Re-thinking Human Rights-Based Approach in the Context of Refugee Education

Abstract

The study aims to critically explore whether the characteristics of the Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA) are embedded in day-to-day practices and perspectives of stakeholders in the context of refugee education. While scholarly work on refugee education has focused on the refugee population resettled in industrialized countries, the study explores how, and to what extent, the HRBA to education goals set out by the UN are being implemented in the so-called global South contexts where the majority of refugees are currently located. Drawing from a compelling case study of the Mae La refugee camp located on the border of Thailand and Myanmar, this study adopts an ethnographically informed qualitative method to describe and analyze the service delivery and stakeholders perspectives in the education provision of non-state actors. It highlights the current lack of concurrence between the approaches of the moral duty-bearers and suggests that education should be provided based on human rights, rather than merely needs or charity in the conflict-affected context.