09 October 2007
Doha: An increasing number of Qatari schools are teaching human rights, an activist said here yesterday, as Arab League experts are studying ways to introduce the subject in Arab school curriculums.
Mohammad Fuad, a legal expert at the National Human Rights Committee said many public and private schools have introduced courses on human rights as a result of an awareness campaign launched by the committee in cooperation with the Supreme Council for Educational and the Ministry of Education.
"Many public and private schools have already started to deliver classes on human rights and the response on behalf of teachers and students has been tremendous," Fuad told Gulf News.
Since its establishment in 2003, the committee has held yearly programmes to provide teachers with a knowledge on human rights.
"Every year we prepare the teachers so that they can deliver human rights classes to students. The courses are updated every year in cooperation with international bodies. We aim to instil a correct perception of human rights in the young generation."
Fuad said other Gulf countries, such as the UAE, have become more sensitive to human rights issues and have started teaching the subject in local schools.
Proposal
In the meantime, educational and legal experts at the Arab League have set up a panel to study the introduction of human rights as a subject in the school curricula of Arab countries, the local Arabic daily Al Sharq here reported.
Representatives of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Tunisia, the members of the panel, have been tasked with formulating a common framework for the Arab countries to implement the proposal.
Hamda Al Sulaiti, assistant director of the Evaluation Institute at the Supreme Education Council (SEC), who attended an Arab League meeting last week, was quoted as saying the project aims to spread human rights values among the younger generation in the Arab world.
Quoting Hamda, Al Sharq also said Qatar is planning to introduce human rights as a compulsory subject in all independent schools.
Qatar boasts several human rights bodies including the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC).
The Gulf country is also a member of the United Nations' Human Rights Council and is also to soon host the United Nations' Human Rights Training and Documentation Centre for South West Asia and the Arab region.
By Barbara Bibbo
Gulf News 2007. All rights reserved.
