Table of Contents
Abbreviations ix
Preface xi
1 Introduction 1
1.1 The concept "International Law on the Aims of Education" 3
1.2 The concept of "education" 5
1.3 The first international provision 10
1.4 The most important human right of them all 10
1.5 CESCR article 13 (1) 15
1.6 The convention on the rights of the child 16
1.6.1 CRC article 29 (1) 17
1.6.2 Overall objective of education 18
1.7 Rights and duties 20
1.8 Summary and conclusion 20
2 International law and its jurisprudence 22
2.1 Natural law vs. legal positivism 22
2.2 What is international law? 27
2.3 Good faith and ordinary meaning 30
2.3.1 Good faith 30
2.3.2 Ordinary meaning 31
2.4 Context 33
2.5 The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CtRC) 34
2.5.1 General comments 35
2.5.2 Concluding observations 38
2.5.3 Individual complaint jurisprudence 39
2.6 Other conventions and their treaty bodies 39
2.7 Object and purpose 41
2.8 Legal validity 41
2.8.1 Effectiveness and legal validity 44
2.9 Summary and conclusion 46
3 Individual aims of education 48
3.1 Personality 49
3.1.1 Will and duty 50
3.1.2 Human personality and sense of dignity 53
3.2 Talents 55
3.3 Mental abilities 57
3.3.1 Literacy 58
3.3.2 Numeracy 60
3.3.3 Critical thinking 61
3.4 Physical abilities 62
3.5 Individual vs. Collective education aims 64
3.6 Summary and conclusion 66
4 Human rights education 67
4.1 Respect for human rights 68
4.2 Human Rights Education as a concept, of its own 68
4.3 Education 'about' human rights 69
4.4 Education 'through' human rights 70
4.5 Education for' human rights 70
4.6 Fundamental freedoms 72
4.7 The UN Charter 75
4.7.1 Peace education 76
4.7.2 HRE based on the UN Charter 77
4.8 Warning 77
4.9 Geographical relevance 79
4.10 Means in the fight against prejudice 81
4.11 Not just a school subject 82
4.12 Santa Claus human rights 83
4.13 Enforcement of human rights 84
4.14 Summary and conclusion 87
5 Respect for culture, values and civilisations 89
5.1 The concept of respect 89
5.2 "Parents" 90
5.3 Their own cultural identity 92
5.4 The right to language and mother tongue 94
5.5 The child's own values 98
5.6 "national values" 101
5.7 Civilisations 103
5.8 Summary and conclusion 105
6 Tolerance and understanding 106
6.1 "responsible life in a free society" 108
6.2 "in the spirit of" 108
6.3 Understanding 110
6.4 Peace 111
6.5 Tolerance 113
6.6 Equality of sexes 115
6.7 Friendship 118
6.8 Peoples 118
6.9 Ethnic and national groups 121
6.10 Religious groups 122
6.11 Persons of indigenous origin 123
6.12 Cultural relativism 127
6.13 The balance between the letters "c" and "d" 130
6.14 Hate speech and freedom of expression 131
6.15 Summary and conclusion 134
7 Respect for nature 136
7.1 Climate change education 137
7.1.1 The rights of future generations 139
7.2 Biological diversity education 142
7.3 Indigenous rights and protection of the environment 143
7.4 Summary and conclusion 144
8 History education 146
8.1 History education as an end in itself 146
8.2 History education as a means to eliminate prejudice and promote HRE 147
8.3 How history education should be taught 149
8.4 Denial of genocide 153
8.5 Summary and conclusion 155
9 State obligations of conduct and results 157
9.1 "States Parties agree […]" 157
9.2 Progressive realisation 160
9.3 Obligation of conduct vs. result 163
9.3.1 Obligation of conduct 167
9.4 Minimum core result 168
9.4.1 How to measure the results 171
9.4.2 Priorities between aims 172
9.5 National plan 173
9.6 Teachers 175
9.6.1 The duties of teachers 176
9.7 Curriculum reform and textbooks 181
9.7.1 Textbooks 182
9.8 The mass media 183
9.8.1 The right, to Internet 184
9.9 Summary and conclusion 185
10 Concluding visionary last words 187
References 194
Index 205
