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Category: News and Updates

CPG Online Academy on Human Rights

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August 16-26, 2022

CPG’s Academy on Human Rights is designed to give an in-depth understanding and critical assessment of human rights laws, institutions, advocacy, and scholarship. Contributions by internationally recognized scholars and practitioners provide a bridge between the theoretical and the practical dimensions, with an emphasis upon various aspects of field practice.

The upcoming academy will be held as a two-week-long certificated online course comprising nine teaching days. Each teaching day offers around six hours of live plenary interactive lectures, workshops, debates, and break-out sessions.

Similar to an online class, the academy is articulated in distinct modules each of which explores different aspects of human rights:

• Fundamentals of Human Rights,

• International Human Rights Mechanisms,

• Human Rights in the Marketplace,

• Minorities and Human Rights,

• National Human Rights Bodies,

• Criminal Law, Security, & Human Rights, and

• Human Rights in the Digital Age.

To participate, please apply at: https://www.cpg-online.de/cpg-event/cpgs-online-academy-2022-on-human-rights/

Journal of Black Educology

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The Black Educology Mixtape is a collective of Black people working to amplify and empower Black educational voices. Black Educology goes beyond the scope of academia to recognize the movers and shakers of emancipatory movements. We imagine this mixtape as a vehicle toward revolution. To that extent, this mixtape informs, confers, and collaborates with educational voices across the Black diaspora. Our scope and sequence focuses on the past, present, and future of Black education, which has been historically and systemically caught in the underbelly of western education. Black Educology is an open-access mixtape that moves beyond academic articles to feature various art forms and voices that are typically muted. Though traditional mixtapes only include songs, we highlight text, audio, images, transcripts, and lyrics. The main tenets of Black Educology’s educational vision are rooted in critical race theory, with a focus on counter-storytelling, Black critical theory, Afro-pessimism, and Black educational epistemology. Our work is grounded in creating mixtapes that are both revolutionary and emancipatory in the name of love, study, struggle, and refusal.

Read/listen

VOTE BY MIDNIGHT! Last day to vote for new HRE USA Steering Committee members!

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Dear HRE USA Members,

There are two seats open on the steering committee to be elected by YOU – our members. 

The Steering Committee is the governing body of HRE USA, overseeing strategy, direction and policy.  The Steering Committee selects its officers: 2 co-chairs, a Secretary, and Treasurer. 

Review Nominee Statements and Biographies here!

Scroll down to view the bios of our candidates. Once you choose your two candidates, please click VOTE NOW.You must be a member to vote. Please email info@hreusa.org if you are uncertain of your membership status / would like to become a member.

Elected Steering Committee members will serve a three-year term beginning in August 2022.

Learning for Justice: Virtual Open-enrollment Workshops

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Learning for Justice offers professional development workshops for current K-12 classroom teachers, administrators and counselors, and for anyone who coaches classroom teachers and administrators.

Each 90-minute workshop costs $15 per participant and is delivered via Zoom with participant interaction and available closed captioning. All tickets must be purchased online. (We are not able to accept cash, purchase orders or checks.) Explore the schedule below, and register today—space is limited! We continue to add new dates, so check back often.

Job opportunity: Rethinking Schools Executive Director

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ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION

Rethinking Schools is a nonprofit publisher and advocacy organization that for 36 years has been dedicated to sustaining and strengthening public education through social justice teaching and education activism. Our magazine, books, and other resources promote equity and racial, gender, environmental, and sexual justice in the classroom and society. We encourage grassroots efforts in our schools and communities to enhance the learning and well-being of our children, and to build broad democratic movements for social and environmental justice.

ABOUT THE ROLE

Reporting to the Board of Directors, and in collaboration with the staff and editors, the Executive Director will have overall strategic and operational responsibility for Rethinking Schools’ staff, programs, resource generation, and pursuit of its mission.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Organizational Leadership and Management:

  • Ensure ongoing mission-centric excellence in programs and operations.
  • Lead stakeholder engaged, democratic strategic planning and direction. Streamline and clarify decision-making and management of the organization.
  • Lead implementation of organizational priorities, and evaluate work against established goals. 
  • Supervise staff in a manner consistent with Rethinking Schools’ values of democracy, collaboration, and learning from each other. 
  • Support collective bargaining with Rethinking Schools’ staff who are represented by Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 4603.
  • Work closely with the Rethinking Schools editorial staff and board to develop strategic plans around Rethinking Schools’ educational resources, books, and magazine.
  • Support Rethinking Schools’ relationships with key supporters and partners. Communicate and move forward Rethinking Schools’ mission and vision with the education justice movement at large.
  • Develop, maintain, and support a strong Board of Directors, with an emphasis on developing capacity in governance, strategic analysis, program planning, and budgeting consistent with organizational bylaws.
  • Work with the staff, board, and editors to expand existing and develop new engagement tools with classroom teachers and the wider Rethinking Schools community. 
  • Represent Rethinking Schools to the broader public as needed.

Fundraising, business development, and financial management:

  • In coordination with the Director of Operations and Board of Directors, develop and steward RS’s budget and a strategic business plan.
  • Alongside the board, staff, and editors, develop, oversee, and execute fundraising strategies from individual donors and foundations.
  • Hold or oversee key relationships with largest donors and foundations.
  • Expand the financial viability of RS’s operational units through sound fiscal management.

Position open until filled.

For candidate profile and more information about this position, please visit this page.

HRE USA Joins With CivXNow Coalition Members to Support the Civics Secures Democracy Act  

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A nonpartisan alliance of civil society advocates and educators are working to persuade the Congress to pass the Civics Secures Democracy Act (CSD Act).  This act, if passed, would provide needed and currently unavailable federal dollars to state and local education agencies to “making available to all students innovative, engaging curricula and programs in civics and history that prepare them to understand American Government and engage in American democratic practices as citizens and residents of the United States [from §2(a) of S4384].” 

We support this legislation, in its present form, because it would improve the visibility of civic and history education in U.S. schools, support preparation of social studies teachers equipped to teach civics appropriate to our democratic, constitutional republic, and create a more engaging environment in which human rights educators can more effectively demonstrate the relationship between HRE and civics in a democratic society.  

It is vital that this legislation survive the legislative process in our partisan Congress with its simplicity and straightforward language intact. We are not seeking special language for HRE, because HRE is already recognized as a necessary part of social studies education (see NCSS position statement on HRE) and an essential companion to democratic civics education (see HRE USA and EAD briefing paper on HRE USA website (https://hreusaorg.files.wordpress.com/2021/08/hre-brief-on-ead.pdf). We are concerned that the legislation not be straitjacketed with amendments designed to prohibit inclusion of diverse and equitable perspectives. 

S4384 is the reintroduced version of the CSD Act, with a larger, bipartisan group of Senate sponsors than the bill introduced in 2021 (S879). It’s companion House bill, HR1814, is still active. Supporters are seeking a larger group of sponsors in the House for this bill or a bill revised to match the newer Senate bill. 

WHAT CAN HRE SUPPORTERS DO: 

To learn more about HRE USA’s support for this legislation and our efforts to keep it from being dragged down by hostile amendments, contact info@hreusa.org or Rosemary Blanchard (rblnchrd@emeritus.csus.edu), the HRE USA liaison who is following this initiative.  If Civics Secures Democracy, then let’s demonstrate that HRE secures democratic civics. 

Universal Human Rights Index (UHRI)

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The international human rights architecture is composed of a range of different mechanisms with varying mandates, procedures and activities. Their observations and recommendations serve to inform political and legal action to improve human rights protection.

The UHRI allows you to explore over 170.000 observations and recommendations made by the international human rights protection system: Treaty Bodies, Universal Periodic Review, Special Procedures.

Human Rights Defenders Claim Their Rights: A Learning Journey

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by Social Rights Alliance

Wed, 3 August 2022

13:00 – 14:00 BST

REGISTER HERE

A film screening for all those interested in using human rights in grassroots movements.

This powerful film charts the progress of a diverse group of Community Researchers from across England as they examine human rights concepts, challenge what a ‘human rights-based approach’ means and write their own guide. In doing so they ‘claim the right to talk about rights’.

As well as screening the short film, during the online event we will hear from:

  • Community Researchers about their experience of the project and the exciting new board game they are developing to share their learning and help others claim the right to talk about rights
  • Just Fair’s Human Rights Officer about the next phase of social rights movement building and what the process has meant to Just Fair

To read more about the work of the Community Researchers, please check out the co-produced blogs on the Social Rights Alliance‘s website.

Note: We like to use Zoom as it has some great accessibility features. So that we can make the training as accessible as possible for you, please let us know as soon as possible if you have any other communication or access needs. The event will also be recorded so that it can shared with others. Please email: lyle.barker@justfair.org.uk

Twitter: Just Fair, Social Rights Alliance

We are grateful for the generous support of our members, individual donors, and The Puffin Foundation Ltd
The core values of HRE USA and its partner organizations include transparency and critical thinking skills. We believe that human rights--and human rights education--belong to everyone, and that the full realization of human rights means that access to human rights education materials must never be conditioned upon the subscription to any particular religious faith, ideology, political affiliation, or membership in any particular organization and that any organizational connections should be openly acknowledged.