Human rights central to national curriculum according to Ministry (May 2010)

Human rights central to national curriculum according to Ministry (May 2010)

New Zealand's education curricula for children - Te Whāriki, the New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa - have ‘both an explicit and implicit role in growing young people with a well-founded understanding of human rights', according to New Zealand's report on implementation of phase 1 of the UN World Programme for Human Rights Education.

The report, submitted by the Ministry of Education in April, stresses that

· ‘the curriculum that students experience includes all classroom learning as well as the policies and practices impacting on them beyond the classroom'

· human rights values underpin all three curriculum frameworks, and ‘respect for human rights is expected to be encouraged, modelled and explored'.

In discussions with Ministry officials, key Human Rights in Education partners have stressed the need to be more explicit in policy statements about New Zealand's commitment and obligation to ensure both ‘education for human rights' and ‘human rights in education' - as envisaged in the UN World Programme proclaimed in 2004 by the UN General Assembly.