Intercultural Understanding and Human Rights Education ... - APCEIU

Recommendations on Intercultural Understanding and Human Rights Education
For the formal education
1. It is recognize that there is a need for more
fundamental and systemic changes and holistic
approached for culture sensitive human rights
education.
2. There is a need to improve the students
awareness of their own human rights and to
empower them to overcome obstacles for
protecting their human rights in their community.
Cross-cultural exchanges can provide
opportunities for both educators and students to
have fellowships /internships with communitybased
organizations and agencies to learn about
human rights-related issues in local communities.
The use of participatory methods and fieldtrips
for students to have experiential learning in
schools and in the communities to overcome
prejudice and discrimination are also
recommended.
3. Inter-faith discussions are important to build
human rights sensitive intercultural education.
However, it should be admitted that no religion is
superior over others and differences exist among
the religions.
4. Pre-service and in-service training to learn
effective ways for unlearning discrimination and
teaching students culture sensitive human rights
and peace education. The training should
provide effective strategies and participatory
methods. Core curriculum elements should
include: harmonization of different cultures;
prejudice reduction workshop to overcome
discriminatory attitudes and behaviors;
experiential programming and cross-cultural
exchanges to learn how marginalized people
become victims by the violation of human rights
and how they struggle and overcome their
circumstances.
5. Teachers should have community human rights
and peace workers to speak in their classrooms.
Schools should also provide an opportunity for
marginalized people s voices to be heard and
understood.
6. There is the need to develop intercultural
curriculum and resources in multiple languages.
A cyber education center for distance learning
can also be implemented to provide cross-cultural
learning opportunities for students.
7. There is the pressing need for education to be
close to local communities and supported by
formal education system.
For the government sector
1. International institutions should be given legal
possibilities to influence individual countries.
2. Multifaith schools can be encourage and made
conscious efforts to include students of different
faith and backgrounds. Human rights awareness
programme for parents, students and the
community must also be initiated.
3. Scrutinize educational materials in order to
eliminate all forms of discrimination be it cultural,
racial, religious, or social background and utilize
legislation in order to secure acceptable
standards of textbooks that eliminate all forms of
discrimination.
4. There is also the need to enhance the ability of
education authorities responsible for the
formulation of education curriculum. The creation
of expert groups that will study and improve the
education curriculum can be one good way.
For the civil society sector
1. The civil society organization (CSOs) played
substantial role in pre-departure, upon arrival,
post-departure, and reintegration information,
education and training programmes for migrants.
All training and education programmes need to
be modeled on a rights-based approach.
2. CSOs can help promote diverse methods of
education namely: traditional arts, parents-andchildren
program, popular education modules,
non-formal education, first hand experiential
learning such as field trip and associated
dialogue, internships in NGOs in developing
countries, and exchange programmes.
International Symposium on a Culture of Peace 47