A new special issue of Human Rights Defender magazine is launched today, looking at the future of the human right to quality education.
The issue unfolded during the unprecedented 2019/20 summer bushfires in Australia, and features contributions on education and climate justice, education in situations of forced migration, and decolonising education with First Nations Peoples.
The issue celebrates the voices of young people and amplifies their public advocacy on these contemporary challenges.
Guest Editor, UNSW Sydney’s Dr Sally Baker, opens the issue by explaining how it was shaped by an unfolding environmental crisis, and Australians’ changing ideas about the future.
“We are, progressively, less able to make decisions based on a stable future, like many others around the world,” Dr Baker writes. “So what role should, can and does quality education play in this context?"
As the issue is sent to print and delivered online, the world faces a new crisis in the coronavirus pandemic, presenting further challenges to our human rights, including the right to education.
Human Rights Defender Editor-in-Chief, Associate Professor Caroline Lenette, says the issue’s spotlight on equity in education is even more relevant in the present emergency, where many schools are closed, and children are unable to access educational facilities and resources.
“This pandemic has amplified the existing disadvantages that many children and young people were already facing. As we experience collective uncertainty, we have to re-imagine what quality education means,” Associate Professor Lenette says.
Human Rights Defender is proudly produced by the Australian Human Rights Institute at UNSW Sydney, with an interdisciplinary team of editors, and students from UNSW Law. The magazine is free and available online at issuu.com, by academic subscription through HeinOnline, InformIT and EBSCO.
Click here to read the special issue.
To receive an email when new issues are released contact: hrd@unsw.edu.au