Mana Tika Tangata (Nueva Zelanda)

A global initiative in New Zealand

Human Rights in Education is a broad collaborative initiative of educators developing New Zealand schools and early childhood centres as communities where human rights and responsibilities are known, promoted and lived.

Partners in Human Rights in Education (Mana Tika Tangata)

- Recognise the internationally-agreed right of every child to an education that respects and helps fulfil human rights

- Base their work on human rights – including the right to education, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and principles such as mutual respect, empowerment and accountability – and good education practice.

HRiE schools/centres introduce and use the cross-culturally agreed international human rights framework to...

1. conceptualise and sharpen the mission of the school/centre;

2. create active citizenship in and beyond the school/centre based a consistent culture of rights, respect and responsibility;

3. provide a useful lens and “critical toolkit” for content across the curriculum, including the exploration of contentious issues and themes relevant to our globalising world;

4. create coherence across existing programmes, making things more manageable and improving learning outcomes.

Human Rights in Education is an approach to education, rather than a programme.

Part of the New Zealand Action Plan for Human Rights – based on the contributions of over 5,000 individuals, groups and organisations – Human Rights in Education helps fulfil

· the human rights requirements of New Zealand’s National Education Guidelines, including ensuring that respect for human rights is “evident in the school’s philosophy, structures, curriculum, classrooms and relationships” (New Zealand Curriculum, 2007, p10);

· New Zealand’s treaty commitments, and expectations of the UN World Programme for Human Rights Education.

Key support partners in the Initiative include the Children’s Commissioner, Human Rights Commission, Amnesty International, Development Resource Centre and Peace Foundation.

Human rights principles are not platitudes; they must be honoured, because thousands have died for them.

Peter Fraser (1944)

Click here to visit Mana Tika Tangata website