UNESCO chair urges universities to engage with human rights

PROFESSOR Jean-Paul Lehners, UNESCO Chair in Human Rights, has called on universities to be at the forefront of the debate about human rights policy.

Speaking at a public lecture at MMU, Prof. Lehners made a plea for higher education institutions to include explicit human rights policies within their mission statements.

He said, “When I say ‘human rights aspects’ this does not necessarily mean that the concept of human rights must be mentioned, I think it is already a progression if some rights are mentioned, for example, freedom of expression. However, a better approach, of course, would be the explicit inclusion of human rights in codes of conduct, in mission statements and plans of action.”

He said this will ensure institutions include human rights in their thinking about “learning, research, management, and service to society,” therefore cementing the involvement of teachers, students and staff in “mainstreaming” human rights.

Role of humanities

Prof Lehners particularly stressed the role of the humanities in this move towards a greater integration of human rights into higher education.

He said: “In order to understand human rights, we have to contextualise them. Humanities and social sciences have an important part in this process. I am very glad that the UNESCO chair in human rights is not in our law department! I am very glad that it is in the faculty of humanities and social sciences.

“Human rights are meant to shift between texts and reality. What can I do with human rights declarations if I am poor and too weak to defend myself? This question was already being asked in the nineteenth century, probably right here in Manchester. It is again of utmost importance within the context of the financial and economic crisis today.”

The lecture was part of a series organised by the University’s Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences Research.

Prof Lehners holds the UNESCO chair at the University of Luxemburg.