Recognition of the Right to HRE in the UK

Whilst the international instruments contain ‘a number of positive obligations to guarantee the effectiveness of the right to HRE’,99 _{domestic recognition across states}

is notoriously weak. Support for HRE has come predominantly from NGOs, suggesting a failure on the part of states to accept their role in the recognition and realisation of HRE as a ‘true right’.100 _{Does the same hold true for the UK?}

98 _{Ibid at 10, para 6.}

99 _{UN Human Rights Council, ‘Working Paper on the Draft Declaration’ (n 18) at 9, para 20.}

100 _{Ibid at 10, para 24; & Lister, I., ‘The Challenge of Human Rights for Education’ in Starkey (ed), The}

The UK has explicitly outlined its commitment to using its influence to seek realisation ‘for all the people in the world’ of the social and economic rights contained within the UDHR.101 _{However, perhaps because the ECHR does not}

protect these rights, or maybe because they all too often ‘look like additions or even afterthoughts’,102 _{these second generation rights continue to hold less weight that}

their first generation counterparts.103 _{In their Concluding Observations on the UK in}

1997, for example, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights criticised the UK’s interpretation of this category of rights as ‘programmatic objectives rather than legal obligations’.104

HRE, as a second generation right, has arguably been largely overlooked. During consultation for UNDHRET, for example, the UK actually denied the existence of a right to HRE at international level.105 _{This stance overlooks the fact that HRE ‘is not}

simply an option a State can choose if it wishes, but a legal obligation’, and is also fundamentally at odds with the widely accepted interpretation of the right as freestanding.106 _{Upendra Baxi contends, for example, that Article 26 of the UDHR}

‘must include HRE as a human right in itself’;107 _{an interpretation consistent with}

existing UN initiatives that seek to promote ‘HRE both as an end in itself and as a means to goals such as international security, peace building, and national development’.108 _{Both the 1993 Montreal Congress and Vienna Declaration consider}

101 _{Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department for International Development, Human Rights:}

Annual Report for 1999 (1999) at 15.

102 _{Richardson, R., ‘Human Rights and Racial Justice: connections and contrasts’ in Osler (ed),}

Citizenship and Democracy in Schools (n 6) 79-89 at 84.

103 _{The term ‘second generation’ is used to distinguish social, economic and cultural rights from ‘first}

generation’ civil and political rights and ‘third generation’ collective-developmental rights.

104 _{UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ‘Concluding Observations: United}

Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’ (1997) (E/C.12/1/Add.19) at para 10.

105 _{See OHCHR, ‘Human Rights Council Adopts UN Declaration on Human Rights Education and}

Training Appoints Mandate Holders and Members of Subsidiary Bodies’ (2011) (available at:

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/Displaynews.aspx?NewsID=10885&LangID=E

[last accessed 9 June 2015]).

106 _{UN Human Rights Council, ‘Working Paper on the Draft Declaration’ (n 18) at 9, para 20; see also}

International Service for Human Rights, ‘Draft Declaration on Human Rights Education Fails to Fully Acknowledge Defenders’ Role’ (2011) (available at: http://www.ishr.ch/council/376-council/1026- draft-declaration-on-human-rights-education-fails-to-fully-acknowledge-defenders-role [last accessed 4 January 2013]).

107 _{Baxi, U., Human Rights Education: The Promise of the Third Millennium? (available at:}

http://www.pdhre.org/dialogue/third_millenium.html [last accessed 9 June 2015]).

HRE to be ‘itself a human right’,109 _{and in guidelines for national action plans during}

the UN Decade, HRE is described as a ‘fundamental human right’.110

Despite its denial of HRE as a freestanding right, the UK nevertheless accepted the soft-law requirements within UNDHRET.111 _{It supported the passage of the}

instrument through the machinery of the UN,112 _{and subsequently endorsed it at state}

level when it came into force.113 _{In 2011, the Rt Hon Lord McNally, then Minister of}

State at the Ministry of Justice, stated that he was ‘delighted that the UK is supporting the UNDHRET’, 114 _{and emphasised the coalition Government’s}

‘commitment to promote a better understanding of the true scope of…[human rights] so that the UK offers an inspiring example of a society that upholds human rights and democracy’.115 _{The UK has furthermore signed and ratified all of the UN}

instruments discussed above that contain HRE provisions,116 _{and explicitly supported}

a number of key soft law initiatives at both the international and regional levels, including the World Programme,117 _{Vienna Declaration}118 _{and CoE Charter on EDC}

and HRE.119

Irrespective of its refusal to recognise the right to HRE as a freestanding human right, therefore, the UK has signed up to many of the key instruments and initiatives governing HRE. By doing so, it has intimated its commitment to complying with

109 _{UNESCO, ‘The Montreal Declaration’ (n 62) at 9, para 2; & Undated UNESCO document, quoted}

in Keet, HRE: A Conceptual Analysis (n 2) 70.

110 _{UN General Assembly, ‘United Nations Decade for HRE’ (n 4) at 7, para 16.}

111 _{Reserving its position only on Art 1(1) (concerning recognition of a freestanding right to HRE) and}

Art 7(1) (concerning state responsibility for promoting and ensuring HRE): UN General Assembly, ‘Human Rights Council: Open-ended Working Group on the draft United Nations declaration on human rights education and training’ (28 Jan 2011) (A/HRC/WG.9/1/3) at 5, para 18.

112 _{UN General Assembly, ‘Open-ended Working Group’ (n 111).}

113 _{Ministry of Justice, ‘UN Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training’ (Press Release, 24}

March 2011) (available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/un-declaration-on-human-rights- education-and-training [last accessed 11 June 2015]).

114 _Ibid. 115 _Ibid.

116 _{The UDHR (adopted 1948); the ICESCR (signed 1968; ratified 1976); the UNCRC (signed 1990;}

ratified 1991); the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979) (signed 1981; ratified 1986); & the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965) (signed 1966; ratified 1969).

117 _{UN Human Rights Council, ‘Promotion and Protection of All Human Rights, Civil, Political,}

Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Including the Right to Development’ (2009) (A/HRC/12/36) at 7, para 24.

118 _{World Conference on Human Rights, ‘Report of the World Conference on Human Rights: Report}

of the Secretary-General’ (13 October 1993) (A/CONF.157/24).

119 _{Council of Europe, ‘Implementation of the Council of Europe Charter on Education for}

their requirements, and has accepted the responsibility to provide effective and age- appropriate HRE at each level of formal education. As the instruments and initiatives do not distinguish between primary and secondary schooling concerning the requirement to provide holistic HRE, such education should not be limited only to the latter. For states to do so – on the basis that secondary learners are better equipped to cope with the demands of HRE – is to defy the explicit requirements of the international framework.

With this general conclusion in mind, it remains necessary to consider whether the international initiatives and instruments that the UK has accepted also provide guidance as to how HRE should be delivered across the formal education system. It is worth noting that in the remaining chapters of this thesis, I focus exclusively upon policy and practice in the English primary education system. The international obligations discussed in this chapter affect all of the home countries of the UK, however, and in this regard, my interpretation and analysis in this chapter is useful beyond the English context. In the following section, I draw upon the international instruments and initiatives, and the relevant academic commentary, to show that it is not only the principle of HRE provision at primary level that is accepted, but also the substance to be educated: through the provision of education about, through and for

human rights. Establishing this will then provide a plausible framework for my exploration in subsequent chapters of whether the English education system is compliant with these commitments.

2.3 FROM PRINCIPLE TO PRACTICE: THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE