Pledge for Rights-Centric Education

About

This is the proposed Pledge for educational environments pledging to overhaul their educational practice as called for in the Declaration of Rights-Centric Education

When submitting plans, signatories are encouraged to, but not obliged to, make use of plans submitted by other signatories (that is how we share and make use of good practices from diverse contexts and countries); some suggestions are Examples of Overhauling Educational Practices

Draft Pledge for Rights-Centric Education

I/We pledge to overhaul All Practices within My/Our purview relating to Education of Children to ensure they respect, protect and fulfil the Rights of the Child, as called for in the Declaration of Rights-Centric Education.

Furthermore, expanding the provisions of the "Revised draft plan of action for the first phase (2005-2007) of the World Programme for Human Rights Education" approved by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005 to be applicable to all educational environments (not only schools), I/we Pledge to

1. Publish a code of conduct for an environment free of violence, sexual abuse, harassment and corporal punishments, including procedures for resolving conflicts and dealing with violence and bullying;
2. Provide opportunities for Children for self-expression, responsibilities and participation in decision-making, in accordance with their age and evolving capacity;
3. Provide opportunities for Children to organize their own activities, for representing, mediating and advocating their interests;
4. Periodically Report, preferably annually but no later than 24 months from the date of My/Our last Report, to the Rights-Centric Education Network (a voluntary network of individual and organisational Child Rights Defenders supporting the implementation of the Declaration of Rights-Centric Education)
   1. The extent to which Child Rights are currently Respected and Fulfilled in the Educational environment I/We have responsibility for; and
   2. An evaluation of the steps taken towards Respecting and Fulfilling Rights since the last Report (or, in the case of the first Report, all steps taken in the past); and
   3. A plan outlining the steps to be taken before the next Report.

Signatories

Signatories can be:

1. Parents / Guardians who are fulfilling their responsibility, right and duty to provide appropriate direction and guidance to their Child/ren in the exercise of their Rights (Art. 5 of CRC)
2. Independent educational institutions (Established pursuant to Art. 29 2 of CRC), who commit to act in loco parentis vis a vis Art. 5
3. State institutions providing Education (as defined in the Declaration of Rights-Centric Education) to Children, who are obliged under the CRC to respect, protect, and strive to fulfil the Rights of Children
4. Any individuals or bodies who wish to claim the above rights even if they do not reside / operate in a country that has ratified the UN CRC

Optional Content in Pledges

Parties to the Pledge may include the following in their plans

• Art 29 1 "The Aims of Education"
• Art 12 "The Right to be Heard"
• Art 8 “The Right to an Identity”
• Art 13 "Freedom of Expression"
• Art 14 “Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion”
• There's work-in-progress content in Unclassified Pledge Content (will not be easy to make sense of)

References

The RCE Framework is the civil society implementation of a proposal from the World Programme for Human Rights Education (First Phase 2005-2007) approved by the UN General Assembly to 10 (x) Establish a rights-based quality assurance system (including school self-evaluation and development planning, school inspection, etc.) for education in general and create specific quality assurance mechanisms for human rights education;

For more information, please see Revised draft plan of action for the first phase (2005-2007) of the World Programme for Human Rights Education