Suchergebnisse

Questions posed: Do you think that human rights and equality are sufficiently protected and promoted in Malta? If not: Which human rights do you believe need further protection and promotion? How can Malta better protect and promote human rights and equality overall? Are there any models that you would propose that government should consider looking at in terms of legislation, institutional frameworks or both? If yes, what is especially good about such models? Due to the fact that question (b) is broader in scope and consequence than question (a), it shall be dealt with first. A brief look into specific rights, which should serve only as an example of the many rights that need further protection, will then follow with regard to question (a), whilst the answers to question (c) will be incorporated into the first section. An observation is made about question (a) of the consultation: While it was understandable and conceivable that it is asked if the protection of any specific right seems particularly lacking, the latter part of the question, 'Which human rights do you believe need further promotion?' seemed anomalous to the very notion of universal human rights as proclaimed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is the Programme's belief that all human rights should be promoted with equal vigour. How can Malta better protect and promote human rights and equality overall? It is the Programme's tenet that a more holistic approach should be taken in protecting and promoting human rights and equality. Doing so would allow for the development of a culture of human rights wherein it is understood that such rights are universal, indivisible and inalienable and would thereby bring Maltese human rights protection within the standards of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1950. In this regard, while several positive measures aimed at providing individuals with access to their human rights have been adopted in recent years, it would be remiss not to acknowledge that the Maltese system of human rights protection is still lacking in a number of areas. ; peer-reviewed

In the aftermath of the devastation of the last World War, a new political will surged through the world community as a first step in the collective enforcement of a lasting peace for mankind, to safeguard the individual from the scourge of oppression. A renewed attempt was made to set standards of behavior, to which all people and nations should aspire, in the Charter of the United Nations, signed by the member states in 1945. Signature was a clear manifestation of the reaffirmation of their faith in fundamental human rights and freedoms, disregard of which had resulted in barbarous acts that had outraged the conscience of mankind. A historic document adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on the 10th December, 1948, was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which, in its Preamble, states that the "Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all the members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world". Therefore, in laying down standards to be observed by all nations, the Universal Declaration proclaimed that all individuals were born free and equal in dignity "regardless of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status". Such were the ideals that all leaders and people had to strive for to recreate a society based on peace and stability. This goal led to the foundation in May, 1949, of the Council of Europe as the first European political institution. Its aims were, besides that of achieving a greater unity, that all members were to safeguard and realise the ideals and principals of common heritage, that of working for the "maintanence and further realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms''. ; peer-reviewed

As we have argued earlier, education is one among a number of features of a social formation that can contribute to human development. The UNDP articulates the latter in terms of creating 'an enabling environment for people to enjoy long, healthy and creative lives', widening'~ people's choices and increasing the level of their achieved well-being. Together with health care, political freedom, guaranteed human rights and self-respect, education figures highly as a contributing element to the fulfillment of these aspirations. The UNDP significantly distances itself from other approaches that purport to explain the linkage between education and human development. The most notable of these approaches is the human capital theory, which was pioneered in the post-war period by a number of economists such as Nobel prize-winner TW Schultz, Peter Drucker and BA Weisbrod. For a long period of time, this approach was promoted by such development agencies as the World Bank. Human capital theory, or theories of human resource development as it is now increasingly referred to, tends to look at people as a means to an end, that is in terms of their capacity to increase production. It treats education as an industry which generates the desired amounts of functional manpower. Consequently, the development of educated and skilled people, their number, quality and utilisation, is considered to be the most significant index of the wealth-production capacity of a country. The implications of this is that education will produce individuals with an increased general and job-specific knowledge which they subsequently can apply in an expanding economy, both to better utilise new technical developments and to generate innovations. The result is a marked pay-off in terms of increased production, yielding greater national wealth, corporate profits and individual wages. For the purpose of this report it is crucial to understand the distinction between views of education and development promoted by the United Nations Development Programme on the one hand, and those of the World Bank (to mention only one of the more important agencies) on the other. This understanding is particularly important given the fact that, irrespective of the differing political views of various governments, human capital theory approaches have been very influential in Malta from the post-war period to the present day. This is evident in the various development plans that closely link education with economic progress. The change in name from Ministry of Education, Culture and Environment to Ministry of Education and Human Resources after the 1992 General Elections merely serves to highlight and make more explicit the assumed link between education and the economy, where the former is considered to be a key partner in sustaining, even leading the latter by the best development of human potential. The change in nomenclature for the portfolio represents a formal marriage between education and development, a union which had in fact been consummated much earlier as Malta strove to become not only politically, but also economically self-reliant. The influence of Thomas Balogh in the promotion of human capital theory in Malta and other British colonies and several nations on the African continent needs to be underlined in this context. The different approach to education and development promoted by the UNDP is useful because it helps one distinguish between quantitative and qualitative issues in educational provision. It leads the basic question as to the manner in which educational expansion increased the well-being of citizens. Of course, the quantitative dimension of the question is rather more easily addressed, given that 'all' it requires is a set of numeric parameters to measure the trends and direction in the delivery of the service. The qualitative dimension, indexed by the woolly phrase 'well-being of people', is much more subjective and less amenable to measurement. This does not make it in any way less important. Indeed, the treatment of people as 'human capital', as units that contribute to production, obfuscates and mystifies the relationship that exists between education and production on the one hand, and domination and exploitation on the other. Indeed, research has tended to show that rather than leading to human well-being, education systems are directly involved in selecting and stratifying people - often on criteria that have more to do with class, race, and gender than 'objective' intellectual ability - and then channeling particular categories of students towards specific locations in a segmented labour market. While some of these segments are characterised by work conditions and remuneration that lead to healthy, creative life-styles, others are not. Schools are, thus, directly involved in the 'cooling out' of groups of students who are thus channeled towards the less lucrative and fulfilling sectors in the economy. There are those who claim that education systems are predicated on a logic of success for some, and failure for others. For, if an educator's dream that all students successfully complete a course of study were to come true, how would society be able to select, park and store all these students in the job hierarchy? This explains why a number of Maltese educational sociologists in the post-war period have consistently argued that education systems should be considered systems of violence rather more than of development. This report gives an overview of both the quantitative and qualitative growth in education provision, raises issues and draw conclusions related to the problematic relationship between both. This is particularly important not only in terms of the exercise of providing the education component of the human development index, but also because current official discourse in the field of educational development and policy making is steeped in quantitative rather than qualitative considerations, a point that has been made by the Minister of Education and Human Resources Consultative Body's report Tomorrow's Schools: Developing Effective Learning Cultures. ; peer-reviewed

Intro -- Foreword -- Preface -- Series Editor -- Editorial by Series Editors -- Contents -- Contributors -- Chapter 1: Current Research on Human Rights Education Globally -- Research on Human Rights Education: History -- Defining Human Rights -- Social and Cultural Dimension of Human Rights Education -- Children's Rights -- Conceptualising Human Rights Education -- Current Research on Human Rights Education -- Human Rights Education and Implementation and Emerging Issues -- Conclusion -- References -- Chapter 2: A Review of Human Rights Education in Higher Education -- HRE Is Mandated by Human Rights Treaties -- What is HRE? -- Importance of HRE in Higher Education -- Global Support for HRE Training -- Researching HRE Mandate -- Challenges of HRE in Higher Education -- Undergraduate Human Rights Studies Programs -- Alternative Higher Education and Professional Human Rights Training Options -- Exploration of Higher Education Human Rights Syllabi -- Searching Law Schools for Human Rights Emphasis -- American Bar Association Human Rights Higher Education Courses -- Masters in Human Rights Law Courses -- Conclusion -- References -- Chapter 3: Insights from Students on Human Rights Education in India, South Africa, Sweden and the United States -- Importance of UDHR and the Expansion of HRE: Introduction -- Literature Review -- Vernacularization of Human Rights Themes -- Vernacularization of Teaching Methods -- Vernacularization of Taking Action -- Methodology -- Results -- What Human Rights Students Know -- Teaching Methodologies -- Most Important Activities to Promote Human Rights -- Discussion -- "About" Human Rights -- "Through" Human Rights -- "For" Human Rights -- Conclusion -- References -- Chapter 4: The State of HRE in Higher Education Worldwide -- Introduction -- The State of HRE -- The Consensus -- Confusion?.

On 10th September 1990 the Government of Malta deposited instruments of ratification with the United Nations Secretary General for four multilateral treaties concerned with the international protection of human rights. These are: The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (hereafter referred to as Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Covenant); The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (hereafter referred to as International Covenant); The Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (hereafter referred to as Optional Protocol), all three adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1966, and the Convention Against Torture. and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degra ding Treatment or Punishment (hereafter ref erred to as the UN Convention on Torture) adopted by the General Assembly in 1984. All four treaties serve one common purpose: the protection of fundamental human rights and liberties through international legal regulation. But each instrument engenders a separate series of obligations for States in international law and the effect of the implementation of these undertakings by Malta, as a State Party, on our laws will be varied and revolutionary. The present outline is offered as a succinct record of the principal features incorporated in these instruments and of the contribution made by these texts to the formation of an ever developing com prehensive regime concerning international human rights protection that will become operative under our law. ; peer-reviewed

Human rights education: philosophical and policy perspectives. Discourse, betrayal, critique: the renewal of human rights education / André Keet ; A social justice and human rights education project: A search for caring and safe spaces / Cornelia Roux ; The human right to education, the ethical responsibility of curriculum, and the irony in 'Safe Spaces' / Petro du Preez ; Identity, identification and sociolinguistics practices: implications for human rights curriculum in an emerging democracy / Juliet Perumal ; Identity premised on equality of difference as a fundamental human right / Anne Becker ; Are children's rights duty-free? No rights without duties / Bruno Vanobbergen ; Religious diversity in public education: A comparative European perspective / Kyriaki Topidi. -- Gender Discourses: Diverse Perspectives. Let's find a way to learn about our rights: Communities of practice as 'Spaces' for women and girls to learn about their human rights / René Ferguson ; Power and privilege: white male teachers' experiences of aggression / Johan Botha ; Girls' experiences of religious and cultural practices: Human rights violations / Annamagriet de Wet ; Using interdisciplinary feminist theory to arrive at an understanding of critical educators who put human rights at the center of school curriculum / Dolana mogadime. -- Discourses on narratives as 'Safe Spaces'. Transcending narratives: narrative inquiry as a means to communicative action / Greta Galloway ; Embracing diverse narratives for a postmodernist human rights education curriculum / Shan Simmonds ; Plurality in society mirrored in the teacher's multivoiced self-internalized inequality / Ina ter Avest ; Concluding chapter: Contemplations on diverse approaches for human rights education / Ida Sabelis.

Examines the growing importance of human rights theory in the study of politics, focusing on political theory and global and regional effects; 12 articles. Topics include state sovereignty and human rights, the role of nongovernmental organizations, US foreign policy and human rights, regional perspectives in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia, and other issues.

The Council of Europe has for years insisted that all contracting parties to the Convention should have the right mechanisms in place to cultivate a human rights culture and to ensure the swift execution of judgments . The establishment of the Human Rights and Equality Commission as a National Human Rights Institution (NHRI) in Malta is essential for the promotion of a human rights culture. However, the White Paper does not enable one to determine what implementation mechanisms, if any, will be entrusted with the NHRI. It is suggested that the setting-up of a parliamentary committee based on the Belgrade Principles can work in conjunction with the HREC to ensure maximum fulfillment of Malta's human rights protection obligations and more importantly serve as a base for the expansion of a human rights culture. It is proposed to enable the NHRI to effectively work towards the enforcement of judgments through the recommendation of legislative changes to the parliamentary committee. The proposal is for the Human Rights Commission to retain its proposed objectives whilst having the added responsibility of liaising with a Human Rights Parliamentary Committee that could in turn ensure that the necessary legislative changes are brought to the attention of Parliament. ; peer-reviewed

Some reference to the establishment of a Human Rights Department at the All-Union Correspondence-Study Institute of Law in Moscow, 1988.