Education is a tool for the prevention, fight and defence of human rights

Guillermo Domínguez, executive director of the Ibero-American Chair of Education in Human Rights, Inclusive Democracy and Social Sustainability and winner of the Catalejo prize awarded by the Human Rights Observatory of Spain, assures that education is an instrument for the prevention, fight and defence of human rights.

Domínguez is president of the Organising Committee of the Congress on Education and Human Rights for Social Peace to be held in Bogotá from 11 to 15 September.

What is the main objective of this Congress?

As the Chair in Human Rights Education, our priority objective, from the 50 Ibero-American Universities, with more than 3 million students, and its implementation in 17 Latin American countries, is education as an instrument for the prevention, fight and defence of human rights and, above all, for the most vulnerable groups.

How will it be developed?

Within this framework, the Chair is considering two coordinates for this 2nd Ibero-American Congress, which will be held in Bogota from 11 to 14 September (in the double modality of on-site and online): on the one hand, the role of education in the field of human rights, and, on the other hand, the current situation of human rights.

This is how the programme is organised

If you look at the attached programme, the first day is for education and human rights and the second day is for reflection on human rights in Latin America and universities as organisations in defence of these rights. In other words, it has been perfectly diversified.

Does the academic perspective prevail?

One day is analysed from the academic perspective of the university and the other is more from the academic perspective of the ombudsmen from all over Latin America, who are the day-to-day trenches, given that we are going to have practically 60 or 70 percent representation from FIO and AGOL, the two large organisations of national and local ombudsmen.

The situation in Colombia deserves special attention...

In line with this approach, we gave up a third part of the Congress, because we felt it was important for the context, so that the Colombians, with us there, but with them, could debate among themselves about the concept of peace. At the moment, the Congress was going to consider the concept of Total Peace in order to adapt to the situation in Colombia.

Is there a consensus on this?

We have seen that this generated discrepancies among the Colombian people themselves, and, in the end, the Congress is going to be called Education and Human Rights for Social Peace, which seems to us to be the key, in other words, as long as there is no equality, minimum human rights and social equity, there will be no basis for peace, hence the concept of social peace as the axis of the Congress, which education and university education can offer as a contribution.

What role are the universities of the network playing in education, in terms of human rights in Ibero-America?

Let's see, the universities in the network, at the moment there are 28 of us, but with the alliances we have made with indigenous, Afro and other universities, we are currently around 50 universities and we are defining our identity and setting our objectives. The Congress is going to be our launch with projects in action at the moment and results.

Since last year we had the first Congress (we started our journey in June 2021, our objective was to make ourselves known who we were and what we thought (www.ciedh.org). And now, what we are going to make known is what we are doing (projects and results).

What can we highlight?

Fundamentally, what we are doing is carrying out a diagnosis of the most disadvantaged groups, who do not have access to education, in this case university education, and to their basic rights. For us, education is, after basic needs, the most important human right and the key to the intervention of this Chair, which includes several university networks.

And what other aspects are key?

Well, there is life, minimum welfare, freedom of expression and thought, but then there is education, because without education there is no equity, there is no future for the most disadvantaged classes, there is no promotion, there is no future for them and no peace process is possible.

What is the objective of the Chair?

So, this is the central research of the Chair in the next three years, the fight for the rights of the most vulnerable groups (socially, ethnically, immigrants or people on the move, people with disabilities, etc.), which has also been requested to Europe for funding, to the Erasmus+ projects of Europe.

What other aspects can we highlight?

Collaterally, several areas are being worked on: socially sustainable universities in the framework of human rights as intercultural universities, for gender equality and the generation of social leaders (university students) for international cooperation in the field of human rights.

Is there collaboration with companies?

We are working on an attempt to promote a model and a reward for the respect of human rights in companies. We are even going to make it possible for a human rights prize to appear for companies that want to participate, because we even have a problem at the moment, which is that there are some companies that don't even answer you. It's like saying, here we don't even mess up because it could be worse.

Do you maintain a relationship with the ombudsmen?

All this is part of a macro agreement that we have made with the ombudsmen, so that they are going to be our eyes and our hands in the trenches, and we are going to be the people, the academics, who help these people to reflect, to provide solutions and even to participate. I, for example, am participating in a macro research project of the entire Colombian ombudsman. That is to say, we are in that line.

Are there any other challenges that the network of universities will face?

This is a Chair, at the moment a network of networks. It began two years ago as a network, and at the moment there are four networks: the network of committed universities, the network sponsored by AUIP, the alliance with the network of defenders that we have agreed with them, the network of indigenous universities, Afro universities and another series of university networks that did not join at the time and that are now part of a network of collaborating universities.

What do you intend with this network of networks?

In this line that we are a network of networks, for the Chair, at the moment, the most important challenge is that we want to differentiate ourselves and characterise ourselves as a network of university networks that are dedicated to fighting for the rights of the most vulnerable groups, starting with the right to education at all levels and especially at university level, one of the keys to social classification and inequality and discrimination of human rights, with education there is the possibility of knowing the rights and fighting for them.

Do they have names and surnames?

We do not want to remain in frills. At the moment, women, children, races, ethnicities, disabled people, less qualified workers, in other words, groups that are currently suffering from the undermining of their human rights. And that will be our motto in the coming years. If we are also given the European project, then the most disadvantaged groups and human rights, the right to university education, will be our focus for the next three years and the basis for our future projection.

If you would like to know more: www.ciedh.org

And to participate in the congress on 13 and 14 September, if you are not a member of the network: https://www.ciedh.org/congreso-iberoamericano-de-educacion-en-derechos-humanos/