Human Rights Education: Form, Content and Controversy
Human rights education, in North America, is still developing and perhaps only in its adolescence. This is, on the one hand, quite shocking, given the foundational role such rights (supposedly) play in the core societal structures of the United States and Canada. On the other hand, the human rights movement has exploded world-wide since 1945 – rendering it in many ways a new normative world – and it is hard to think of other countries obviously doing better. To enable readers to draw comparative and intrinsic lessons, this paper examines both the form and content of human rights education in North America. The form section focuses on the modalities and availabilities of such education. The content section, by contrast, focuses on some of the "hot topics" and prominent dilemmas in contemporary North American human rights education. Emphasis is there placed on taking a principled, consistent stand in light of these latest controversies and challenges. In other words, and owing to the author’s nature as a philosopher, the content section will feature arguments highlighting the strength of a certain way of viewing and teaching human rights in the face of doubts about them and challenges to them.