a) The development of the child’s personality, talents and
mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential
b) The development of respect for human rights and
fundamental freedoms, and for the principles enshrined in
the Charter of the UN
c) The development of respect for the child’s parents, his or her
cultural identity, language and values, for the national values
of the country in which the child is living, the country from
which he or she may originate, and for civilisations different
from his or her own
d) The preparation of the child for responsible life in a free
society, in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance,
equality of the sexes, and friendship among all peoples,
ethnic, national and religious groups and persons of
indigenous origin
e) The development of respect for the natural environment
Article 29 is thus concerned with pedagogy in subsection (a) and
curriculum content and values in the remaining subsections.
Subsections (b), (d) and (e) are familiar to all those engaged in
human rights education: they can be found in the UDHR and the
ICESCR, and incremental accretions, such as indigenous peoples’
and environment rights, and attest to the organic nature of human
rights discourse. The genuinely profound shift occurs in
subsection (c), where, for the first time, issues of cultural diversity
and pluralism are identified as integral to the right to education.
Turning first to subsection (a), Article 29 adopts a clear universalist
pedagogical position, in favour of the liberal principles of the
autonomy of the person, associated with Dewey and progressive,
child-centred approaches to education. These pedagogical
principles of educating the whole person, or the human rights
subject, are regularly undermined in current national and global
education policy regimes which privilege both human capital
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