ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the evolution of human rights education (HRE) at the global level from a predominantly law-related initiative to an expansive framework that seeks to integrate human rights in a holistic manner across formal education. It examines whether HRE at the global level has translated into local obligations relevant to formal primary schooling in England. English formal primary education begins during the school year in which a child reaches the age of five and finishes at eleven, when learners progress to secondary school. Human rights terminology continued to be conspicuous by its absence from the primary curriculum in the early 2000s. Religious education is deemed to provoke ‘challenging questions about the ultimate meaning and purpose of life, beliefs about God, the self and the nature of reality, issues of right and wrong, and what it means to be human’. The chapter concludes by summarising the scope and nature of HRE in the English policy landscape.
