The Importance of Human Rights Education in the UK

Gus John discusses the importance of human rights education in the UK.


Gus John: There is a real need to focus children in metropolitan countries like Britain on human rights abuses in our own space, and understand how that plays into the way education policies and practices are framed.


Last year Gavin Williamson introduced behaviour hubs, which squeeze students into a corner, making schools seem like boot camps. When that happens, openness, creativity and growth are pretty much out of the window. 


One of the things that is alarming to us is the growing number of young people with special educational needs, complex needs, who are being excluded from school. It is these complex needs which lead to certain behaviours which contravene the school’s own behaviour codes. It is brutal and punitive, and it is an assault on those children's own human rights. We need to struggle to fight for them.

 

The way schools organise themselves should be against a human rights back drop, so that they are conscious all the time of the extent to which some of their own regimes are denying children their human rights. Article 2 says children are entitled to an education, and that is irrespective of what they might do. Yet we find very punitive attitudes determines conduct, as if it is not the responsibility of school to help them to unlearn inappropriate behaviours, and grow holistically in a manner that enables them to be citizens in society.


From that point of view, we find that the schooling system is broken, and creating all kinds of casualties. Children end up in pupil referral units, and alternative provision, where less is expected of them. We need to get rid of the overbearing punitive attitude to children, and their development. It is what is necessary if we're going to create a human rights schooling culture.


In this country there is a growing focus on decolonising the curriculum. This project of advancing human rights education and embedding it more in terms of what schools do, must be seen as a part of that. I don't believe that it is possible decolonise the curriculum, if you don't first decolonise the institution. Part of the process of decolonising the institution, is to make schools more child friendly and child centred. This means creating a space for the voice of the child, and by doing so engage with the child's realities.


I work mainly in inner city areas and get quite alarmed at the extent to which schools try to keep issues that affect young people outside the school gates. Youth violence for example, and the fear that young people have of one another, the way in which the youth justice system deny them fundamental rights. These things can be seen as peripheral to the school's main function and purpose. To decolonising the institution, we must create space for all of the things that concern young people. 


We need to support the voice of young people and their capacity to bring about changes against a ruling order that seeks more and more to marginalise them, and to suggest that the only purpose there is to schooling and education, is to have high level education results measured by examination and tests, as distinct from growing rounded individuals who can be encouraged and trained to engage in collective action in pursuit of change.


There is a lot of repair to be done in our situation, even as we make comparisons between our human rights challenges here, and those in other countries, and particularly in the global South. 



Find out more about the competition here.


Augustin John • April 6, 2022
By Ann Beatty April 6, 2025
This week while out and about in Hertfordshire and we visited the British Schools Museum. We discovered the first school opened by Joseph Lancaster, was known as the ‘Poor Childs Friend”, was in 1810. It was his lifelong mission that all children regardless of their circumstances, should benefit from an education. Apparently, Joseph heard a small girl say, “Oh that I could read!” and this inspired him to create a simple education system that eventually would benefit children across the world. Joseph was the tenth son of a poor man himself from South London. His aim was to offer free education for everyone. However, it would be 93 years before the U.K. government finally made education free for all. There are still many countries today where education is still not free to access and it is certainly not compulsory for primary and secondary age pupils. Joseph’s mission really resonates with that of the Foundation, to support access to education for all. We enjoyed our visit and appreciated the tour given by two of the Museum’s volunteers, Angela and Clare. They described some of the challenges faced in the early years of formal education and shared some of the rules that teachers and students had to abide by with us. 
By Ann Beatty April 4, 2025
Sparks Bristol is a collaborative community project initially envisioned by The Global Goals Centre, (GGC) more of which below. A few years ago, GGC took over an empty Marks and Spencer store and that’s how Sparks was born. Sparks is a department store with a difference, co-created by Global Goals Centre and Artspace Lifespace. On the ground floor is a huge range of shops, installations, events and more. Upstairs is a hub for local artists, it offers affordable studios as well as rehearsal and performance space. The Global Goals Centre is a Bristol-based educational charity inspired by the Sustainable Development Goals. (SDGs). GGC believe the SDG’s or Global Goals as they are sometimes known, can be reached, with imaginative solutions and widespread education and engagement. They work with partners to promote creative solutions and deliver ground breaking projects that work towards these ambitious goals. The Steve Sinnott Foundation supported the Global Goals Centre with seed funding when it first started over 5 years ago. This month we went to visit them to see how they are getting on and we were taken aback by the volume of work they have achieved since they started. It is amazing to see how though working together with other local community groups it has grown into the vibrant centre it is today. All of the creative projects they host are linked to the SDGs. They cover topics that tackle poverty, education, climate change, fashion recycling and upcycling, to name a few.
By Ann Beatty March 28, 2025
Spring is definitely here, daffodils, blossom and crocuses are all basking in the bright sunshine. There is still a chill in the air in the shade but it's happening and all the seeds that were sown over the last few months are coming to fruition. At the Foundation, we have been planning the year ahead and our Positive Periods and Prevention of Gender Based Violence programmes got underway this weekend in Haiti and Ghana. These projects will have a long-lasting effect on the lives of the women and girls who take part: tackling the root causes of gender-based violence and enabling girls to attend school every day when they have their period, to feel safe at school and know how to take action when they are faced with violence. These are the first of many projects planned for the year ahead as we continue to work towards Education for All children everywhere.