Education is the Key to Understanding and Respecting Human Rights

Published 22nd August 2007, 1:00pm

One of the HRC's primary functions is to educate the public on human rights. In its recent successful Public Awareness Campaign, the HRC sought to highlight human rights in a local historical context. Having looked at past events, the HRC has now turned its attention to human rights education more generally and improving the knowledge and understanding of human rights amongst future generations.

In keeping with this objective, representatives of the HRC prepared a Report defining what is encompassed by the concept of human rights education. The Report goes on to identify the many positive benefits that human rights education will provide to Caymanian society and the importance of integrating such education into the national curriculum. One of the central tenets of the Report is that human rights education ought to be pervasive across the curriculum and not merely added on to one existing subject area.

HRC Member, Tammy Ebanks Bishop, who was instrumental in the compilation of this Report, emphasised that:

"A school curriculum that incorporates human rights education simultaneously serves two purposes: it provides a general education about human rights, and it also informs students as to what their rights are. When students are exposed to human rights education even at a young age, this can foster values such as respect, fairness, personal and moral responsibility and build skills such as leadership, communication and negotiation. All of these positive aspects of human rights education can help promote social harmony in the Cayman Islands."

As the Report proceeds, it establishes that the appropriate methodology for the delivery of human rights education should recognise that while human rights are in a sense international or global, they should also, at the same time, be connected to the lived experiences of people in Cayman. Similarly, while it is important to stress the universality of human rights, this methodology should also be sensitive to cultural differences.

The Report concludes with information for teachers and indeed anyone else in Cayman who is interested in enhancing the awareness of human rights in the Cayman Islands.

The full Report on Human Rights Education in the Cayman Islands can be accessed on this web site. If you would like to contact the HRC and express a view on human rights education, please send your comments to committee@humanrights.ky. Alternatively, written correspondence can also be sent to PO Box 30664, Grand Cayman, KY1-1203.

Human Rights Education in the Cayman Islands

For further information contact: Human Rights Committee