Menschenrechte und universitäre Forschung und Lehre

Arbeitstagung, Universität Klagenfurt
9. Oktober 2009

Schlussfolgerungen

Die internationale Staatengemeinschaft und die internationalen Organisationen, insbesondere die Vereinten Nationen und UNESCO, die Europäische Union, der Europarat, die OSZE, aber auch die Afrikanische Union und die Organisation Amerikanischer Staaten (OAS) haben in den letzten Jahren die Erkenntnis unterstrichen, dass Sicherheit und Frieden, wie auch Entwicklung und die nachhaltige Nutzung und Erhaltung der Natur- und Umweltgüter zunehmend von der effektiven Respektierung der Menschenrechte in unseren Gesellschaften bestimmt werden. Diese kann aber heute nicht mehr nur über Normen und Mechanismen der Prüfung ihrer Achtung erzielt werden, sondern muss zunehmend über eine Internalisierung einer „Kultur der Menschenrechte“ in den Werten und Verhaltensmustern der Bürger und Gemeinschaften verwirklicht werden.

Die universitären Strukturen und die Lehr- und Forschungsprogramme müssen mehr denn je diese Entwicklung fördern. Denn eine „Kultur der Menschenrechte“ baut auf dem Wissen und Verständnis der universitär gebildeten gesellschaftlicher Eliten unserer Gesellschaften auf.

Die Vereinten Nationen, UNESCO und zahlreiche nicht-staatliche Institutionen haben in den letzten Jahren den Programmen der Menschenrechtsbildung gesteigerte Bedeutung gewidmet und mit dem Ziel, weitere Impulse der Umsetzung zu geben, das Jahr 2008/2009 zum Internationalen Jahr des Menschenrechtslernens erklärt.

Über Initiative und Einladung des Klagenfurter Universitätszentrums für Friedensforschung und Friedenspädagogik fand am 9. 10. 2009 an der Universität Klagenfurt ein Workshop zum Thema Human Rights at Universities statt, das einen intensiven Meinungsaustausch über die Menschenrechtsarbeit an den Universitäten Graz, Klagenfurt und Wien ermöglichte (Teilnehmerliste, Beilage 1).

Der Arbeitsgruppe lag ein Konzept Papier vor, dessen Text einer detaillierten Überarbeitung unterzogen wurde (Human Rights at Universities, Beilage 2).

Die Teilnehmer/innen einigten sich auf nachstehende Schlussfolgerungen, die den zuständigen Institutionen und Behörden sowie interessierten Persönlichkeiten von Wissenschaft und Zivilgesellschaft zur Kenntnis gebracht werden sollen.

1. Einrichtung einer interuniversitären Arbeitsgruppe zur Entwicklung und Förderung von Menschenrechtsbildung und von -forschungsprogrammen an Österreichs Universitäten.

– Alle österreichischen Universitäten werden zur Mitarbeit eingeladen, wobei eine Mitwirkung der verschiedenen akademischen Disziplinen und Fakultäten von Bedeutung sein wird.
– Das Zentrum für Friedensforschung und Friedenspädagogik an der Universität Klagenfurt übernimmt die Koordination der Zusammenarbeit.

2. Ein an den verschiedenen Universitäten initiiertes Programm der „Menschenrechts-universität“ würde folgende Kernelemente enthalten:

– Universitäre Grundbildung in Sachen Menschenrechte für alle Studierenden aller Disziplinen
– Identifizierung der Menschenrechtsdimension der verschiedenen akademischen Disziplinen und Berufszweige (Medizin, Biologie, Politikwissenschaft, Nuklearphysik, Wirtschaft, Kulturwissenschaften, Lehrberufe etc.)
– Entwicklung spezifischer ergänzender Elemente der universitären Lehre in den einzelnen Disziplinen
– Identifizierung von relevanten Forschungsfeldern in den einzelnen Disziplinen
– Entwicklung einer „Kultur der Menschenrechte“ im gesamten universitären Bereich, einschließlich Berücksichtigung der menschenrechtlichen Dimension in den Ziel- und Leistungsvereinbarungen
– Sicherung der erforderlichen institutionellen Kapazitäten für die Verankerung von Menschenrechtsbildung an den Universitäten

3. Die dezentral umgesetzten Programme der Integration von Menschenrechtsbildung und –forschung an den österreichischen Universitäten bedürfen des ständigen Erfahrungsaustausches und auch der Begutachtung der Initiativen und Erfolge.

4. An einer österreichischen Universität soll ein Pilotprojekt lanciert werden, welchem die volle Unterstützung aller in der interuniversitären Arbeitsgruppe zusammenarbeitenden Universitäten und akademischen Institutionen zuteil werden soll.
Die Universität Klagenfurt könnte als erstes Pilotprojekt ausgewählt werden.

5. Das Konzept „Menschenrechte an den Universitäten“, die in dessen Rahmen initiierten Programme und deren Ergebnisse sollen internationalen Partner-Institutionen im universitären wie auch im Menschenrechtsbereich sowie den internationalen Organisationen mit einschlägigen Politikschwerpunkten (UN, UNESCO, EU, Europarat, OSZE, andere Regionalorganisationen) zur Kenntnis gebracht werden.

Menschenrechte und universitäre Forschung und Lehre
Arbeitstagung, Universität Klagenfurt
9. Oktober 2009-10-18

Beilage 1

Teilnehmer/innen

Dr. Bettina Gruber, Zentrum für Friedensforschung und Friedenspädagogik, Universität Klagenfurt

Ass.-Prof. Dr. Doris Hattenberger, Institut für Rechtswissenschaft, Universität Klagenfurt

Dr. Walther Lichem, Botschafter a. D., Wien

Mag.a Barbara Liegl, Ludwig Boltzmann Institut für Menschenrechte, Wien

Dr. Gerd Oberleitner, Institut für Völkerrecht und Internationale Beziehungen, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz

Mag.a Daniela Rippitsch, Zentrum für Friedensforschung und Friedenspädagogik, Universität Klagenfurt

Mag.a Josefine Scherling, Zentrum für Friedensforschung und Friedenspädagogik, Universität Klagenfurt (research fellow)

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Werner Wintersteiner, Zentrum für Friedensforschung und Friedenspädagogik, Universität Klagenfurt

Beilage 2

Human Rights at Universities
The role of academia in societal development

Our common future – the central role of the citizen

While the 20th century has been marked by achievements and failures of states and state structures the historical development over the past decades has tended to underline an ever enhanced role of the citizen in defining the quality and successes in public space. Economic development has been marked by undisputed leadership of the private sector. Social development is being achieved increasingly by private non-governmental services (in the United States 40 % of social services are provided by non-state institutions). The sustainable development and use of our natural and environmental resources endowment depends not only on the states, but more and more on the values, actions of every citizen and other non-state actor.

The growing societal dimension of our agendas

At the same time we are confronting a growing significance of the societal dimension in all sectors of our agendas, globally, regionally and locally. While the term “social” addresses the productive capacities of the human being (health, education, poverty etc.) the term “societal” addresses the ever more relevant relational quality between citizens, communities and identities. Recent developments of the international security agenda have shown that the security of citizens is not any more primarily defined by interstate relations but by the societal cohesion, respect of the citizen for the rule of law, the capacity for otherness in an increasingly pluri-identity society.

Lack of appropriate responses at national and international levels has led to a situation where we are living processes of societal disintegration in practically all regions of world with new intra-societal enmity marked by economic, social, cultural, religious and ethnic otherness which has not yet appropriately been addressed by governments at global, regional and national levels. Today more than 90 % of wars and conflicts occur within states and societies and more than 98 % of war victims are suffered in intra-state violence.

The concept of the “nation state” which inherently has been based on visions of single-identity societies has not yet been rejected as unsuitable for the societal reality of trans-national democratic self-determinedness of each human being. Otherness is not any more beyond national borders but within our societies and the traditional association of otherness with enmity is not sustainable. In fact, a key challenge of the 21st century is the pluri-identity society where the capacity for relating to the other and to public space (where the common good of a community is defined and implemented) is becoming the determining factor for political, economic, social and cultural achievements.

The growing need for multiple-objective policy-making with inter-sectoral and inter-generational internalisation of externalities ultimately reflects the societal dimension of our agendas. Traditionally segregate developments are to be integrated into societally motivated broad-based processes of change towards larger freedom for each and every citizen. The relational capacity of citizens and communities is thus now being recognized as being directly pertinent to security and peace, to economic and social development and to achieving sustainability in the use of our environmental resources endowment.

This societal dimension of our local, regional and global agendas has, however not yet been adequately addressed, partly because of the prevalence of segregate goal-definition and implementation processes and because intra-societal and intra-state issues have been considered to be within the scope of national sovereignty (Art. 2.7 of the UN Charter) and therefore excluded from consideration and action by the international community.

Societal Development towards a Culture of Human Rights

The understanding of one’s own human dignity and human rights and of the dignity and rights of the other is considered a key tool in inserting societal capacities into the values, decision-making criteria and actions of citizens and of state institutions. This implies that human dignity development through human rights based education, learning and processes of socialisation, this means the creation of a societal culture of human rights is to be seen as a primary avenue towards building capacity for otherness and societal cohesion, for peace and security and for creating the societal infrastructure for economic and social development and inter-generational responsibility for the sustainable development and use of natural resources. This approach reflects in fact recent developments in our human rights agenda which has moved from state-citizen relations to an increasing focus on inter-human relations. The development of women’s rights and the rights of the child are examples in this regard.

As vertical processes of government are increasingly accompanied by horizontal partnering of state and non-state partners in processes of governance the capacity of citizens for the public space – the common good – is becoming ever more important. Transition societies from traditional patterns of command and obedience relations and still with limited societal capacities for horizontal interactions are not only marked by cleavages and processes of intra-societal exclusion and enmity but also by very limited capacities for identifying and contributing to the common good. The international community has focussed on the rising significance of the citizens’ internalisation of a culture of peace and nonviolence.

The United Nations has repeatedly underlined the significance of human rights learning proclaiming a United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education (1995-2004) and recently an International Year of Human Rights Learning (2008-2009) which underline the importance of acquiring human rights related values and behavioural patterns in society. Civil society movements, including the People’s Movement for Human Rights Learning have launched a variety of programmes for human rights education and learning at international, national and local levels (e.g. the “Human Rights Cities” programme of PDHRE which was presented to the UN World Urban Forum in Nanjing in 2008). The various initiatives of the United Nations – “Dialogue among Civilizations” – of governments with the backing of the international community – “Alliance of Civilizations” – and of a multitude of civil society institutions – “Dignity of Difference” have stressed the growing need for societal capacity of and for every citizen.

Academia and societal development

Universities have made fundamental contributions to the historical evolution of the broad spectrum of our agendas. Producing knowledge and understanding, providing intellectual leadership in the identification of key values the institutions of higher learning are forming the elite whose values, decisions and actions have an important impact on the achievements in each society.

If we are threatened by societal disintegration with impacts on our security and peace and on the economic and social development potential it may be appropriate to consider the role of academia in societal capacity building. This would pertain both in general to a basic awareness of the fundamental importance of human dignity and human rights for the overall development in our societies as well as to the specific human rights and human dignity dimension of each academic discipline. In this way universities can in fact complement in a most important way human dignity building programmes at local and communal levels (e.g. human rights cities).

Human Rights in academic research and knowledge production

If human dignity development and human rights are in fact of such fundamental importance for our common future it may well be indicated that the human rights dimension be present in all production of knowledge, in all disciplines as a criterion of judgement, future-relatedness and in academic relevance.

It may also be useful and indicated to initiate such approach with an analysis providing each academic discipline with a general overview of its human rights dimension. It may be appropriate to dedicate editions of scientific journals, yearbooks and other academic publications to this topic inviting contributions both from the specific discipline as well as from academic fields dealing with its societal and human rights impact.

Examples of issues to be addressed in the context of this new approach to human rights in our societies could be:
– Root causes of human rights’ violations
– How to implement human rights without “imposing” them?
– Identify new fields and new actors for implementing and “creating” human rights
– How to develop a culture of human rights?
– How to teach / learn human rights in various social fields in different civilizations
– Creating a world wide network of human rights research (a practical proof that human rights are universal)

Human Rights in university education

Human Rights are today considered the key constitutional values of our international community. In fact the principle of the “Responsibility to Protect” unanimously adopted by the Summit Meeting of the United Nations in 2005 puts even the security and safety of the human being above the sovereignty of states should they fail in providing the basic human security from gross violations of human rights, war crimes and genocide to their citizen. As key values of our global community human rights should however then also form part of the educational programmes, including, most importantly, at the university level which is shaping the capacities of an important spectrum of the elite of citizens, societal leaders and decision-makers.

University education should therefore in the future address the human rights dimension of our societal capacity-building through two basic types of programmes
• A general programme of human rights education for all students in all disciplines. In fact no student should be able to graduate today from university without having successfully completed a general course on human rights
• A specific programme of identifying the respective human rights dimension of each academic sector and discipline leading to professional elites who would be capable of understanding the human rights implications of each research field, teaching programme, policy and decision-making options or action
• Academic institutions should provide society with research programmes addressing the institutional, substantive and political dimension of human rights education, learning and socialisation.

Such addition of human rights related university teaching would over time have a very significant impact on the values and general decision-making criteria in the society. Enhanced capacities for otherness will contribute to cultural development and enrichment, to broadened networks of scientific cooperation and exchanges of experience and learning. It would strengthen the human rights culture in the society and make human dignity related interaction between identities a way of life.

Implementing the concept of “Human Rights University”

The following steps could lead to the operationalisation of a “Human Rights University”:
• Identify human rights experts at the university or in other academic institutions
• Identify teams of academics in each discipline prepared to partner with human rights experts in the elaboration of the human rights dimension of the academic discipline respectively of the related professional sector, both with regard to research and to teaching programmes
• Design a general human rights course programme for all students at the university
• Launch a pilot project for one academic sector which would identify its various human rights relevant dimensions and design related teaching programmes
• Use the experiences of this pilot project for extending human rights teaching programmes to other disciplines
• Foster the development of a culture of human rights among students and the academic staff at the university, including promotion of human dignity and the capacity-building for otherness in (local, national and global) pluri-identity societies
• Have the human dignity and human rights values reflected in the public space of the university (festivals, monuments, honorary degrees etc.)
• Integrate human rights related achievements into the programme and reporting systems of the respective university or university unit
• Provide the appropriate institutional framework for the achievement of sustainable work on human rights at a university.

A programme of enriching a university’s research and teaching programme with an enhanced understanding of the human rights-related societal dimension of each discipline and professional sector is to be understood as a long-term, inter-generational effort of fundamental value to the development of a society at large.