Peace and human rights education: Dilemmas of compatibility and prospects for moving forward

Abstract

This article addresses the dilemmas emerging from efforts to integrate human rights values within a peace education programme being carried out in a conflict situation. Although the article is largely theoretical, it is grounded in the author’s reflections on a series of teacher workshops and his overall experiences conducting ethnographic research on issues of human rights and peace education in conflict and post-conflict situations, especially in his home country, Cyprus. The article outlines several interpretations and critiques of the human rights framework, offers an overview of human rights education and peace education, and then discusses two dilemmas that emerge from efforts to integrate human rights values within peace education programmes. Finally, it argues that an approach to human rights that is based on values and oriented towards praxis, with an emphasis on cross-cutting principles such as non-discrimination and equality, could perhaps be more compatible with peace education efforts.