Ground-breaking education resource brings human rights to Northern Ireland classrooms

A brand new teaching resource, developed specially for the revised curriculum in Northern Ireland, is set to bring human rights to every post-primary school here.

The teaching resource, Making Human Rights Real, will be launched today (Monday 23 November) by Amnesty International, which has produced the pack in association with the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC). A free copy of the resource is being supplied to every post-primary school in Northern Ireland, while Amnesty and the Commission are also offering training to Citizenship teachers to assist them in using the publication.

The resource will help teachers to deliver the Local and Global Citizenship element of the Northern Ireland curriculum to Key Stage 4 pupils. It covers topics such as human rights, social responsibility, diversity, equality and democracy and helps pupils to consider the human rights situation in Northern Ireland and around the world. The resource was written by Queen's University Belfast lecturer Lesley McEvoy, one of the leading academics on human rights education in the UK.

Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty International's Northern Ireland Programme Director, said:
“The new Northern Ireland curriculum gives young people a great opportunity to understand the world around them. This new resource from Amnesty International will help pupils to not only understand the world from a human rights perspective, but it will give them the knowledge and skills to make it a fairer world.”

Professor Monica McWilliams, Chief Commissioner of the NIHRC, said:
“This is an excellent resource which will be of real practical value to those teaching human rights and citizenship in our schools. It will assist young people and teachers to develop an understanding of human rights and the importance of protecting and promoting these rights in order to ensure that everyone is treated fairly in our diverse society.”