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ABSTRACT
This note draws on both the Raoul Wallenberg Institute’s (RWI) international cooperation programmes with universities to advance human rights education and the concepts of a ‘human rights cognitive style’ and ‘local cognitive style’ as developed by Benjamin Gregg in his recent theory of The Human Rights State (2016). We analyse how to facilitate positive attitudinal change towards human rights across a range of different university actors, including students, teachers and managers. By drawing on examples from RWI’s recent work, we then explore how educational efforts – especially teaching – and dialogue with local partners can be constructed in a way that facilitates the local embrace of human rights yet without thereby compromising international human rights standards. We argue that attitudinal change on an individual level, a focus on the local context and international standards are the key prerequisites for a free local embrace of human rights as well as for advancing a human rights culture around the world.
Acknowledgements
The authors express their gratitude to colleagues at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute, who provided valuable advice during the preparation of this article: Merethe Borge MacLeod (China Office), Johannes Eile (Lund Office), Andreas Ljungholm (Cambodia Office), Emma Melander Borg (Lund Office) and Amelie Sällfors (Europe Office).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Olga Bezbozhna holds an MA in International Human Rights Law and Intellectual Property Law from Lund University and RWI (Sweden), and an LLM from the Donetsk State University of Management (Ukraine). Olga is a programme officer with RWI academic cooperation in Belarus. Her research interests include gender equality and the integration of the gender dimension in research and education; human rights education as a tool for the promotion of human rights, in particular in the framework of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training.
Helena Olsson has an MA in Political Science and has, since 2001, worked as a programme officer for the UN, the Swedish development agency and RWI. Currently Helena is Interim Director of the RWI office in Jakarta (Indonesia), and coordinates a regional programme covering South and Southeast Asia. She is also Team Leader for the thematic focus area ‘People on the Move’ at RWI. Helena’s research interests include human rights protection for refugees and people on the move; participation, ownership and self-determination as factors in human rights education/promotion and implementation in a global context; human rights and development, in particular ESCR in the framework of Agenda 2030 targets.
Notes
1. Benjamin Gregg, The Human Rights State: Justice Within and Beyond Sovereign Nations (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016), 84.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid., 86.
4. UN Human Rights Council, United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training: Resolution/Adopted by the Human Rights Council, 8 April 2011, A/HRC/RES/16/1, Article 2.
5. Gregg, The Human Rights State, 86.
6. Ibid., 88.
7. Ibid., 92.
8. UN General Assembly, Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, 12 July 1993, A/CONF.157/23, para. 78: The World Conference on Human Rights considers human rights education, training and public information essential for the promotion and achievement of stable and harmonious relations among communities and for fostering mutual understanding, tolerance and peace.
9. UN Human Rights Council, World Programme for Human Rights Education: Resolution/Adopted by the Human Rights Council, 8 October 2013, A/HRC/RES/24/15.
10. Raoul Wallenberg Institute, Where We Work: China. http://rwi.lu.se/where-we-work/regions/asia/china/ (accessed 22 October 2016).
11. Raoul Wallenberg Institute, Where We Work: Cambodia. http://rwi.lu.se/where-we-work/regions/asia/cambodia/ (accessed 22 October 2016).
12. Raoul Wallenberg Institute, Where We Work: Sub-Saharan Africa. http://rwi.lu.se/where-we-work/regions/sub-saharan-africa/ (accessed 22 October 2016).
13. Mahidol University, Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies, Master of Arts in Human Rights (International Programme). http://www.ihrp.mahidol.ac.th/index.php/en/our-programs/master-of-arts-degree-international-program (accessed 22 October 2016).
14. Raoul Wallenberg Institute, Where We Work: Turkey. http://rwi.lu.se/where-we-work/regions/europe/turkey/ (accessed 22 October 2016).
15. RWI recently published a book called Developing a Human Rights Library which includes an extensive analysis of the role and functions of libraries for HRE and research, and for the promotion of human rights in society.
16. Much effort goes into pursuing this theory of change to become operational: human rights education, advisory support, library support, materials support, and other kinds of support which is directed towards individuals as well as institutions.
17. UN Human Rights Council, World Programme for Human Rights Education.
18. Alison E.C. Struthers, ‘Human Rights Education: Educating About, Through and For Human Rights’, The International Journal of Human Rights 19, no. 1 (2015): 53.
19. UN Human Rights Council, United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training, Article 2.
20. Monisha Bajaj, Beniamino Cislaghi, and Gerry Mackie, Advancing Transformative Human Rights Education (Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 2016), 15.
21. Gregg, The Human Rights State, 94.
22. The term ‘clinical human rights education’ is used in Mohammad Mahdi Meghdadi and Ahmad Erfani Nasab, ‘The Role of Legal Clinics of Law Schools in Human Rights Education’, Elsevier (2011): 3015; see http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042811007804 (accessed 22 October 2016).
23. Materials of the International Educational and Methodological Seminar ‘Mainstreaming of the Elements of Human Rights and Gender Equality Concepts in the Learning Process of Higher Legal Education System of Belarus, Minsk, Belarus, 30–31 October 2015’ (Ecoperspectiva, 2016), 11.
24. Hours assigned for lectures and seminars.
25. Materials of the International Educational and Methodological Seminar ‘Mainstreaming of the elements of human rights and gender equality concepts’.
26. Gregg, The Human Rights State, 96.
27. Ibid., 105.
28. UN General Assembly, Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, para. 5.
29. United Nations, The Foundation of International Human Rights Law. http://www.un.org/en/sections/universal-declaration/foundation-international-human-rights-law/index.html (accessed 22 October 2016).
30. For example, Hathaway, who found ‘not a single treaty for which ratification seems to be reliably associated with better human rights practices and several for which it appears to be associated with worse practices’. Oona Hathaway, ‘Do Human rights Treaties Make a Difference?’, Yale Law Journal 11 (2002): 1940.
31. Gregg, The Human Rights State, 88.
32. Ibid., 92.
33. Ibid., 86.
34. Ibid., 138.
35. Ibid., 104.
36. International Labour Organization (ILO), Minimum Age Convention, C138, 26 June 1973, C138, Article 7, para. 1.
37. Gregg, The Human Rights State, 104.
38. Podcast with Benjamin Gregg, ‘Human Rights Are Not Possible Without the Rule of Law’, RWI, Lund, Sweden, 21 April 2016. http://rwi.lu.se/2016/04/human-rights-are-not-possible-without-the-rule-of-law/
39. Gregg, The Human Rights State, 98.
40. Article 24 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus: ‘Until its abolition, the death sentence may be applied in accordance with the law as an exceptional penalty for especially grave crimes and only in accordance with the verdict of a court of law.’
41. Article 2 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus: ‘The individual, his rights, freedoms and guarantees for their attainment manifest the supreme goal and value of society and the State.’
42. Gregg, The Human Rights State, 101.
43. Plan of Action for the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education, 1995–2004 (A/51/506/Add.1, 12 December 1996), para. 6. http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Education/Training/Compilation/Pages/PlanofActionfortheUnitedNationsDecadeforHumanRightsEducation,1995-2004(1996).aspx
44. Gregg, The Human Rights State, 98.