Human Rights, Human Capital and Capabilities as a Normative Basis for Social Justice and Sustainable Society Development: Sub Saharan African Countries

Conference: The European Conference on Education (ECE2022)
Title: Human Rights, Human Capital and Capabilities as a Normative Basis for Social Justice and Sustainable Society Development: Sub Saharan African Countries
Stream: Education, Sustainability & Society: Social Justice, Development & Political Movements
Presentation Type: Live-Stream Presentation
Authors:
Martha Matashu, North-West University, South Africa

Abstract:

Corona Virus Diseases -19 (COVID-19) exposed high gaps of inequalities and social injustices that exist in societies. This raises questions about the adequacy of the existing human rights education frameworks to achieve the right to education to the end of achieving sustainable development and social justice in societies in general and in specific developing countries. This study submits the argument that the observed inequalities and social injustices provide evidence that the conceptualisation of education based on the human rights approach alone is insufficient to attain the rights to education and the goal behind this right. This conceptual paper thus assesses the grounds for an alternative conceptualisation of an educational framework that can provide a normative basis for the right to education, social justice, and sustainable development in societies. This paper begins with a discussion of the right to education. A proposal is suggested to incorporate the human capital theory and the capabilities approach instead of discarding the human rights-based approach or leaving it to stand alone. The incorporation of the human rights, human capital, capabilities approach to the universal rights to the education system will enrich the human rights-based education framework to provide a comprehensive perspective for attaining the normative basis for rights to education, the development of people's capacities to their full potentials, creation of conditions necessary for capabilities to be realized and the rights to be exercised. Such an integrated education approach is envisaged to contribute toward building sustained development and social justice in societies.

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