Human rights education in Asia

This chapter investigates human rights education in Asian countries and societies in terms of its conceptual background, implementation challenges and possible future challenges. It provides a review of the development of and debates on human rights education in Asia. While the importance of human rights has been endorsed by the United Nations through the promulgation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), Asian countries and societies have attempted to implement such universalistic principles according to particularistic considerations with respect to national sovereignty and economic, social and religious factors. This chapter also reviews the implementation challenges of human rights education, such as political culture, lack of knowledge and weak human rights consciousness, uneven implementation in schools, and the gap between principles and curriculum and teaching methods. This chapter hopes to contribute to the conceptual thinking, implementation and pedagogical considerations about human rights education in Asian countries and societies. Copyright © 2018 selection and editorial matter, Kerry J. Kennedy and John Chi-Kin Lee; individual chapters, the contributors.