Human Rights Day 10 December & the Climate Change Summit (Dec 2009)

Human Rights Day 10 December & the Climate Change Summit (Dec 2009)

10 December each year is International Human Rights Day - the anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. A school or classroom Human Rights Day celebration is a good way to round off the year.

As we celebrate it this year representatives of 192 countries are gathering in Copenhagen for the UN Climate Change Conference - an important opportunity for teachers and schools to discuss the relationship between ecological sustainability and human rights, and to observe closely how international relations work.

The 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child requires states parties (those states that have ratified the treaty, and therefore have agreed to be bound by its provisions in international law) to ensure that education is directed, amongst other things, to ‘development of respect for the natural environment' (article 29(e)). This was in recognition that the realisation of the human rights to health, adequate standard of living etc for present and future generations was dependent on the environment.