“We decide, on issues large and small, whether we will be bystanders or upstanders,” writes former Ambassador, diplomat, and war correspondent Samantha Power in her memoir The Education of an Idealist.

But to be an upstander—a term popularised by Power in her Pulitzer-winning book about genocide—empathy and grit are the baseline. Human rights violations can be evident when they take place in large scale, during protracted conflicts, or in the context of government crackdowns on demonstrations, as we have seen countless times in the last decades: from the Arab Spring uprisings, to Sudan, Haiti, Belarus, or Colombia. However, human rights violations are not always as explicit as in open conflicts or unrest. In some cases, they may take more subtle forms, especially if there is a lack of widespread awareness of the problem, as happens in violence against doctors. Violations can also endure as systemic forms of oppression and discrimination.

Human rights education can help identify such situations, sensitise victims and the general public, and compel people to stand up against abuses. The Human Rights Educators USA network defines a human rights education as “a lifelong process of teaching and learning that helps individuals develop the knowledge, skills, and values to fully exercise and protect the human rights of themselves and others; to fulfill their responsibilities in the context of internationally agreed upon human rights principles; and to achieve justice and peace in our world.”

Human rights education is therefore a vehicle for exercising and safeguarding human rights, as enshrined in the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “every individual and every organ of society...shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms.” Likewise, the 1993 Vienna Declaration of Human Rights establishes the fundamental role of human rights education, training, and public information—“or the promotion and achievement of stable and harmonious relations among communities and for fostering mutual understanding, tolerance and peace”.  

The idea of human rights has become ubiquitous. A term once confined to the legal and diplomatic realm, it is now part of our daily lives. Social media has played a major role in bringing human rights and activism to mainstream discourse, raising awareness about human rights violations happening all around the world, from Myanmar to Colombia and Palestine. While this widespread presence of human rights in our exchanges is undoubtedly positive, it is essential that we continue these conversations beyond sharing content. We cannot let human rights become a mere catchphrase devoid of meaning.

Human rights education can help achieve that deeper level of understanding, as it enables learners to identify values like justice, peace, freedom of speech, solidarity, and dignity, making them consider human rights critically and from a structural viewpoint. Human rights learners will be better positioned to understand the underlying causes of violations and therefore to come up with ways to tackle them in a way that endures in the long term and prevents future violations. Human rights education can set off a virtuous circle that, if sustained, reverberates through different aspects of decision-making processes, leading to greater inclusion, democracy, and equality.

Human rights education can also have a decisive impact on a more localised scale. It can empower students whose human rights have been infringed or are at risk of being so, such as differently-abled students, girls, students coming from minority backgrounds, LGBTQ, refugees, and Indigenous peoples, among others. Human rights education can drive these students to claim their own rights and turn the school community at large into advocates that stand up for human rights. While this involves making schools inclusive and accommodating to the diverse needs of students, it also means reaching out to those especially vulnerable populations, which are less likely to have access to formal education, and guaranteeing their opportunities for education and training.

Making human rights education a reality goes beyond integrating subjects like the rule of law, humanitarian law, or democracy, as set forth in article 80 of the 1993 Vienna Declaration. It means turning classrooms into an environment where human rights are actively observed and modelled by educators and students alike.

Human rights education can help us go from bystanders to upstanders. If carried out comprehensively and thoroughly, it can be a shaping force for a more inclusive, egalitarian, and peaceful future. As Power concludes in her book, “People who care, act and refuse to give up may not change the world, but they can change many individual worlds”. 

Amalia Ordóñez Vahí was previously a Fulbright scholar at New York University, where she graduated with an MA in International Relations. She spent most of 2020 interning at the Open Society Foundations' Justice Initiative working on cases related to COVID-19, human rights, and detention. She has also interned in refugee representation at Human Rights First, and holds an MA in Conference Interpreting from the University of Manchester. She is currently a cultural diplomacy fellow in New York, while she pursues an MA in Human Rights.

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