Cultural Diversity and Human Rights: a propos of a minority educational reform

human beings or human rights subjects. This conception of
education, as both Special Rapporteurs on the Right to Education,
Katarina Tomasevski (2000) and the current incumbent, Vernor

Munoz Villalobos (2005), have consistently argued, is a violation of
the human right to education.

“The notion of human capital questions the inherent worth of
each human being which underpins human rights, as well as
undermining the role of education in the promotion and
protection of human rights... The human-capital approach
moulds education solely towards economically relevant
knowledge, skills and competence, to the detriment of
human rights values.”
(Tomasevski, 2000, p 23)

Overall, Article 28 invokes education as an unproblematic social
good, which is equally effective and productive for all. All the right
to education requires in this context is more for all. This
universalist abstraction of the equality of human rights subjects
ignores the social contexts of structured and systemic inequalities,
and, sadly, contributes to their persistence.

Relativism and Communitarianism: values and content of
education

While Article 28 focuses on education as the domain of institutions
and governance, Article 29 deals with a wide range of issues
within education, namely pedagogy, values, and the curriculum. It
is here that emerge the tensions between universalism, relativism
and communitarianism which inhere in human rights discourse.

Article 29

The education of the child shall be directed to:

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