(NATCOM) – St. Kitts, March 06, 2015: A partnership between the National Commission for UNESCO, the Department of Youth in the Ministry of Education, Youth, Sports and Culture and the global advocacy group Youth For Human Rights International (YHRI) got off to a promising start with the training of local teachers who will train students in Human Rights Awareness.
According to Secretary General of the National Commission for UNESCO, Antonio Maynard, the activity which follows closely on the heels of the project launch in November 2014, signals the urgency with which Human Rights Awareness Training among the Federation’s youth will be implemented.
Commenting on the fact that the programme was launched originally out of a need to address a global trend in which youths are unaware of their basic Human Rights, Maynard said, “We are hoping that coming out of this workshop the teachers and youth leaders… would be able to impart the information concerning the 30 fundamental Human Rights in a dynamic, captivating and effective manner.”
He expressed deep gratitude to the Youth For Human Rights International delegation led by Mary Shuttleworth, Founder and President, for the organization’s full sponsorship of the training event including all materials.
Ms. Shuttleworth highlighted the importance of teaching human rights in school by drawing reference to her own upbringing in Apartheid South Africa where she said, “Discrimination was the Law.” She emphasized that the development of her understanding of this injustice developed a passion within her to ensure that human beings were aware of their human rights. “The question is not how much it costs to teach Human Rights, “she added”, The Question is how much will it cost not to teach Human Rights?”
Permanent Secretary of Education Mrs. Ionie Liburd-Willett explained that in the new vision to orienting the education system our educators emphasize a holistic and interdisciplinary approach to developing the knowledge, skills, attitudes and dispositions to better understand the world in which they live as well as address problems that threaten our Human Rights. As such, the Permanent Secretary said she was certain that the Human Rights agenda would be implemented as a priority.
Local facilitators of the event were CARICOM’s Youth Ambassador Sonia Boddie and Assistant Commissioner of Police Vaughan Henderson.
The Youth for Human Rights local programme hopes to launch a Youth Advocacy Group in the upcoming months.
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