Ei-iE

On the day marked to recognise the importance of human rights around the world, Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi highlight education as an essential right, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.

Today’s presentation of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway makes it clear that education plays a central role in establishing the foundation of human rights. Of course, human rights are not a matter for only one day on the calendar, which is why this year’s theme of ‘Human Rights 365’ seeks to create awareness on the daily courageous struggles and exhaustive work of individuals and organisations around the globe.

With the theme in mind, Kailash and Malala’s award not only honours their personal struggles to see that all children have a right to education, but it helps focus the world’s attention on the little-known efforts of education unions to make human rights a reality for all. Learn about some of them here:

Australia

NTEU Australia has negotiated collective agreements for its members at Indigenous education institutions. The NTEU Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Employment Strategy commit the union to an employment target of five percent by 2020 and the development of opportunities. The union has also designated elected positions for Indigenous members at each level of the union, and an Indigenous Policy Committee.

Bahrain

The leaders of Bahrain Teachers' Association (BTA), Jalila al-Salman and Mahdi Abu Dheeb, were arrested in March and April 2011 in connection with the union’s calls for taking part in a peaceful pro-democracy protest in Manama. They were both subjected to torture while in detention. While Jalila has since been released, Mahdi is still serving a 10-year sentence for allegedly inciting hatred for the regime. Click here to read more.

Brazil

The Brazilian teacher union CNTE has adopted policies and programmes to combat racism and acts of prejudice and discrimination. The CNTE are also contributing to implement in all schools a law known as 10.639/03, which requires that Afro-Brazilian and African culture be taught.

Canada

In October this year, the Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF) and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights unveiled a new online toolkit on human rights to support teachers committed to integrating human rights into their classes. The ‘Canadian Human Rights Toolkit’ works is a central hub of educational resources available at no charge to all K-12 teachers.

Middle East

In Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, the education unions are coordinating efforts to provide education opportunities to Syrian and Kurdish refugee children. Learn more about the situation here.

United States

One of the US affiliates, the American Federation of Teachers ( AFT), is promoting a project called Teachers Advancing a Rights Culture(TARC) in Egypt, Georgia, Honduras and Zimbabwe. The project aims to build on the important roles teachers play in their communities, and harnesses the organisational power of teachers unions to foster respect for human and workers’ rights. See Randi Weingarten’s statement here.

Photo: United Nations OHCHR