Human Rights Education from a Critical and Creative Perspective

Abstract Book of the 8th World Conference on Education and Teaching

Year: 2025

[PDF]

Human Rights Education from a Critical and Creative Perspective

Yenifer Rodríguez

ABSTRACT:

This presentation introduces a pedagogical experience developed within the framework of the Human Rights course in the Law program at Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, Campus. Its objective was to strengthen students’ critical thinking and ability to solve complex problems. Through a methodology based on territorial analysis, situational diagnosis, review of national and international legal frameworks, and the formulation of public policy proposals, students took on the challenge of understanding, interpreting, and acting on real human rights issues from a situated and transformative perspective.
The project was designed with a territorial and population-based approach. Each group chose a department of the country and a historically vulnerable population. Based on the study of the territory’s social, political, and economic context, students reviewed official databases, institutional statistics, regional reports, identified key stakeholders, and mapped social organizations. This robust research enabled them to formulate comprehensive diagnoses and identify applicable legal frameworks, and then create proposals aligned with international human rights law, but adapted to the territory’s specific needs.
The final products were educational booklets aimed at the community, written in clear and accessible language, and illustrated by the students themselves using digital design tools. For example, one group worked with the LGBTIQ+ community on a project titled “Diverse Voices: Realities and Challenges of the LGBTIQ+ Community in Cundinamarca.” Another group addressed the issue of child sexual exploitation in Bolívar with the project “Stolen Childhoods, Imposed Silences.” Other proposals focused on people with disabilities in Boyacá, victims of armed conflict in Arauca, and the Wayuu people in La Guajira — nine projects in total.
This approach required students to mobilize analytical, communicative, and proactive skills, and to go beyond a legal education traditionally centered on abstract and decontextualized knowledge. The project’s preliminary results show a paradigm shift in legal education: it promotes a more critical, interdisciplinary, and socially engaged way of teaching Law, one that responds to local contexts. It fostered dialogue among forms of knowledge and addressed the country’s complexity.
The experience also revealed educational tensions: for many students, integrating tools from other disciplines and understanding deep social realities meant questioning the rigid and formalistic teaching style that still prevails in many curricula. However, the exercise sowed the seeds of transformation: envisioning Law as a civic language, a tool for promoting human rights, and a driver of change from the classroom.
In summary, this pedagogical proposal helps train legal professionals capable of reading the world—not only interpreting it through norms, but also acting upon it with responsibility, empathy, and creativity, building situated knowledge that engages with the everyday life of local communities.

Keywords: Derechos Humanos, Educacinón Jurdicaídica, Pensamiento Creativo Y Pensamiento Crticoítico.