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The United Nations (UN) asserts that children and young people should have access to human rights education (HRE) and that schools are one of the key means through which HRE should be made available. However, there is currently limited knowledge about the presence and form of HRE in school contexts, and there is no established means through which HRE provision within schools is evaluated. This paper proposes a theoretical framework to support the classification of teachers' responsibilities in relation to HRE and argues that systemic change is needed within education systems if HRE provision is to be realised in more extensive and consistent ways. The curriculum documents of three nations – Australia, England and Sweden – were analysed to determine teacher responsibilities for educating pupils about human rights. The viability of the developed framework was then tested through applying it to the outcomes of these analyses. The theoretical contribution made by the paper deepens knowledge and understandings about the nature of responsibilities placed on teachers to educate pupils about human rights, and provides a foundation from which to stimulate debate about what constitutes effective school-based HRE practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article tackles specific issues that arise in teaching human rights in a Western academic institution. As critical human rights scholars, we are concerned with a pedagogy of human rights that gives respect to cultural diversity and the cross-cultural applicability of concepts and social issues in ways that are not antithetical to the purpose of human rights itself. In the Australian context where we are located both as human rights educators and immigrants, our approach depends on giving critical attention to questions of colonialism and its aftermath; to how contemporary human rights are understood across diverse cultures and subjectivities; and how to enable decolonizing methodologies to ensure an ethical exchange and negotiation of human rights learning and teaching in a higher education context. This approach is significant since contemporary Australia is an immigrant nation, a settler colonial society that is located in the South and yet problematically dominated by ontological and epistemological orientations towards the North. We argue that a critical pedagogy of human rights involves a robust non-colonizing and ethical engagement that is both self-reflexive and aware of complicit power relations. We seek to interrogate power as understood through the relationship between lived experience, knowledge and education. In our article we examine, through examples in our own teaching practice, how we seek to create and enable a critical pedagogical space that allows such an ethical engagement to take place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-government organisations (NGOs) can play an important role in educating about and advocating for human rights. This paper reports on findings from an investigation of the opportunities for teaching and learning about human rights in the Australian school curriculum, and in particular the opportunities for learning about human rights in schools through the work of Australian-based non-government and not-for-profit organisations. The research points to the value of strengthening partnerships between NGOs which specialise in the defence of human rights and school systems in order to broaden students' opportunities to learn about human rights. This paper argues for the recognition of the current work of NGOs in education systems in Australia, and for an extension of programs and project work around key human rights issues with young people and teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human rights are statements of values and putting them into practice can present a range of challenges. In Australia, these challenges are compounded by the widespread belief that human rights are only at issue somewhere else. In 2006 human rights legislation entitled the ‘Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act’, based on the British Human Rights Act, was introduced in the Australian state of Victoria, locating the acknowledgement of, and respect for, civil and political rights firmly ‘in our own backyard’. The Australian Centre for Human Rights Education (ACHRE) developed a teaching and training programme to assist the implementation of this legislation. In this practice note we analyse how ACHRE has used education to advance the civil and political rights covered by ‘the Charter’ from guiding principles into practical applications in organizational settings. We explore the pedagogical approach by reviewing teaching and learning materials and participant responses to activities. We evaluate how effective the programme is in achieving understandings of how to apply human rights in local organizational contexts. We argue that the methodology is strengthened by using a human rights based approach to the design, documentation and application of course materials. This approach offers the potential for wide scale application of human rights values and principles in organizational settings. Importantly, it develops an understanding of human rights as relevant in local contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's insights on several issues related to Australian human rights education as of 2010. Using his 2008 "Social Justice Report," he examines the protection of indigenous people's rights under a National Human Rights Act. He argues that education is a necessary pre-condition for the observance of human rights.

The article discusses the implementation of Community Cultural Development (CCD) practices in Human Rights Education (HRE) in Australia. It says that CCD methods can be used by HR educators to customize HRE project in order to meet the requirements of the community through four key choices including the topic, scope and process. It relates the CCD based HRE project titled "Songs of Anklets" which was delivered in Western Sydney, New South Wales by the South West Sydney Legal Centre.

The article examines the need for an Australian bill of rights that deals with the issue of free speech and hate speech. The author discusses how current anti-terrorism laws have resulted in measures that have restricted free speech, specifically those that address sedition and the ban of books and material that advocate terrorist acts. In consideration of severe criticism towards existing anti-terrorism laws and their impact on rights to free speech, the author believes that current efforts to protect human rights would be strategically achieved by providing human rights education for communities, and adopting a federal Human Rights Act.

Objectives: Most postgraduate training for clinicians in Australia and New Zealand regarding mental health legislation focuses on the relevant Mental Health Acts (MHAs) rather than the broader principles of mental health law. Key concepts include treatment in the least restrictive environment, voluntary access to mental health services, treatability, reciprocity and due process. Lack of awareness of these principles may result in a more risk-averse interpretation of MHAs, which is inconsistent with the spirit of mental health law and the promotion of human rights. The aim of this paper is to present some fundamental principles of mental health law, which are essential to proper clinical application of MHAs, and to demonstrate why they should form part of the curriculum for psychiatry training and continuing professional development for psychiatrists., Conclusions: A sound understanding of the principles of mental health law is essential for all clinicians who may be enacting aspects of MHAs. This provides the necessary platform to safeguard human rights and optimise the care of people with a mental illness.

Hillel Friedland Lecture, Adler Museum of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 16 October 2008.