The situation in Haiti conveys the systematic and deep-rooted relationship between colonialism and the development of a state. Haiti is considered the poorest state in the western hemisphere, a fact which has a tremendous impact on access to education. The lack of economic development can be traced back to Haiti’s colonial times. The former French Colony liberated itself from its empire in 1791, being the first state to achieve independence from a modern colonial power. Regardless, the Republic of Haiti was forced after achieving its independence to pay the French state for war compensation, leading to a national debt that was finally paid in 1947[1]. Given the newly established state’s focus on paying its former colonizer, power imbalances remained alive, leading to an inability to further itself economically. Neocolonial patterns are still prevalent in today’s Haitian society, particularly relevant being the educational system created based on the French model.
Haiti’s history of slavery and revolution can explain the lacking mechanisms in the educational system. An outstanding number of the population lives below the poverty line (60%),[2] leading to the inability of a plethora of families to support their child’s education. Furthermore, the Haitian state lacks the necessary financial means to create appropriate educational infrastructure, such as employing staff and building institutions. The absence of resources led to mass privatization of the educational sector, with 85% of schools being private[3], funded by public figures, NGOs, and various corporations. Privatization further hinders access to education, given that most families cannot afford tuition fees. In the following article, I will further expand on the challenges children face in the Republic of Haiti, trying to unravel the main causes of said issues.
According to the Haitian Constitution, education is free and mandatory. The educational system is divided into the following stages[4]:
8 August 2012, 01:26; Source Flickr; Author Alex Proimos from Sydney, Australia
The dire economic situation in Haiti leads to two main issues: the government does not have enough funding to invest in infrastructure, and a majority of families cannot afford to keep their children in school, especially given that most educational institutions operate in the private sphere.
According to UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell’s declaration last month, half of Haiti’s population needs humanitarian assistance, including three million children[5]. Such assistance is needed in order to decrease the rate of food insecurity in the country, as well as to protect vulnerable categories, including children, in areas controlled by armed groups[6]. Almost a quarter of Haitian children suffer from malnourishment[7], a factor that strongly influences their ability to grow harmoniously and finish their education. Catherine Russell states that the present situation of Haiti represents a mix of political turmoil, effects of natural disasters, and various health care crises, including the most recent cholera outbreak[8]. Due to the ongoing food insecurity in the country, education remains low on the priorities list, with families doing their best to help their youngsters to survive.
The lack of educational facilities represents another repercussion of the dire economic situation in Haiti. Haiti ranks 177th out of 186 in the world for government spending on education[9], and at the moment, it does not have a plan for increasing the budget for education. The issue further increased by various natural disasters, such as the 2010 earthquake, that destroyed the infrastructure of a significant number of schools in the past.
Privatization of education and enrollment rates
Students from “République du Chili”, a school in Haiti. Photo by One Laptop per Child.
Education in Haiti is primarily private, with only 15% of schools being state-funded[10].
This comes as a surprise, given that the right to free education has been inscribed ever since the first Haitian constitution. Regardless of how small they are, the enrolment fees represent an impediment for many families trying to provide their children with the necessary education. On average, each family pays around 130 USD[11] per year to keep a single child in school, a sum that can represent a financial burden given that Haiti’s gross national income per capita was 1610 USD in 2022[12]. The average fertility rate is almost three children per woman[13], a fact that further hinders the capacity of parents to pay enrolment fees to private institutions. Furthermore, the education system relies on donations from various agencies, some of the most relevant being the World Bank, UNICEF, UNESCO, and the Caribbean Development Bank.
The Haitian government implemented a system of wavering tuition fees for students living in poverty, with funds being given to schools through state subsidies. Unfortunately, despite high hopes of reaching all children in public schools and around 70% of children in private institutions, the program stopped financing 1st and 2nd graders in 2015.[14]
Unfortunately, attendance rates are relatively low, especially after primary school, a phenomenon that could result from tuition fees. According to UNESCO, the primary school attendance rate is 86%, decreasing significantly to 28% for lower secondary schools and 21% for upper secondary schools[15]. Even more concerning is that the rate of compilation of primary school is only 54%[16]. The above data result in a dangerously low literacy rate, with only 60.7% of the population being able to read and write.[17] This decreases people’s ability to get employed and escape an ongoing cycle of poverty.
Therefore, access to education is constrained by the financial means of the families of the province. This is an actual impediment to ensuring that every child has the right to free education, a fact proven by the low completion rates in all stages of schooling. This is unfortunate, given that education represents one of the only ways the government can increase citizens’ living standards by ensuring that every child has an increased chance of escaping a vicious cycle of poverty caused by hundreds of years of colonial and neo-colonial ties and practices.
Impact of Natural Disasters (e.g. 2010 Earthquake)
A poor neighbourhood shows the damage after an earthquake measuring 7 plus on the Richter scale rocked Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on 2010. Photo by UN Photo/Logan Abassi United Nations Development Programme
Haiti is geographically located in an area prone to hydro-meteorological and geophysical hazards, which can have a catastrophic impact on infrastructure of all kinds. This is particularly dangerous given the lack of state funds to potentially repair the damage provoked by natural disasters.
The state of schools became even more precarious once a massive earthquake in 2010 took place, with 82% of schools, public and private, in the affected regions being damaged or destroyed[18]. To put things into perspective, the event was considered at the time the most significant national disaster registered in the Western Hemisphere[19], its repercussions are being felt to this day. Haiti received a significant amount of international assistance, with the international community donating almost 10 billion US $ for rebuilding[20], along with a massive influx of NGOs involved in various domains, from education to fair governance.
A similar scenario occurred in August of 2021, when a magnitude of 7.2 earthquake affected roughly 340,000 and destroyed or damaged 1250 schools, according to UNICEF data.[21] What is even more worrisome is that six months after the catastrophe, 4 out of 5 damaged schools were not rebuilt[22]. This led to two scenarios: either children were forced to study in spaces that endangered their health and physical well-being, in buildings not entirely safe for use, or they had to put their studies on hold until the rebuilding of their educational institution. Regardless of the scenario, children were discouraged from continuing their studies, even more so than by the ever-present tuition fees.
As presented above, the educational system is lacking in many areas, leading to a dangerous situation for the development of many children in the Caribbean state. The reality of Haiti is a complex one; the colonial past of the country still has a significant impact on the level of development of the country. There is no fixed solution for today’s issues in Haitian society, but acknowledging the influence of colonialism represents a first step towards creating a more targeted action plan for Haiti. As presented above, the educational system is lacking in many areas, leading to a dangerous situation for the development of many children in the Caribbean state.
Broken Chalk is a non-profit NGO with one main goal to protect human rights in the world of education. The organization investigates and reports education rights violations worldwide while advocating and supporting human-rights-focused educational development. By submitting this report, Broken Chalk aims to contribute to the 45th Session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Belize with a focus on the education sector, encouraging the country to continue its improvement efforts and providing further insight into how to overcome current challenges and deficiencies regarding human rights in education.
Belize’s average Human Development Index value throughout that time period was 0.668 points, with a low of 0.613 points in 1990 and a high of 0.722 points in 2016. The most recent value is 0.683 points from 2021. [1] The Index, which includes factors such as life expectancy, education, and per capita income, placed Belize in the high human development category, with a ranking of 103 out of 189 countries and territories. [2]
Belize’s population is projected to be around 1400,000 people, with a slightly higher proportion of rural (55%) than urban (45%) residents and an equal proportion of males and females. The majority of the population, 65.8%, is between the ages of 15 and 64, with another 29.2% between the ages of 0 and 14, and those 65 and above accounting for the remaining 5%. [3]
Mestizos/Hispanics make up 47.9% of Belize’s population and the majority of residents in the Corozal, Orange Walk, Cayo, and Stann Creek districts, according to the country’s 2010 Census. Creoles are the second largest ethnic group, accounting for 25.9% of the population in the Belize District. The Maya (Ketchi, Mopan, and Yucatec) make up 11.3% of the population and are the majority group in the Toledo District, while Garifunas, East Indians, and Mennonites make up 6.1%, 3.9%, and 3.6% of the overall population, respectively. [3]
Despite its diversity, Belize has maintained a stable parliamentary democracy without serious ethnic or religious conflict and there has been numerous and peaceful transitions of power between the country’s two major political parties since its independence from Great Britain in 1981. [3]
References [1] Global Economy https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/Belize/human_development/#:~:text=Human%20Development %20Index%20(0%20%2D%201)&text=For%20that%20indicato %2C%20we%20provide,from%202021 %20is%200.683%20points. [2] IOM https://publications.iom.int/books/belize-needs-assessment-migration-governance [3] The Belize Education Sector Plan 2021-2025 https://www.moecst.gov.bz/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/The-Belize-Education-Sector-Plan-2021-2025_MoECST.pdf
Aruba is one of the six Caribbean islands that are part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The island has 100 thousand inhabitants who identify themselves as multilingual individuals who live in a multilingual society. The majority of the population speaks the local language, Papiamento, as their mother tongue. Nevertheless, Dutch has been the official and dominant language in administrative and educational systems since 1636. This ramification is due to the fact that, for 360 years of colonialism, the colonial authorities advocated the idea that everyone in Dutch colonies had to speak Dutch. It was only in 2003 that the Aruba government legally recognized both Dutch and Papiamento as official languages for Aruba. Additionally, due to migration, tourism, the influence of social media, and Aruba’s location (off the coast of Venezuela), global languages such as English and Spanish have also become important parts of the island’s linguistics. Because of this, the language situation in Aruba can be very complex, as the four dominant languages—Papiamento, English, Dutch, and Spanish—all play a role in individuals’ daily communication. According to census figures (2020), the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) found that the majority of the population of Aruba (92%) speaks Papiamento at home; this is followed by English (15%), Spanish (14%), and then lastly Dutch (10%).
Aruba’s Education System
Aruba’s education system is characterized by its comprehensive structure and commitment to quality education. The Aruba education system is based on the education model used in the Netherlands. Education is compulsory for children aged 4 to 16. Children start kindergarten when they are four. When they are six, they move on to basic education for children, and then when the children are twelve, they move on to vocational education, which lasts 4 years, or they move on to general secondary education, which lasts between 4 and 6 years. General secondary education prepares students for higher education, while vocational education emphasizes practical skills and prepares them for the job market.
Up until the age of 10, the dominant language in education was Papiamento mixed with some Dutch; after this, it switches around to Dutch being the dominant language mixed with some Papiamento. Specifically, nearly all of secondary education is conducted in Dutch, except for one sector, which is fully taught in Papiamento.
Language
Aruba faces a unique language challenge in its education system. While the majority of education is conducted in Dutch, the most widely spoken language at home is Papiamento. The dominance of Papiamento at home contributes to lower proficiency in Dutch, a crucial language for academic success in Aruba. Only 10% of the students speak Dutch at home; thus, a lot of students do not have prior knowledge of Dutch when starting school. This linguistic disparity poses a significant obstacle for a lot of students. Expressing themselves and demonstrating their knowledge in Dutch becomes a challenging task, leading to missed opportunities and hindrances in their academic progress. Additionally, it is evident that Dutch is not the language of choice for everyday communication and that, outside of academia, there is minimal necessity for the Dutch language. A survey conducted in Aruba revealed that most individuals do not have positive sentiments toward the Dutch language or culture. This negative perception may further discourage students from engaging with the language, making the language barrier bigger.
In Aruba, academic success is often correlated with one’s ability to express ideas fluently in Dutch rather than actual subject knowledge. This further disadvantages students who struggle with Dutch, as their true potential may not receive proper recognition. Graduation rates reflect this issue, with only one sector of secondary schools consistently achieving graduation rates of 75% or higher; coincidentally, this is the only sector of secondary school taught in Papiamento. This further shows the impact of language on academic outcomes.
Teaching predominantly in Dutch poses challenges due to students’ limited comprehension and possibly teachers’ proficiency in the language. Effective communication and learning may be hindered. Additionally, Aruba students have to take the same exams as students in the Netherlands, but the language barrier puts the Aruba students at a disadvantage, decreasing their chances of passing and graduating.
Overall, Aruba’s language challenge in education requires proactive measures to ensure all students have an equal opportunity to succeed. A balanced approach is necessary to efficiently incorporate Dutch alongside Papiamento. By finding this balance, students can excel academically while preserving the cultural and linguistic significance of Papiamento.
Students from the International School of Aruba. Photo by Laura de Kwant.
Brain drain
Aruba is a small island, and because of this, there are only limited opportunities. While the government subsidizes two higher education institutions, the Instituto Pedagogico Arubano and the University of Aruba, offering diverse undergraduate and graduate programs, the options remain relatively restricted compared to larger countries. And therefore, after completing their high school education, many students who aspire to pursue further studies find themselves with limited choices. To broaden their academic horizons, a substantial number of Aruba students opt to study in foreign countries such as the Netherlands, the United States, and Spanish-speaking nations, where there is a bigger variety of studies to pick from.
However, the consequence of this trend is that not all students return to Aruba upon completing their studies abroad. A survey conducted in 2011 among Aruba students studying in the Netherlands revealed that only 50% of respondents planned to return to Aruba within five years of finishing their studies. Various factors contribute to the decision of students to remain abroad. One significant reason is the employment landscape in Aruba, which is heavily dominated by the tourism industry, which produces more than 80% of the GDP (gross domestic product). While these sectors provide valuable opportunities for many people, the prospects for employment in some other fields are limited. As a result, individuals are compelled to seek job opportunities in countries where a more diverse range of industries can accommodate their education and expertise better.
This is called brain drain, which means the emigration of highly educated people seeking better opportunities abroad. To address this issue of brain drain and encourage talented individuals to return to Aruba, the Aruba government has implemented policies to encourage people to come back after their studies, such as giving a discount on students’ debts if they return after graduating.
Conclusion
To conclude, Aruba is doing a very good job of creating high-quality education and is, in general, not facing a lot of educational challenges. The main challenge primarily stems from the unique linguistic situation in Aruba. Aruba’s multilingual society, with Papiamento as the dominant language at home, presents obstacles in teaching and learning Dutch, which is the most used language in administration and education. This language barrier hinders academic progress and recognition of students’ true potential, ultimately impacting graduation rates and overall educational outcomes.
To address this issue, a balanced approach is crucial, emphasizing bilingualism and recognizing the cultural and linguistic significance of both Papiamento and Dutch. By promoting a supportive and inclusive environment, Aruba’s education system can better equip students for academic success while preserving their cultural identity.
The other challenge facing Aruba’s education is that, due to its small size and limited opportunities, many students seek higher education and better job prospects abroad. This phenomenon leads to the emigration of individuals who have been highly educated, potentially depriving the island of some individuals with valuable talent and expertise.
To counteract brain drain, the Aruba government has implemented policies to encourage the return of skilled individuals, offering incentives such as debt discounts for returning students. However, sustainable efforts are required to create a more diverse local job market that can accommodate the various skills that returning graduates might have.
In conclusion, addressing the educational challenges in Aruba necessitates a multifaceted approach that prioritizes language integration, cultural preservation, and initiatives to attract skilled individuals back to Aruba.
Johanna Farkas, Intern at Broken Chalk, did an interview with Felisa Tibbitts, co-founder of Human Rights Education Associates (www.hrea.org). The interview was recorded as audio, and this is the written transcription.
Felisa Tibbitts. Photo available in her website, Felisa Tibbitts.
Johanna Farkas(JF): Hello and good afternoon. This is the first episode of the Broken Chalk podcast. Broken Chalk is a human rights organization based in Amsterdam and it is dedicated to monitoring human rights violations in education. I am Johanna Farkas. I will be the host for today’s episode. It is my pleasure to welcome Felisa Tibbitts.
Felisa Tibbitts(FT): Hi Johanna. Thank you for inviting me.
JF: Thank you very much for accepting our invitation. Felisa, you have tremendous experience in the field of human rights and human rights education. To introduce you a bit more to the audience, Felisa’s main research interest is human rights and global democratic citizenship, critical pedagogy, education and social movements and human rights at higher education transformation. She is currently the chair of human rights education of the department of law, economics, and governance at the university of Utrecht as well as the UNESCO chair in human rights and higher education.
She has recently been teaching at Columbia university up until 2022. She also has several fellowships, awards, grants and some experience with board memberships and advisory positions. She has been working with organizations such as the UN, Council of Europe as well as Amnesty International.
There are several things to discover here, and I am excited to hear about everything.
What we will be focusing about today is your own organization that you co-founded that is the Human rights education association which I will be introducing later on.
But I will first ask some personal questions about you and your career path.
FT: Okay.
JF: Did you have a moment or a eureka moment when you knew that you want to work in the field of human rights or human rights education?
FT: That’s a really nice question. It’s interesting because some of my students who have become interested in human rights education often ask what is your career path? How did you get started and I don’t how it is for you Johanna or for people who are listening but it’s not always a straight or narrow path and for me I didn’t identify my interests as being in human rights until well into my adult career.
I had identified my interest as peace, I didn’t learn about human rights growing up. I hardly heard about human rights. It just wasn’t the language being used. I was very interested in peace. I grew up in a military family during the cold war, even during the Vietnam war, that’s how old I am and I remember when I ran out of fingers to count, when I had turned 11 years old I felt like I had to take a decision about what I wanted to do with my life.
I was a very serious child and I decided I wanted to work for world peace and then I got to college jump ahead about I guess at that point 7 years or so and I enrolled in a course offered by Karl Deutch at Harvard called Peace Research. I didn’t even know you could study peace and so that sort of set me on my path to combining my intellectual interest with my professional interest and there’s another story about how I ended up getting into human rights specifically but those were the origins for me.
I know a lot of people who are sort of lie first when it comes to their human rights work or human rights activism. They recognize at a really early age that they feel like they want to do something positive in the world whether that’s articulated as human rights or peace or social justice or you know it doesn’t really matter if it sets you on that path.
JF: You have a lot of understanding of what you want to do as we’ve heard. What do you find that people might misunderstand about human rights or human rights education or do you have maybe your own experience that you did not understand at first or something that has changed in your understanding?
FT: I came into the human rights field in maybe one of the most positive or affirming ways possible which is that historically the Berlin wall came down and at that time I was doing my doctoral studies in international education, and I was interested in democracy and peace. So, I hadn’t heard about human rights as I mentioned earlier and I still hadn’t heard at this point it was 1990 but I went to eastern Europe and went from sort of beginning with what was still the East Berlin all the way till Bulgaria with some colleagues to do some research and what would be changing in the educational systems so I got a little bit of a flavour for in what might be happening in educational systems from a researcher’s point of view.
And then just by luck, by chance a couple of years later I was at a conference and I met the head of the Dutch Helsinki Committee, which is the Dutch version of the Human Rights Watch, Arie Bloed. He had begun working with his colleagues in legal reform in the new post-soviet countries. So classic work that human rights people still continue to do in transitional justice in post conflict environments related to rule of law, good governance and human rights. So they were typically training and working with lawyers, judges and news laws and lifting up and strengthening civil society.
Then there was this other sector, the schooling sector, that the Dutch Foreign Ministry, who was their main funder, had become interested to have them work in and I happened to know Arie and he said you know would you like to help us come figure out what we might do to support infusing human rights in the schooling systems. Our first country is Romania and so I went.
In the process of doing the first mission in raising money I subsequently became a part time staff for the Dutch Helsinki committee and that really Johanna was the way I learnt about human rights. I didn’t learn it in the classroom. I learnt it with my colleagues who were human rights lawyers and I also learnt that with my partners, if you will, in these countries who themselves have heard of human rights maybe during the communist period, maybe it was just on paper what does that mean for real life so my own learning was accompanying that of my partners and although I had in one year all the legal standards the law related approach, on the other hand I was still working with teachers and kids and continue to do so for whom law is something that they cannot understand or access so there we don’t want to lose that power of human rights in terms of the international and regional human rights standards and laws but we also want to recognize the norms and principles that influence our everyday lives.
Now that being said there are many critiques to your question, there are many critiques to human rights and I think it’s really very healthy for the human rights field to have these. I mean there’s the critique that if we look at governments who have signed on to these treaties there’s the spectrum of how well they live up to their human rights obligations, we know that accountability mechanisms at the United Nations are weak you know, monitoring is a bit stronger, accountability is weak. We know that if we look into local national context we see human rights isn’t necessarily owned by everyone and it could be one political party that takes it on and then it ends up being associated with particular political agenda or in the United States with the progressives or the leftists, when it should be for everyone and of course there’s now the very classic critique of Eurocentric that is based on natural law and individualism and questions about universality so these are all critiques and they’re all alive and well and they’re all also valid.
One of the benefits of working in the field of education is, Johanna and for the people listening, you have to deal with these learners because you aren’t there to indoctrinate people on what human rights is, here it is take it accept it believe it and carry on. It doesn’t work that way. It is a particular justice-based system around rights. There are other frameworks for promoting social change, right? They don’t have to be named human rights. So I think in human rights education my approach is to actually offer the critiques early on so that we can discuss them and learners can decide for themselves what their points of view are, how much coincides with their own or not.
I also think even with a flawed system that we find in implementing human rights in the international community the alternate is not a desirable one so my personal point of view is find a view that aligns with yours maybe its human rights language maybe it’s not.
Listen to what human rights offers, at least be aware of what it is and what it can offer you and then in terms of if you’re ultimately a believer in human rights and has potential then lean in and support it, support its implementation as best as you can it doesn’t mean you don’t criticize but try to make it better in whatever ways you can, as a diplomat, as an activist, as an educator, whomever.
Policy seminar on peace education with UNESCO & Myanmar Ministry of Education. Photo by Felisa Tibbitts.
JF: and do you think the international community on all levels when it comes to the UN or local decision makers do they have the will or wish to consider these? Do they have the tools to make these constant reevaluations of human rights and try to progress it?
FT: Well political will is obviously really key when it comes to state behaviour. We know that there has been a rollback until recently in terms of the democratic space and increase in authoritarianism which has coincided with the restriction of civil society, rule of law and human rights. So there’s no question that there are real challenges when we look at human rights challenges internationally. We still have ongoing wars, genocides. How is this still happening with all that we know not only about human rights but also about human history in the past 125 years. So its really befuddling and discouraging for sure.
At the same time, I am an optimist and I am in education so I have to own up to that, but I think the recent statistics I saw shows the kind of rolling back into authoritarianism and eroding of democracy even in the those countries that are primarily democratic seems to be shifting, that we may have reached the lowest point already in terms of authoritarianism and it might be a swing back. That is not to say that it is a permanent one.
For those of us who thought that the Berlin Wall has come down, apartheid is over, it’s going to be, maybe it’s going to be more of these cycles in term of conservatism. Conservatism does not quite capture authoritarianism, I think conservatism is quite a respectable point of view. Authoritarianism is very specifically eroding democratic principles and ways of governance so that’s very separate.
But I have to say that my understanding from political scientists, who know more than I do, that we may have seen the worst of it in terms of recent history and we may be swaying back. I mean we still have lots of challenges mind you even in the countries that are still struggling to save some of that democratic processes and institutions, checks and balances and so forth. But those countries that are aligned with human rights, I would say most countries have some if not lip service a deep commitment to forwarding human rights. Again it might be forwarding human rights within their foreign policy interest but at least it’s still there. I think if that continues, human rights is seen as important as others.
Sadly, because of the phenomenon like the war in Ukraine it’s an important reminder of how important human rights and humanitarian law is. So we know that when a catastrophe happen, human rights comes to the fore again.
But I will say, Johanna, I actually think that those of us who are working, not in government, but working in civil society and working even in higher education we have also created more space for human rights. Let me give you an example, at the higher education level there are more human rights centres than ever. It used to be, 30 years ago, the human rights centre used to be at the law school because you essentially only studied human rights if you were studying human rights law. You didn’t see it anywhere else in the university and now in the last 15 to 20 years there are interdisciplinary centres for human rights that link sometimes in parallel with the law school human rights centre which gives opportunities to graduates, undergraduates and students of all levels whether they’re in the humanities or social sciences usually those two areas are those that study Human Rights so its expanding in favourable environments in certain higher education institutions absolutely expanding.
In terms of activist work, Human Rights is being pushed down into the local level. There is a global initiative called “Human Rights Cities” and this perspective brings our attention to our local government but the local government in conjunction with community members, community organizations and all kinds of individuals in the community who hold different positions and also just regular citizens to review the human rights framework, to review the problems the community might have and what might need to be addressed. This is linked up more recently in some European cities with being cities that welcome refugees for example, so with the refugees coming in and some of the pretensions that could bring in local communities using that as a way to discuss human rights more broadly.
So, I think there has been lots of movement in a positive way amongst those actors who are human rights oriented, like I mentioned higher education, human rights cities, human rights based approach which is kind of a conceptual approach but has real bearing in thinking about looking at organizations as a whole not as a human rights perspective.
Other things happening in the United Nations around nonstate actors, multinationals, corporate social responsibility so I think on the other side of some of these discouraging trends that are restricting human rights movement you know ability to use in certain country context and the ongoing critiques of human rights which will always be there, do you have these positive sides of evolution and change and so I do think that the movement continues and you know and it just binds new avenues to remain relevant basically and potent.
JF: I see I see. You mentioned a lot about the authoritarianism and the actual issues with monitoring the implementation of human rights and how in your own experiences as well you learnt properly what human rights was or how it works when you practically worked in it and went to the field. It is a large issue there are countries who partially or who does not fully respect human rights. As you mentioned there’s still so much human rights violation including genocide happening. Has this ever hindered you or felt like giving up in your career because of witnessing or learning about all these setbacks in the history and human rights?
FT: I think that’s a fair question. I think, Johanna, I have been fortunate because I work in the field of education and that field is sort of intrinsically optimistic and forward looking. So without a question, I have also shared the deep disappointment and concern of others not only human rights people but many of us around the authoritarianism and the world back and other challenges in Ukraine, and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East don’t seem to be resolved, refugees, climate change, there’s plenty to be discouraged about but in the day-to-day that I have like having a conversation with you or meeting my students tomorrow, I can focus on these moments of learning and engagement.
In some cases the human rights education and training I’m doing feeds immediately into social change and so sometimes I have the benefit of seeing that as I’m working with activists or I’m working with young people who eventually who get in careers in human rights or activism of some kind or so many ways you can be engaged in human rights without working for a human rights NGO or working at the UN at the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner, there are so many things to do.
So when I’m up close its really easy and for me as well I know with education its long term game. It may be 10 to 15 years from now where we see curriculum in schools resulting in more people knowing about what human rights are and what its potential is. In that respect, I can only count wins. I don’t see any failures per se at least in the work I’m doing. But I know from my colleagues who are working in other environments where you have certain litigation, where you want it to go through successfully or you are working on social change and its big cultural changes and maybe you don’t necessarily see it in your lifetime but I even think for people who are not in education like myself, they find their own ways to stay motivated.
You know the thing about human rights as a human rights worker, if you will, is to find your joy in it. For me the joy is teaching and for others I know love law and their joy is in that. If you’re in an NGO, the joy is partly who you get to work with like your colleagues despite these very discouraging conditions and phenomenon.
First of all I don’t feel like I have a choice. This is always what I had to do and the question for me is what is the best way for me to engage, what are the skillsets I have, what will feed me. It is really important in human rights work, in humanitarian emergencies or in any kind of work you are confronting suffering whether it’s really up close or personal or wider you need to find a way to keep yourself healthy and engaged. Even for you as a young person you’ll have decisions to make on what to study next, if you’re going to study anymore, where you’re going to put your energies in, whatever you decide to do it should feed you and keep you going in the long term because we need people like you and others in the long term working for human rights.
JF: Let’s talk about and move on to the active working for human rights and you yourself actually cofounded an organization called HREA. The abbreviation of it is the Human Rights Education Association. You founded that in 1996. Can you tell me a bit about the vision and mission of this organization.
FT: Sure! So, the name itself speaks about what the mission is Human Rights Education and that was deliberate. At that time, I was living in Amsterdam, and I cofounded this organization at a time when human rights education was somewhat new. I was working for the Dutch Helsinki Committee and the work I was doing was pretty different from my colleagues because as I mentioned earlier in this conversation, I was working in the schooling sector and that was very different and new in terms of the international human rights movement.
The person who confounded HREA with me Cristina Sganga, she was the first Human Rights Education person appointed at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International. We were both concerned at that time, and we were both aware I should say that our colleagues were not thinking of it as seriously as for example monitoring and research which is classically what human rights organizations do or in my case if my colleagues were doing human rights education, again it was not with schools but with prosecutors and all.
So we decided we should start an organization that would help focus on human rights training and education inside the international human rights movement and would give us an opportunity to really help professionalize it so that’s why we started it. It was not to start an NGO because it’s not fun starting an NGO, it’s a lot of work. Although it’s fun if you know the people you work with and you like them then it’s fun and hard work.
So that’s where HREA started, it started earlier on in the HREA or HRE kind of movement internationally and began from both our experiences in central eastern Europe primarily and sort of went from there.
The mission is to promote the use of education, training and learning inside the international human rights movement in order to promote all the goals we’re looking for in human rights, the realization of human rights. The organization works with civil society organizations, stakeholders and any learners interested to learn more.
JF: As you already mentioned your organization is already involved in a lot of different activities. You have e-learning courses, research, you take part in research with several international and local organizations and government organizations. What is the greatest achievement of this organization or what are you most proud of? Could you tell us a bit about this project?
FT: Sure. There are two things that HREA did that I am very pleased with. I am pleased with it because it felt like a real need at that time. One thing is we began an online research center for human rights and human rights education. There was time when there was no internet and when the internet came we thought let’s put all this wonderful information that we’ve been sharing by hand from place to place filling our suitcases with books for human rights activists.
So we started the online research center and it was really successful, thousands of resources. It made available to those interested in the human rights education but also to those who weren’t in a university setting so they couldn’t get access to human rights research online or conversely they were in a civil society organization and they just wanted to have an idea about what other people were doing so they could write their own curriculum. The online research center still exists but there are more out there now. At that time by 1998 we had an online research center which was well used. I still get good feedback from people who are in far off places and that this was the only way they could get human rights material at that time so that feels good still.
Second thing, we started in 2001 an online learning programme. this was before Canvas, Moodle, it was before Blackboard even, we developed our own infrastructure to offer online learning for adult learners, human rights, humanitarian development workers on topics and skills really welled for practice. We were interested in filling the gap for courses that people really couldn’t find at universities or even in trainings. But if they found them in trainings it was very expensive for the organizations to organize it because they had to travel somewhere or bring in a speaker. So wanted it to be relevant and really affordable. We offered at our peak 20 online courses a year to a range of adult learners, government and nongovernment, UN and so forth on topics ranging from strategic litigation to what I offered human rights education or the child rights-based approach to programming. So, the courses would basically evolve with what was happening in the field of needs.
So, I felt really proud of that Johanna because it was before online learning was a thing. We were out in front, we got some initial support from the Dutch Foreign Ministry and it just grew and at this there are many organizations that offer online learning like Amnesty International who has their own internal international professional development activities so we’re not filling a gap like we used to but I’m still offering courses. I’m still offering, for instance next week my online human rights education course is taking place and its filled and I am happy about that. Work does continue but happily people have more choices out there and resources which is wonderful for the field.
JF: My last question to you would be, as someone with so much experience, what would you recommend or advise to those who are entering this field right now and who are trying to find their career or own path in human rights or human rights education.
FT: Good question. It’s so precious when people are interested in human rights and human rights education. I have students at Columbia university who are self-identified as being interested in human rights. I will do anything to support their intellectual development and also to position themselves to make decisions about what they need to do next for example when they graduate from Columbia university. I think that there are unfortunately very few jobs in human rights, jobs meaning that those exclusively focused on human rights. I had mentioned some of the sectors earlier you might be involved in including the NGO sector, government, intergovernmental but there are so many ways you can be doing human rights.
There are two ways to answer this question if I may. The first is that to position yourself well to get a job with an organization whose mission is exclusively human rights, is to not only think about human rights but also get skillsets that organizations can use. Whether you work for Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International or you go work for the United Nations skill sets like project management, fund raising, social media, being able to develop training resources whatever your skillsets are needed by these organizations. Always remember to develop skillsets that can be used by an organization that may allow you to work in an organization focused on human rights. I’m not sure what people’s idea of what they might be doing but think about those skillsets and go on and get those law degrees or public policy degrees or education degrees you can still work in human rights.
The second strategy I have is to think more broadly about how you can be doing human rights. If you don’t work in an organization that is explicitly human rights related, there are so many ways that you can work towards what can be considered human rights goals. I had lunch with a former student of mine who had gone to law school, and she had attended originally to be part of the NGO sector for human rights, she realised if she worked for a law firm and uses their option to do their pro bono work she can do a lot of wonderful work for human rights NGOs supporting them with her legal advice. So just last week I had a conversation with a former student of mine who had graduated with a concentration in human rights from Columbia and she really wanted to be working full time in the human rights field. She had expected to go to law school and focus on refugee rights specifically and then proceed to work in an NGO. That was the plan, and the plans changed a bit. She is in law school but she has also been working in a private law firm and realised that she can do pro bono work through them and offer her services to the NGO sector in human rights. She’s just realized she can have a regular legal position and at the same time do the kind of work that she wants to do and so many other variations of how if you’re not working for a human rights organization per se or one that has a mission explicitly to that, you can do wonderful work either through your regular job like this young woman is going to do or through volunteerism.
So there’s just so many ways that you can contribute to international human rights movement. I would just say to you or anyone who is excited about human rights just to keep the spirit, do position yourself well through your education and your experience because your experience is really important to develop skillsets, to get field experience, position yourself well for full time human rights work and if that doesn’t work out for you for whatever reasons just to find other ways to do good things like this.
JF: Thank you very very much for your insights and for telling us about all your experience. It’s been a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you very much for your contribution today. Thank you very much for your talk. It has been very exciting to hear about your experience and thank you so much for the advice. I’m sure many of us who are pursuing this field can use lots of it. Thank you very much again today and for your time.
FT: My pleasure Johanna. Thank you for the opportunity to have a conversation with you.
JF: So this was the first episode of the Broken Chalk podcast. I hope to see you for the next episode as well. Good bye!
This report drafted by Broken Chalk contributes to the fourth cycle of the Universal Periodic Review for Canada. This report focuses exclusively on human rights issues in Canada’s education field.
In the previous UPR cycle, Canada received 275 recommendations and accepted 208 recommendations. Of this, 7% of the recommendations were based on the Sustainable Development Goal of “Quality Education”.
This report first explores the main issues in the educational field in Canada, reflecting on the recommendations Canada received in the 3rd cycle UN UPR review in 2018 and its progress since. Finally, Broken Chalk offers some suggestions to Canada on further improving its human rights in the educational field.
As per the letter by the High Commissioner to the Foreigner Minister, issues were raised explicitly for the right to education, which included making education accessible for the Indigenous students, making education culturally acceptable to them, increasing the level of educational attainment of African Canadian children, prevent marginalisation, reduce dropout rates of African Canadian children, emphasis to be laid on non-discrimination and focusing on inclusivity in education, particularly for minority groups and the person with disabilities.[i]
Broken Chalk drafted this report to contribute to the fourth Universal Periodic Review of Cuba. The information will first explore the current educational system that exists within the country, how other countries can look at Cuba as a case study to better improve and understand the education system that exists within their land and then look into further recommendations to be made to Cuba to improve human rights education further. It is to be noted that this report only focuses on human rights within the field of education in the country of Cuba.
According to the sub-section “Right to Education” within the report from the third cycle, when it comes to education rights within the country, Cuba is one of the only Latin American countries that has achieved its education objectives, allowing the country to be ranked 28th on the Education for all Development index.
Mexico is facing an educational crisis; it is well known in Mexican society that many things are lacking inside the educational system. Besides the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) demanding better institutions to attend to the educational reality of the country, there has been a lot of pressure from other Institutions to attend to the issue. It is a country in development that depends economically on other countries and has a difficult social reality where corruption and drug dealing are a reality and it has been normalized in society.
The main issues in Mexican education have to do with poor quality, insufficient coverage at some levels, and high dropout rates in levels beyond primary[i]. For instance, Mexico is a country that has a lot of cultural diversity as well as socio-economic issues that have created a huge gap between social classes. This reality has forced children to drop out of school and help their family, in some cases, forced to work with cartels creating dropouts and breaking the educational dynamic for children and youth which is problematic due to the fact that upper secondary attainment is a minimum qualification for most of the labor market. 44% of young adults left school without an upper secondary qualification in comparison with the 14% of the OECD partner countries.[ii]
This article highlights four major challenges to education that are seen in Mexico.
One of the main challenges is that Mexico doesn’t guarantee education to most of the citizens. With 43.9% of the population living in poverty,[iii] it has become a challenge for people living in marginalized zones to access education due to a lack of transport, materials, and health problems.
Most indigenous communities often have to travel for hours to reach the nearest school further highlighting the issue that there haven’t been enough schools built in these rural areas, putting rural and indigenous students at a disadvantage since they have to leave their communities and encounter many difficulties to further their education[iv].
Since public education is funded by the federal state, the budget given to states is not always coherent with the necessities of each one. For example, a state with less infrastructure and bigger demand if books might have less budget than one that is located at the center of a city which deepens the inequality of education between states with respective needs or considerations[v]. For example, the state of Baja California and Mexico State contributes 40% of the total education budget through state funds[vi], being a clear example of budget inequality.
Mexican culture especially in the most marginalized places is attached to the belief of women confining themselves to their homes taking care of the children and other home related tasks because of which Mexican girls are more likely than boys to drop out of school denying them not only access to basic levels of education but also to access higher levels of education.
Child marriage is still a custom in most Mexican communities and 83% of married Mexican girls leave school[vii].
There is also an existing inequality in the access to education for indigenous communities in which the system and programs are not designed for their customs or even language. Some of the courses are not even suitable for the way of life of these children as it does not take into consideration the different backgrounds that these children come from.
School in Mexico is organized by public and private education, the public is based on state authority and school administrators but there are no decisions that involve the important stakeholders such as parents and students. There is an institution called SEP (Secretary of Public Education) that sets all major guidelines about public schools and is characterized by a lack of transparency and accountability for the correct application of financial resources[viii], limiting the access to information and analysis of the development of public schools.
Parents and teachers have been protesting against the institution and demanding an investigation due to the sale of plazas and acts of corruption. The sale of plazas is the action of one teacher selling his position to another person in exchange for money, due to the lack of efficiency in registration for being a teacher in public schools and due to the corrupted system people can buy their place into the school.
In some cases, these people are not even qualified to teach. Teachers who aspire to be assistant principals, directors, pedagogical technical advisors, and general supervisors understand that they have three ways to achieve these. Buying the place. By influences. Or through the political favor of the current ruler.[ix]
Lack of resources or investment in educational infrastructure
Schools located in marginalized places and even public schools located in the city present unfavorable conditions and infrastructure which diminishes the well-being and the opportunities for knowledge denying the right to quality education for the students. There is also a lack of surveys conducted for schools, teachers, and alumni on basic education indicators to improve infrastructure based on the deficits identified[x]. This causes a backlash for the students to grow with their educational level and creates a more distinguished barrier between public and private schools.
Another example is the lack of classrooms for students, especially in schools located in rural areas which are mainly indigenous students with present a higher number of students than classrooms[xi].
In terms of learning materials, only 43.3% of schools count libraries or spaces with scholarly books whereas only 22% of indigenous schools have these materials. And this is not only seen in public schools, but it can also surprise us that almost one-third of all private schools in Mexico lack a library[xii].
It poses a challenge for children and young people to learn with an absence of basic materials for education and becomes difficult for them to keep evolving in their education when there is no access to technologies in such a globalized world where 1.7% of them have access to the Internet and only 7% have a computer.[xiii]
The Mexican education system cannot develop and strengthen itself if it keeps having corrupted individuals working within the educational system. In addition, the difference of education between private and public, rural and urban creates more bridges between access and quality of education. It is going to deepen and cause more inequality between individuals in Mexican society.
We can see clear evidence between the budget that is being expended in some states for education in comparison with the ones that are more centralized to the city. However, access to technologies and materials for everyone regardless of their environment is essential. Mexico will have to assess these issues in order to show better results with the international community as well as with the obligation it has to its citizens for access to free and quality education for all.
[viii] Mejia Guevara, I., Giorguli Saucedo, S. (2014). Public Educatoin in Mexico: Is all the spending for the benefit of children?. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269402290_Public_Education_in_Mexico_Is_all_the_Spending_for_the_Benefit_of_Children
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