Human rights, education for democratic citizenship and international organisations: findings from a Kuwaiti UNESCO ASPnet school

Abstract

While universal human rights frameworks and democratic models of government have gained global support and even adherence, they often exist in tension with local cultural and religious practices. In Kuwait, tensions arise between its constitution, legal system and Islam, with several groups consequently marginalised. These tensions extend into the education system. This paper seeks to explore both theoretically and contextually the potential of a curricular module introduced in 2006 in deepening education for democratic citizenship in Kuwait. Theoretical analysis reveals the module, introduced without altering the authoritarian ethos of the system, to be quite a thin engagement with the concepts of rights and democracy. However, its enactment within the case study school – both representative of an authoritarian state school and a member of UNESCO’s Associated Schools Project Network (ASPnet) – uncovered its deeper potential and perhaps discovered the reason for its swift relegation from a three-year to a one-year programme.