The Covid-19 pandemic: a challenge and an opportunity for human rights educators

Abstract

In this opinion piece, Abraham Magendzo and Audrey Osler discuss a range of challenges facing educators, many of which are thrown into sharper relief by the Covid-19 crisis. Both authors see the need for deep reflection within the community of human rights educators and recognise the crisis as an opportunity for informed dialogue among educators and between teachers and their students. They highlight elements of international and regional (European and Inter-American) human rights instruments within which this dialogue might be set. Osler stresses how the human rights framework was created out of a period of crisis, and is designed to be used in times such as the one in which we are living. Any attempt by state authorities to bypass human rights in the time of coronavirus needs to be resisted. Magendzo proposes a series of concrete questions to provoke discussion and debate among educators and among students.