NHRC chairperson Justice K G Balakrishnan said on Friday that despite the progress made with regard to the promotion and protection of human rights in the country, violations of human rights remained a matter of deep concern. This is due to the failure of the education system which had not been able to inculcate human rights values among the students.
Inaugurating a day-long national conference on Human Rights Education here, he said that there was a need to engage all the stakeholders in a serious debate in this regard so that human rights education curriculum both at the school and university level was carried forward in a uniform and more meaningful manner.
Justice Balakrishnan said that with the changing times, the old religious world view and values of social and national solidarity had also changed. People are growing highly individualistic and are particular about their rights, but not of others.
The NHRC had developed some modules on human rights education which needed to percolate down the system of education through NCERT and CBSE, he said.
He expressed the hope that the deliberations at the conference would help evolve a strategy on giving impetus to human rights education at school and university level for the students, teachers and the management.
The other speakers at the conference included Justice V S Malimath, Chairman, Law Commission of Karnataka and former Member, NHRC, Rajarshi Bhattacharya, Secretary, Dept. of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ranbir Singh, Vice-Chancellor, National Law University, Delhi, P. Sinclair, Director, NCERT, Mathew Philip, Executive Director, South India Cell for Human Rights Education and Monitoring, State Education Board Representatives, NGOs, Vice-Chancellors, NHRC Members and senior officers.