The ACT branch of the ACHRE held a Human Rights Education Forum for the ACT school teachers and principals in Canberra on 4 April 2014.
The aim of the forum was to assist schools to implement the Australian Curriculum and provide strategies to principals and teachers to lead human rights education in their schools.
This free cross- sectoral event was coordinated by the ACT Human Rights Commission, the Australian Council for Human Rights Education (ACHRE) and the ACT Education and Training Directorate. The event was supported by the Amnesty International.
The speakers included Professor Sev Ozdowski, AM, FAICD, President ACHRE, Dr Helen Watchirs, OAM, ACT Human Rights and Discrimination Commissioner, Dr Andrew Leigh, MP, Federal Member for Fraser, Louise Morton of the ACT Education and Training and as well as speakers from the Amnesty International.
One of the important points to emerge during the forum was the value of encouraging students to explore their personal responses to contemporary human rights issues. This was by providing them with appropriate reading material, including references to international human rights instruments and by enabling students to appreciate the value of keeping an open mind with respect to cases where people put forward different points of view. At the same time it was recognized that to understand the human rights implications of a particular issue may carry with it a responsibility to act.
See attached Human Rights Education Forum Program here
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