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THE HUMAN RIGHTS HANDBOOK: A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE FOR EDUCATION by Liam Gearon. Stoke-on-Trent, Eng.: Trentham Books, 2003. 181 pp. $27.50.
Human rights education (HRE) is, historically and philosophically, inextricably linked to the international human rights movement. HRE, which emerged out of the international movement to guarantee a child's right to education, was conceived of as a pedagogical approach to introduce students to the human rights system and to the rights and duties they incur as citizens in an increasingly interdependent global world.
The modern human rights system was precipitated by the founding of the United Nations (UN), and it represents a worldwide reaction to the atrocities of World War II.1 The UN's first human rights treaty, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), established that every person, based solely on their humanity, has rights that transcend national boundaries. However, while economic and social rights garnered much attention in the postwar era, children's rights, including their educational rights, received limited attention.2 Children's rights were first enshrined in 1989, when the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) became the most universally accepted treaty in history.3
Article 28 of the CRC provides a global benchmark for the right to education that includes free compulsory education for all. Moreover, the treaty guarantees all children the right to participate in decisions regarding their education. However, the CRC does not delineate the purposes of education or define what should be taught in the world's schools.4 More specifically, the CRC does not declare what social, political, cultural, or economic purposes education should serve.
In 1993, the World Conference on Human Rights, fueled by the idea that education should promote human rights and peaceful relations among nations, challenged the UN and the international community to extend and detail the right to education. World Conference delegates built on earlier documents that insisted that education everywhere should promote international understanding and cooperation, arguing that all children have the right to what was deemed a human rights education.5 Specifically, delegates insisted that all children have the right to knowledge of the human rights system and should be made aware of their universal rights, freedoms, and responsibilities.6
In response to pressure from the World Conference, the UN General Assembly endorsed a Plan of Action for...