Beyond human rights education : a critique from the global to the local

This is a study of Human Rights Education (HRE) discourse in community-based settings. It is a critique and analysis of the ways that HRE discourse is shaped by power and culture between the global and the local. It aims to fill a gap in the current research in a number of ways, by examining both the theories of human rights and education, as well as the practice of HRE. The aim of the thesis is not only to show how it has and is used, but also whose interests this serves. The research was carried out using mainly qualitative methods, but also some quantitative methods. In order to make connections between the global and local HRE discourse it included twelve months of fieldwork in Tanzania, where data was gathered from NGOs working in HRE explicitly. It also linked stakeholders, such as international organisations, other NGOs and individual community members such as paralegals and participants in HRE processes. The thesis has three parts which each deal with the language and texts, social practice, as well as, socio-political and cultural influence of HRE discourse. The first part outlines the sheer variety of content that inform various conceptions of HRE and shows how HRE is both plural and complex. It examines the historical and sociopolitical construction of HRE. The second part of the thesis examines the local context of HRE using the data gathered from twelve-month’s empirical fieldwork in Tanzania between 2009 and 2010. The third part of the material analyses the way that social relations both construct and are constructed by HRE discourse, the unintended consequences, and suggestions about possible ways forward