From Convention to Classroom: The Long Road to Human Rights Education

Human Rights Education is one of the most effective ways of preventing human rights violations. Yet human rights education in schools is still not commonplace. Paula Gerber analyses why this is so. Using a case study approach, she evaluates the extent to which schools in Melbourne, Australia and Boston, USA are giving effect to the human rights education norm in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In the process, the author exposes some of the legal and educational obstacles to widespread school-based human rights education. Interviews with teachers, government employees and NGOs provide a rich source of data, and reveal numerous, and diverse impediments to human rights education. The author offers a new perspective on States' practices regarding human rights education, and fresh ideas on how to increase States' compliance with relevant international laws. Dr Gerber cleverly interweaves legal theories regarding States' compliance with international human rights law, with empirical research on educational practices, to produce an engaging scholarly book relevant to all those interested in human rights education, whether from a legal, educational, or political standpoint.