Re-conceptualising Human Rights Education: from the Global to the Occupied

This article provides a critical view of Human Rights Education (HRE) within a context of colonial occupation and an authoritarian national ruling structure. It explores the reasons behind the introduction of HRE in Palestinian Authority (PA) schools in the Occupied West Bank and investigates how teachers and students make meaning of and implement HRE. Through examining the relationship between HRE and the struggles against injustice, the article problematizes the theoretical basis of HRE and highlights the importance of indigenous knowledges and strategies utilized to bring the decontextualized global to the nuanced and politicized local. This article shows that institutionalizing HRE turns it into a harmful tool in the hands of those in power. Reverting to alternative sources of knowledge and linking human rights to the vernacular of the people, adopting a bottom-up approach and allowing for criticality are necessary measures to enable the re-appropriation of human rights, where HRE becomes a true strategy to build a culture of human rights that can dismantle structures of oppression. There is a need to rethink HRE as a concept, shifting its current reality to one that contributes to building ‘critical consciousness’. This shift, particularly in the case of Palestine, will not emerge without developing alternative forms of education. This idea might be considered problematic. However, as critical educators and researchers, it is our responsibility to take on this battle

Researching violent contexts:A call for political reflexivity

Violent contexts are not “normal” research settings; they involve abuses, power disparities, and collective histories of violence that researchers should be alert to. Being unreflexive to these risks can cause harm in the form of objectifying people and context, normalizing violence, or silencing voices. Political reflexivity can equip researchers to better identify, understand and mitigate these harms, and where possible, challenge structures that do the marginalizing. We articulate political reflexivity through feminist standpoint theory, which asks researchers to critically examine their positionality and privilege in relation to the geopolitics of the research setting, epistemic privilege of marginalized participants, and political implications of their work. Practicing political reflexivity can help researchers situate their work along a “decoloniality continuum,” which includes research complicit with the maintenance of violence, a hybridity approach that aims to understand and challenge the (colonial) underpinnings of violence by centering marginalized knowledge, and research that seeks reparation or liberation, meaning redress and radical equality for marginalized peoples, ideas and histories. We conclude with a call for researchers to identify methods and paths to strengthen our understanding of political reflexivity, and to support efforts to decolonize knowledge

Palestinian Refugees From Syria: Stranded on the Margins of Law

The Syrian war that followed the popular uprisings almost five years ago has had a devastating toll on the country’s population. The civilian death toll has reached 200,000, more that half of Syria’s inhabitants have been forced to leave their homes, and human rights violations and abuses are widespread. The Palestinian refugees from Syria are amongst the most vulnerable because they are stateless and have been denied rights granted to other refugees, including in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and Turkey. Indeed, the precarious legal status and social vulnerability of the Palestinian refugees that have fled to other Middle Eastern countries are convincing an increasing number to seek safety and stability in Europe. Al-Shabaka policy analysts Mai Abu Moghli, Nael Bitarie, and Nell Gabiam analyze the effects of the war in Syria on Palestinian refugees through a succinct, country-by-country analysis of the legal and social obstacles they face. They examine the discriminatory legal framework that is being applied to the Palestinian refugees from Syria by Arab countries as well as by the international community, and underscore that the Israeli government’s denial of the right of return of Palestinian refugees – in violation of international law - is a major factor in the current vulnerability of the Palestinians of Syria. In their policy recommendations, Abu Moghli, Bitarie, and Gabiam identify several practical, immediate steps that Israel, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA), the United Nations, and the international community should take to address the immediate safety of Syria’s Palestinian refugees and to ensure that their human rights are respected and that they are able to find protection from the Syrian war’s devastating effects

The Struggle to Reclaim Human Rights Education in Palestinian Authority Schools in the Occupied West Bank

This thesis provides a critical view of Human Rights Education (HRE) within a context of colonial occupation, authoritarian national ruling structure and oppressive social practices. It explores the reasons behind the introduction of HRE in Palestinian Authority (PA) schools in the Occupied West Bank. It investigates how stakeholders make meaning of and implement HRE. Finally, it examines the relationship between HRE and the struggle against the Occupation and for political and social change. The data was generated during six months divided over two field research trips. The research employed ethnographic methods such as classroom and whole school observations and semi-structured interviews. The analysis is framed within a critical constructivist paradigm allowing for reaching beyond mere descriptive accounts of HRE and foregrounding the findings within the indigenous knowledge. This thesis addresses gaps in the literature by problematising the theoretical basis of HRE and highlighting the importance of indigenous knowledge and strategies used to bring the decontextualised global to the nuanced and politicised local. Additionally, the data analysis reveals that HRE in PA schools in the Occupied West Bank has no clear aim or orientation. It is flattened, decontextualised and depoliticised to serve the ruling party, perpetuate socio-cultural oppressive practices and structures and implement donors’ agendas. HRE in PA schools does not allow for students’ engagement in human rights praxis, limiting their ability to dismantle structures of domination and oppression. It increases cynicism and disillusionment towards human rights. In spite of that, on the school level some teachers and students employ a number of strategies to re-claim HRE. These strategies are: vernacularisation, Islamisation, hidden curriculum and the continuous struggle. Having reached these findings from the literature review and data analysis, I reconseptualise HRE and provide an alternative understanding of HRE’s potential contribution to the emancipation of the individual and collective within a polarised, multi-layered, and fast changing context

Educators for Change: Supporting the Transformative Role of Teachers in Contexts of Mass Displacement

Education in contexts affected by mass displacement is typified by political instability, the marginalization of refugee learners, and a lack of educational resources, including learning spaces, relevant curricular materials, and mechanisms for the accreditation of learning that takes place outside formal educational institutions. In these situations, teachers often become the students’ most powerful and inspirational education resource. This paper stems from a qualitative study of how Syrian refugee and Lebanese teachers understand “ future education” in the context of the protracted crisis in Lebanon. Drawing from Aronowitz and Giroux’s (1993) concept of transformative intellectuals, we argue that transformative approaches to professional development can enable teachers to capitalize on their local knowledge, professional abilities, and creativity to create spaces in which learners feel they have greater control over their lives and can envision a better future. We propose a transformative model for teacher professional development that is based on the ideal learning space envisioned by teachers in a refugee context and on a critical understanding of their existing learning environments. The intention is to support teachers as they reshape the learning environments in which they work to bring them closer to their imagined ideal. The use of available digital technologies enabled these teachers to create spaces in which they could harness and share the transformative education practices already in place and facilitate change through massive open online collaborations

Palestinian Refugees From Syria: Stranded on the Margins of Law

The Syrian war that followed the popular uprisings almost five years ago has had a devastating toll on the country’s population. The civilian death toll has reached 200,000, more that half of Syria’s inhabitants have been forced to leave their homes, and human rights violations and abuses are widespread. The Palestinian refugees from Syria are amongst the most vulnerable because they are stateless and have been denied rights granted to other refugees, including in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and Turkey. Indeed, the precarious legal status and social vulnerability of the Palestinian refugees that have fled to other Middle Eastern countries are convincing an increasing number to seek safety and stability in Europe. Al-Shabaka policy analysts Mai Abu Moghli, Nael Bitarie, and Nell Gabiam analyze the effects of the war in Syria on Palestinian refugees through a succinct, country-by-country analysis of the legal and social obstacles they face. They examine the discriminatory legal framework that is being applied to the Palestinian refugees from Syria by Arab countries as well as by the international community, and underscore that the Israeli government’s denial of the right of return of Palestinian refugees – in violation of international law - is a major factor in the current vulnerability of the Palestinians of Syria. In their policy recommendations, Abu Moghli, Bitarie, and Gabiam identify several practical, immediate steps that Israel, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA), the United Nations, and the international community should take to address the immediate safety of Syria’s Palestinian refugees and to ensure that their human rights are respected and that they are able to find protection from the Syrian war’s devastating effects.This policy brief is from Al Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network (October 19, 2015). Posted with permission.</p