Episode 51: Equitas, Part Two

Candace and Jean-Sébastien emphasize the importance of engaging young people in human rights work by connecting activism to historical and disciplinary knowledge. They discuss how educators must integrate a human rights perspective into their teaching, fostering self-reflection and transformative learning beyond facts to include attitudes, skills, and behaviors. The conversation highlights the challenges of decolonizing education, advocating for the inclusion of colonization studies in curricula and fostering a sense of global community beyond national identities. They highlight the importance of "togethering" — uniting people across borders to build a more inclusive human rights movement. Addressing rising authoritarianism, Equitas is working on projects to create safe spaces for activists and provide training to counter oppression. Influential human rights defenders and theorists inspire their work, including Janusz Korczak, Aly Sanou, and Charlot Jeudy. Ultimately, they advocate for embedding human rights education more deeply into Canadian policies and curricula.

Topics Discussed:

• Engaging Youth in Human Rights: Link activism with historical and disciplinary knowledge, like climate change and scientific literacy.
• Human Rights Education (HRE) for Teachers: Emphasize universality, self-reflection, and continuous learning beyond knowledge.
• Decolonizing Education: Address knowledge gaps, incorporate colonization studies, and promote global unity.
• Building Inclusive Movements: Move from exclusion-based to inclusion-based discourse; let local communities lead.
• HRE and Cosmopolitanism: Promote global citizenship rooted in respect for human rights.
• Countering Authoritarianism: Develop safe spaces for activists and training programs to combat oppression.
• Influential Role Models: Jean-Sébastien is inspired by global human rights defenders; Candace by child rights theorist Janusz Korczak.
• Inspirational Quotes: Candace values optimism in education, while Jean-Sébastien highlights human rights as an interconnected whole.
• Future of HRE in Canada: Advocate for implementing the World Programme for Human Rights Education.

Full topic listing available for PDF download HERE.

Listen on our HREUSA podcast website HERE. 

Introduction and Closing Music Credit: “Awakening-Spring” by Ketsa, from the Album Night Vision. Available at the Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/night-vision/awakening-spring/

This music is used in accordance with this Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Information about that license is available here https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Human Rights Education Now! is produced and distributed in accordance with Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International. Information about this license is available here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/