Greater Philadelphia Student Declaration on Education for All and Human Rights

Thursday, October 22, 2003

Friday, October 23, 2003

Discrimination

Discrimination exists as a result of ignorance, lack of caring, societal influences and fear. People discriminate based on color, race, political affiliation, outward appearance, beliefs, opinions, age, gender, economic standing, education, where you life, anything that makes a person unique. Because of discrimination, children around the world cannot get an education that makes them production members of society and the future. Schools are in need of teachers, supplies, facilities, and money. These problems also aren’t just foreign but also domestic.

We propose proper funding for all schools. For those schools without materials, we as students can: host book drives, advocate global learning, request donations from companies for school supplies, talk with leaders about other ways to help.

Literacy

Literacy impacts all aspects of life including education, proper health care, work opportunities, and much more.

We suggest these ideas for promoting literacy; book drivers, peer mentors, fundraisers, awareness programs, pen pals, using other countries “best practices” for literacy, make governments understand the issues of literacy.

Gender Disparity

We want to put attention to the fact that gender disparity happens in everyday life. 

Despite the fact that Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights denounces discrimination on the basis of sex, gender disparity is happening in education around the world. There are many reasons that women do not have the same education as men including culture, starting a family, household duties, tradition, or religious reasons.

We propose to promote the ideas of gender equality in order to make a stronger society. It is important for women to be educated because it raises the level of health, creates a stronger economy, creates a more equal world, and ensures education for the next generation.

Role of the Media

Media plays an important role in education; it includes television, radio, newspaper, magazines, Internet, and more. Media can impact education in a lot of different ways. It can be an educational tool, teach about current events, and help people learn about the world around us.

Media can be a powerful tool for education. It can teach how to reading, geography, math, and much more. Media can keep people informed about current events, but more important than ever, we need to make sure that the information in the media is true and accurate.

We think that everyone should have access to free information. Governments should not control the media, and we should use media as a way to educate and  to teach other people about the problems going on in the world.

HIV/AIDS

We believe that HIV/AIDS education is important for all in order to prevent the spread of the disease, promote finding a cure, and to learn how the disease affects the body and how to treat it. HIV/AIDS impacts education because it kills parents, children, and teachers alike, the disease does not discriminate.

We intend to educate about HIV/AIDS by starting education earlier, making commercials and advertisements about the disease, educate on prevention methods and make them available, talking openly about HIV/AIDS, promote greater testing for the disease, hosting AIDS awareness month at our schools, helping people cope with the disease, and promoting tolerance. 

Poverty and Hunger

Poverty and Hunger is a huge barrier in front of proper education, and the problem continues as a downward spiral. Children go to work instead of going to school in order to provide for the family. Parents with less education have more children, sinking them further into poverty. Poverty prevents proper teachers, schools, supplies, and transportation to school.

Hunger keeps students from learning if they are lucky enough to go to school. Malnutrition causes many debilitating illnesses, and can lead to death. It is necessary to education on life skills as well as on traditional subjects. In developing countries, it is important to teach farming skills, practical skills, and technical skills.

Education is important to break the chain of poverty and hunger. We suggest promoting poverty reduction and awareness in our own countries, to raise understanding, and then expanding efforts out into other countries.

Human Rights Education

Education is a tool of empowerment. It is with education that change is possible. We decided there were two central ideas to this. Education is the need to educate people about human rights, and that education is the key to bringing about equality in all facets of life, including racial equality, gender equality, financial equality, and equal opportunity.

The need to educate people about human rights is both a local problem and an international one. Locally, democracy depends on education but the general public is uneducated on global issues. Internationally, few countries meet the standards in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

We as youth have the ability to empower ourselves. It is through educating ourselves, and our community, that we can bring about change. Through dealing with these international problems on a local level that large change is possible. Therefore as educated people it is our obligation to share this knowledge, because it is with this that real change will occur.