrightsconsultation.gov.au/www/nhrcc/nhrcc.nsf/Page/Report_NationalHumanRightsConsultationReportDownloads

^[7] United Nations Human Rights Council, Draft plan of action for the
second phase (2010-2014) of the World Programme for Human Rights Education, A/HRC/15/28, 27 July 2010. At http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/education/training/secondphase.htm (viewed 13 May 2011).

^[8] Education
Services Australia, Giving Voice to the Impacts of Values Education: The
Final Report of the Values in Action Schools Project, October
2010.

^[9] Education Services
Australia, Giving Voice to the Impacts of Values Education: The Final Report
of the Values in Action Schools Project, October 2010; Department of
Education, Science and Training, National Values Education Forum Report, April 2004; Australian Curriculum Studies Association, 2007 National
Values Education Forum - Values Education in Practice: Making Connections,
May 2007. See also research from primary schools in the United States of
America, A Furco, Unpacking the Nature of Values Education in Primary School
Settings (Speech delivered at the National Values in Education Forum in May
2007) as quoted in J McLeod and R Reynolds ‘Exposing Issues: Exploring
Values. Education for human rights in the classroom’ in C Newell and B
Offord Activating Human Rights in Education: Exploration, Innovation and
Transformation (2008) p
41.

^[10] See note
10.

^[11] UNICEF United Kingdom,
at http://www.unicef.org.uk/Education/Rights-Respecting-Schools-Award/ (viewed 13 May 2011).

^[12] International Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989, At http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm (viewed 13 May 2011).

^[13] C
Newell and B Offord ‘Introduction’ in Activating Human Rights in
Education: Exploration, Innovation and Transformation (2008) p 12.

^[14] Equitas International
Centre for Human Rights Education Play it Fair: Human Rights Education
Resource for Children, (2008). At http://equitas.org/en/what-we-do/children-and-youth/play-it-fair-canada/toolkit-download/ (viewed 13 May 2011).