Human Rights Education Now!

Danielle Goldberg is Managing Director of the Community Alliance for Child Rights at UNICEF USA. She leads work with municipal governments and national and state partners to embed children’s rights, voices, and best interests in local decision-making. She initiated UNICEF USA’s Child Friendly Cities Initiative in the United States and oversaw its launch in 2020. She now leads its evolution toward a broader child-centered governance strategy connecting cities, young people, researchers, and national partners. Her more than 20 years of experience span human rights, peacebuilding, education, and youth engagement.

Mahmoud is a Duke University student from Minnesota and of Eritrean heritage. In his second year on UNICEF USA’s National Youth Council, he brings interests in law, public policy, and developmental economics to his work on human rights and global issues. His experiences include policy research, an undergraduate fellowship in Middle Eastern Studies, and advocacy with UNICEF clubs and legislators in Washington, D.C. He also served on the Harris Poll Youth Advisory Board, helping bring young people’s perspectives into research on civic engagement.

Episode 80 Summary

In this episode of Human Rights Education Now! podcast, Danielle and Mahmoud explore children’s rights, youth civic engagement, and the importance of making young people’s voices count in public decisions. Drawing on his involvement in a national youth survey, Mahmoud describes a generation that believes in its ability to create change while often feeling unheard by those in power. He discusses differences in trust between local and federal leaders, the value of direct relationships with elected officials, and how young people are building connections and organizing across communities.

Danielle explains how UNICEF USA’s Child Friendly Cities Initiative has informed a broader approach to child-centered governance. She describes practical strategies (including youth councils, child impact statements, children’s budgets, children’s cabinets, and youth ombuds offices) that can make consideration of children’s rights a consistent part of government. The conversation emphasizes that meaningful participation requires structures through which young people can influence decisions and see their perspectives taken seriously.

The guests also reflect on their personal journeys into human rights. Mahmoud discusses his family’s experience moving to Minnesota, the impact of community solidarity, and learning about housing rights and the legacy of apartheid during a summer in South Africa. Danielle shares how university study, personal experiences, and work in education and peacebuilding shaped her commitment to helping people understand and act on their rights. She introduces the Convention on the Rights of the Child as a framework for recognizing children as rights holders and supporting their participation in everyday life.

The episode concludes by considering the interconnected challenges facing children, including conflict, displacement, and access to essential resources. Danielle and Mahmoud reflect on leadership, dignity, and the importance of making rights meaningful close to home. Their advice to young listeners centers on recognizing the value of their lived experience, continuing to speak out, and building supportive communities that can turn shared concerns into action.

Topics discussed:

• Youth civic engagement and trust in government
• Meaningful youth participation and representation
• Child-centered governance and Child Friendly Cities
• The Convention on the Rights of the Child
• Human rights education and personal experiences
• Conflict, displacement, and children’s rights
• Community solidarity and advice for young advocates

Full topic listing available for PDF download HERE.

Listen on our HREUSA podcast website HERE.

Introduction and Closing Music Credit:  “Awakening-Spring” by Ketsa, from the Album Night Vision.  Available at the Free Music Archive:  https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/night-vision/awakening-spring/

This music is used in accordance with this Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Information about that license is available here  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Human Rights Education Now! is produced and distributed in accordance with Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International.  Information about this license is available here:  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ 

Dr. Almas (Ally) Merchant is a clinical psychologist, Director and Clinical Supervisor at Stress & Trauma Evaluation and Psychological Services (STEPS), and American Psychological Association (APA) Council Representative for Division 39, the Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology. She also co-chairs the Global Issues and Global Human Rights Caucus and co-hosts the Couched podcast. 

Dr. Linda Woolf is a Professor of Psychology and International Human Rights at Webster University and was elected 2027 president of the American Psychological Association. Her work addresses human rights education, peace psychology, and the psychosocial roots of genocide and torture.

Episode 80 Summary

In this episode, Linda and Ally reflect on the experiences that shaped their commitment to human rights. Linda describes how teaching about the Holocaust led her to explore other genocides and incorporate human rights into her courses. Ally shares how her upbringing in India, early mentorship, and engagement with postcolonial thought informed her understanding of justice, dignity, and the relationship between psychological distress and structural inequality.

The conversation explores how psychologists translate human rights commitments into clinical practice, education, policy, and advocacy. Linda and Ally discuss professional accountability, opposition to torture, freedom of expression, access to healthcare, and the importance of challenging systems that place some lives above others. They also reflect on influential role models, Indigenous perspectives on relationships with land and other living beings, and psychology’s contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals.

Topics discussed:

• Personal journeys into human rights
• Psychology, social justice, and structural inequality
• Human rights in clinical practice and education
• Professional ethics and accountability
• APA policy and freedom of expression
• Healthcare access and advocacy
• Human rights role models
• Indigenous perspectives and the value of every life
• Psychology and the Sustainable Development Goals

Full topic listing available for PDF download HERE.

Listen on our HREUSA podcast website HERE.

Introduction and Closing Music Credit:  “Awakening-Spring” by Ketsa, from the Album Night Vision.  Available at the Free Music Archive:  https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/night-vision/awakening-spring/

This music is used in accordance with this Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Information about that license is available here  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Human Rights Education Now! is produced and distributed in accordance with Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International.  Information about this license is available here:  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ 

Maddy Wegner is an educator and communications specialist with extensive experience in service-learning, youth engagement, communications, and human and child rights education. She has served in multiple roles with the National Youth Leadership Council, including Director of Content and Engagement and Director of Communications. Her work has included developing resources for service-learning practitioners, integrating human and child rights frameworks into educational practice, and creating educational materials inspired by Nobel Peace Prize laureates and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. She also serves on the Executive Committee for Minneapolis’ Child Friendly Cities Initiative and has been recognized for her contributions to service-learning.

Episode 79 Summary

In this episode of Human Rights Education Now!, Maddy Wegner reflects on the experiences that shaped her commitment to human rights and human rights education. She discusses her early exposure to Indigenous rights issues while growing up in South Dakota, her experiences studying in Norway, and how immigration, equity, and children's rights became increasingly central to her work. She also reflects on how observing children's rights in practice in Nordic communities influenced her understanding of young people as rights holders.

Maddy explores her extensive work engaging young people through PeaceJam, Youthrive, the National Youth Leadership Council, and the Nobel Peace Prize Festival. She describes projects that enabled young people to learn from Nobel Peace Prize laureates, participate in service-learning and civic engagement, create bilingual and child-rights books, and connect human rights principles to issues in their own communities. The conversation also highlights Minneapolis’ UNICEF Child Friendly Cities Initiative and the importance of meaningful youth participation in building communities that respect children's rights.

The episode concludes by examining some of today's most pressing human rights concerns, particularly immigration and the rights to equality, movement, asylum, nationality, and freedom from arbitrary arrest. Maddy reflects on the people who have inspired her work, including Kailash Satyarthi, and emphasizes the importance of transforming young people's sense of injustice into constructive action. Her central recommendation for advancing children's rights is clear: the United States should ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and every child should have the opportunity to know and understand their rights.

Topics discussed:

• Origins of Maddy Wegner's interest in human rights and human rights education
• Indigenous rights and the American Indian Movement
• Immigration, equity, and human rights
• Children's rights in the United States and Nordic countries
• Youthrive, PeaceJam, and Nobel Peace Prize education
• Minneapolis' Child Friendly Cities Initiative
• Reach Out and Read and child-created rights books
• Service-learning and civic engagement
• National Youth Leadership Council
• Youth voice and community-based education
• Human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals
• Immigration and immigrant rights
• Kailash Satyarthi and youth activism
• Ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Full topic listing available for PDF download HERE.

Listen on our HREUSA podcast website HERE.

Thank you for supporting the Human Rights Education NOW! podcast!

Introduction and Closing Music Credit:  “Awakening-Spring” by Ketsa, from the Album Night Vision.  Available at the Free Music Archive:  https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/night-vision/awakening-spring/

This music is used in accordance with this Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Information about that license is available here  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Human Rights Education Now! is produced and distributed in accordance with Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International.  Information about this license is available here:  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ 

Dr. Abraham Magendzo is one of Latin America's leading scholars in human rights education. He earned his Licentiate in Education from the University of Chile, a master's degree in Education and History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a doctorate in Education from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Throughout his distinguished career, he has served as Director of the Interdisciplinary Program for Educational Research (PIIE), a member of Chile's Center for Training, Experimental and Pedagogical Research, a professor and researcher at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, and a member of the Curriculum and Evaluation Unit in Chile's Ministry of Education.

Abraham has worked as an educational consultant for organizations including the Organization of American States (OAS), UNESCO, the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI), the Ford Foundation, and the Carlos Galán Institute in Colombia. He is an active member of both the Chilean Network and the Latin American and Caribbean Network on Human Rights Education. His contributions to education have been recognized with Chile's Gabriela Mistral Award in 2004 and the country's National Education Award in 2017. He currently serves as a professor at the Universidad Academia de Humanismo Cristiano in Santiago, Chile.

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In Episode 78, Dr. Abraham Magendzo reflects on the personal and historical experiences that shaped his lifelong commitment to human rights education (HRE). Drawing on the legacy of the Holocaust and the human rights violations committed during Chile's Pinochet dictatorship, he explains how these events inspired his work to rebuild democratic society through education after the return of democracy. Abraham discusses the early challenges of introducing HRE in Chile and throughout Latin America, emphasizing the importance of developing scholarship, educator networks, and regional collaboration.

Throughout the conversation, Abraham highlights the need to connect human rights to people's everyday lives rather than treating them as abstract legal concepts. Inspired by Paulo Freire's educational philosophy, he argues that HRE must use accessible language grounded in learners' lived experiences. He also examines contemporary challenges, including poverty, migration, Indigenous rights, and the rise of right-wing political movements, stressing that human rights are indivisible and must encompass economic, social, cultural, civil, and political rights.

The episode concludes with reflections on the growth of human rights education across Latin America, the importance of international collaboration, and his belief that the field's next step is to move from discussion to meaningful action. Abraham emphasizes that protecting human dignity requires educators, communities, and institutions to transform human rights principles into everyday practice.

Topics discussed:

• Origins of Dr. Abraham Magendzo's commitment to human rights education
• The Holocaust and Chile's Pinochet dictatorship as formative influences
• Restoring democracy through human rights education
• Building human rights education networks across Latin America
• Paulo Freire's influence on human rights education
• Making human rights accessible through everyday language
• Human rights in daily life, families, schools, and communities
• Poverty as a human rights issue
• Migration and the rights of immigrants
• Indigenous rights and contemporary political challenges
• International collaboration among human rights educators
• Moving from dialogue to action in advancing human rights

Full topic listing available for PDF download HERE.

Listen on our HREUSA podcast website HERE.

Introduction and Closing Music Credit:  “Awakening-Spring” by Ketsa, from the Album Night Vision.  Available at the Free Music Archive:  https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/night-vision/awakening-spring/

This music is used in accordance with this Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Information about that license is available here  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Human Rights Education Now! is produced and distributed in accordance with Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International.  Information about this license is available here:  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ 

Dr. Mary Elizabeth Curran is Professor of Language Education at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education. She directs the Office of Local-Global Partnerships and prepares future language education teachers and researchers. Her scholarship focuses on community-engaged language education, language teacher education, and global teacher education. She is the founder of the award-winning Conversation Tree: Community-Based Language Partnership Program and serves as co-editor of the Global Teacher Education book series published by Bloomsbury.

Dr. Curran has championed multilingualism through her research, teaching, and community partnerships. Her work builds meaningful connections between universities and local communities while promoting language justice, cultural sustainability, and equitable educational opportunities for multilingual learners.

Episode Summary

In this episode of Human Rights Education Now!, Mary Curran discusses how her passion for language education became a commitment to multilingualism, community engagement, and human rights. She explains how learning additional languages fosters empathy, strengthens relationships across cultures, and helps create more inclusive communities. Drawing on her work at Rutgers University, she describes the development of the award-winning Conversation Tree program, which connects university students with multilingual community members through reciprocal language learning.

The conversation explores language as a fundamental human right and examines the harmful effects of subtractive bilingualism, in which individuals lose their heritage language and, with it, important cultural, familial, and personal connections. Mary shares examples from long-standing exchange partnerships between Rutgers and communities in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, highlighting efforts to preserve the Mayan language while developing future Indigenous leaders. She also reflects on the importance of community partnerships, documentary storytelling, and local language preservation efforts.

Mary addresses the impact of recent immigration policies on multilingual communities, emphasizing the need for schools and universities to protect immigrant families and expand access to education. She discusses New Jersey's Seal of Biliteracy, the importance of multilingual teacher preparation, and broader efforts to make language learning a societal priority. Drawing inspiration from Paulo Freire and Gloria Anzaldúa, Mary concludes by advocating for multilingualism as a human right and calling for professional preparation programs that equip educators and public servants to serve linguistically diverse communities. She closes by reinforcing the need to treat multilingualism as a shared responsibility and a human right.

Topics discussed:

• Origins of Mary Curran's work in language education and multilingualism
• Language learning as a human right
• The Conversation Tree community language partnership
• Campus-community engagement through language learning
• Subtractive bilingualism and language loss
• Exchange partnerships with Mexico and preservation of the Mayan language
• Immigration policy and supporting multilingual communities
• New Jersey's Seal of Biliteracy
• Global teacher education and transnational partnerships
• Indigenous language preservation
• Paulo Freire's influence on language education
• Gloria Anzaldúa and language as identity
• Multilingual teacher preparation and professional licensing

Full topic listing available for PDF download HERE.

Listen on our HREUSA podcast website HERE.

Introduction and Closing Music Credit:  “Awakening-Spring” by Ketsa, from the Album Night Vision.  Available at the Free Music Archive:  https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/night-vision/awakening-spring/

This music is used in accordance with this Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Information about that license is available here  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Human Rights Education Now! is produced and distributed in accordance with Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International.  Information about this license is available here:  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ 

Dr. Pedro Gonzalez is a leading human rights advocate and Assistant Professor of Human Rights at Northern Arizona University. His expertise spans criminology, criminal justice, and comparative cultural studies. Pedro's doctoral work in Holocaust Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas informs his teaching on the Holocaust, human rights, and Latin American and Mexican history.

Pedro’s research centers on human rights, genocide, migration, memory, and state-sponsored violence in Latin America. He has held fellowships with Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy and Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights, serves on the Faculty Advisory Council at Seven Generation Indigenous Knowledge Center, and received the 2025 Ed O’Brien Human Rights Education Award, recognized by Human Rights Educators USA.

Episode Summary

Dr. Pedro Gonzalez traces his commitment to human rights education to childhood experiences in Mexico City, where encounters with police repression, labor unrest, and stories of torture and disappearance left lasting impressions. He explains how his academic study and mentorship enabled him to connect these memories to broader frameworks of ethics, history, and advocacy, framing the episode around his journey from personal experience to professional engagement.

The episode centers on how Latin American history, critical pedagogy, and ethics shape Pedro's approach as an educator and scholar. He discusses weaving human rights into his university courses by encouraging dialogue, empathy, and respect for human dignity. Highlighting his work on forced disappearances in Mexico, Pedro shares how he uses photography and public exhibits to preserve memory and resist erasure—connecting remembrance and activism to resistance against state violence, exemplified by his links to the Madres de Plaza de Mayo.

Pedro addresses contemporary challenges in the United States and Mexico, focusing on migration, dehumanization, nationalism, and polarization, and their relevance to human rights education. He describes teaching migration and human rights through historical, political, and cultural perspectives, emphasizing migrants' lived experiences and structural causes of displacement. The episode concludes with reflections on hope, ethics, and responsibility, drawing from Emmanuel Levinas and underscoring memory and solidarity as central to advancing human rights education.

Topics discussed:

• Origins of Dr. Pedro Gonzalez’s work in human rights and human rights education
• Childhood experiences with repression and violence in Mexico City
• Latin American history, ethics, and human rights pedagogy
• Integrating human rights into university teaching
• Forced disappearances and photography as testimony
• Memory, memorialization, and resistance to historical erasure
• Cultural heritage and human rights
• Migration, borders, and nationalism
• Humanizing migrants through education
• Dehumanization, polarization, and digital media
• Emmanuel Levinas, ethics, and responsibility toward others
• Hope, dignity, and solidarity in human rights work

Full topic listing available for PDF download HERE.

Listen on our HREUSA podcast website HERE.

Introduction and Closing Music Credit:  “Awakening-Spring” by Ketsa, from the Album Night Vision.  Available at the Free Music Archive:  https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/night-vision/awakening-spring/

This music is used in accordance with this Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Information about that license is available here  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Human Rights Education Now! is produced and distributed in accordance with Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International.  Information about this license is available here:  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ 

Dr. Teresa M. Cappiali is an academic and international consultant. She founded NOIWE, a Sweden-based organization focused on transforming education using Transformative- Emancipatory Pedagogy (TEP). For 14 years+ and across five continents, she has developed this framework, combining knowledge, empathy, and critical thinking to create classrooms grounded in dialogue and collective transformation. Teresa holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Université de Montréal and has held positions at several major research institutes. She now works with the Raoul Wallenberg Institute and at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University. Her work promotes inclusive and fair approaches to education worldwide.

In this episode, Dr. Teresa M. Cappiali introduces Transformative-Emancipatory Pedagogy (TEP) as a framework for reimagining education as a tool for human rights, dignity, and social transformation. She traces her intellectual journey from traditional “banking” models of education to progressive and, ultimately, emancipatory approaches, drawing on the work of Paulo Freire and decolonial traditions. Cappiali highlights how TEP and human rights education focus on dignity, empathy, and responsibility. She discusses how Maria Montessori’s work shapes her ideas and stresses the need to connect with students’ real experiences to support their growth. TEP encourages critical thinking through respectful dialogue and tackling tough issues. The episode explores the use of TEP to promote inclusion and empower students, especially in migrant communities. Teresa explains the need to address controversy with a pedagogy of "discomfort" while keeping learning respectful and supportive. She ends by stressing hope, healing, and the integration of knowledge from many fields as key to global human rights education. [Full bio on HREUSA podcast website]

Topics discussed:

• Origins of Teresa Cappiali’s work in human rights education
• Transformative-Emancipatory Pedagogy (TEP) and its foundations
• From “banking education” to emancipatory education models
• Humanistic values: dignity, empathy, and interconnectedness
• Montessori’s influence on human rights education
• Creating supportive, dialogic classroom environments
• Cognitive dissonance and engaging controversial issues
• Applying TEP to migration and social justice issues
• Institutional change through student voice and participation
• Pedagogy of discomfort and critical dialogue
• Role models, hope, and interdisciplinary approaches to HRE

Download podcast listing HERE. Listen on our HREUSA podcast website.

Introduction and Closing Music Credit:  “Awakening-Spring” by Ketsa, from the Album Night Vision.  Available at the Free Music Archive:  https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/night-vision/awakening-spring/

This music is used in accordance with this Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Information about that license is available here  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Human Rights Education Now! is produced and distributed in accordance with Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International.  Information about this license is available here:  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ 

Mischa Geracoulis is the Outreach and Engagement Officer at Project Censored and Production Lead at The Censored Press. She contributes to the State of the Free Press yearbook, serves as a Project Judge, and is the author of Media Framing and the Destruction of Cultural Heritage (Routledge, 2025). She is also a Global Press Freedom Expert and Index Respondent with Reporters Without Borders. Her work focuses on human rights, journalistic ethics, press freedom, and the preservation of cultural heritage. She holds an M.A. in Education and Media Studies and a B.A. in International Development, with a concentration in Southwest Asia and North Africa. 

In this episode, Mischa examines how human rights, journalism, and the preservation of cultural heritage intersect, focusing on the legacy of the Armenian genocide. She discusses how cultural erasure and historical silences cause ongoing human rights violations and how journalism documents these histories to resist erasure. The conversation centers on cultural heritage as a human rights issue, focusing on Rafael Lemkin’s work and media narratives. Mischa’s discussion of “change-centered” journalism and the role of microhistories in amplifying marginalized voices links to Edward Said’s Orientalism and critiques of media and power. Mischa describes her work with Project Censored, focusing on promoting critical media literacy and defending freedom of expression under Articles 19 and 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The episode centers on contemporary censorship, particularly political pressures on academic and journalistic freedom, and how media institutions shape or suppress truth. The discussion concludes with a global perspective on the destruction of cultural heritage (the case of Nagorno-Karabakh) and a call for educators to integrate critical media literacy and cultural heritage into human rights education. Mischa emphasizes empowering people to critically analyze media and identify whose voices are included/excluded is essential to advancing human rights today.

Topics discussed:

· Origins of Mischa Geracoulis’ work in human rights and journalism

· Armenian genocide and cultural erasure

· Journalism’s role in documenting human rights abuses

· Cultural heritage as a human rights issue

· Microhistories and change-centered journalism

· Edward Said’s Orientalism and media analysis

· Project Censored and media accountability

· Critical media literacy in human rights education

· Censorship, propaganda, and academic freedom

· Cultural destruction in Nagorno-Karabakh

· Educators’ role in preserving cultural heritage

Download full topic listing. Listen at HREUSA podcast website.

Introduction and Closing Music Credit:  “Awakening-Spring” by Ketsa, from the Album Night Vision.  Available at the Free Music Archive:  https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/night-vision/awakening-spring/

This music is used in accordance with this Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Information about that license is available here  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Human Rights Education Now! is produced and distributed in accordance with Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International.  Information about this license is available here:  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ 

Professor Emeritus Jane Williams has built a distinguished career spanning legal practice, government legal service, academia, and civil society activism. She played a pivotal role in securing legislation on the rights of the child in Wales and was instrumental in the campaign for a Welsh Youth Parliament. At Swansea University, she co-founded the Observatory on Human Rights of Children (now the Observatory on Human Rights and Social Justice) and the Children’s Legal Centre Wales. Her scholarship and advocacy focus on devolution, child law, and children’s rights. She's pioneered pedagogical innovations, including trans-Atlantic Street Law collaborations and human rights–based research with children.

In Episode 73 of Human Rights Education Now!, Jane Williams reflects on the roots of her commitment to children’s rights, shaped by witnessing the impact of poverty on children’s lives and by her legal training. She discusses the challenges of advancing children’s rights within the legal profession and the transformative influence of the UK Human Rights Act. A core focus of the conversation is the development of Wales’ Children’s Parliament and the Children’s and People’s Assembly of Wales, created in the context of devolution and informed by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Jane explains how these initiatives demonstrate the practical integration of children’s participation rights into democratic structures. She describes the founding of the Observatory on Human Rights and Social Justice and the Children’s Legal Centre Wales, institutions dedicated to research, accountability, policy advocacy, curriculum reform, and embedding children’s rights into formal systems.

Drawing on figures like Eglantyne Jebb and Janusz Korczak, Jane calls for abolishing the minimum voting age so governments must treat children as political actors. Read full episode description HERE.

Topics discussed:

• Origins of Jane Williams’ work in children’s rights
• Impact of poverty on children’s lives
• Law as a pathway to children’s rights advocacy
• Wales’ devolution and the creation of the Children’s Parliament
• The role of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in Welsh reform
• Integrating children’s rights into institutions and legal practice
• Curriculum reform in Wales and human rights education
• Nationalism, migrant children, and decolonizing legal education
• Historical role models in children’s rights
• Abolishing the minimum voting age as a strategy for advancing children’s rights

Full topic listing available for PDF download HERE.

Listen on our HREUSA podcast website HERE. 

Introduction and Closing Music Credit:  “Awakening-Spring” by Ketsa, from the Album Night Vision.  Available at the Free Music Archive:  https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/night-vision/awakening-spring/

This music is used in accordance with this Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Information about that license is available here  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Human Rights Education Now! is produced and distributed in accordance with Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International.  Information about this license is available here:  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ 

*Read full bio on HREUSA website*

Jack L. Nelson is a veteran educator and scholar whose career spans public schools and higher education in the United States and abroad. In 2001, he received the National Council for the Social Studies’ National Academic Freedom Award. He began teaching in Denver, Colorado, and later worked with migrant worker children in Riverside, California. He earned his B.A. from the University of Denver, his M.A. from California State University, Los Angeles, and his Ed.D. from the University of Southern California.

In Episode 72, he reflects on his career in education and his lifelong defense of academic freedom as a fundamental human right. He traces the origins of his critical stance to the era of McCarthyism, describing how censorship, political persecution, and fear shaped academic life in the mid-20th century. He discusses the marginalization of critical scholars, the suppression of dissenting curricular materials, and the personal costs borne by educators who challenged dominant narratives.

The conversation explores the evolution of his work in human rights education and its deep connections to social studies education, emphasizing that democratic education must engage students with controversial issues and alternative perspectives. Jack addresses ongoing threats to intellectual freedom, i.e., book bans, political pressure, and erosion of tenure protections, while warning of the dangers posed by growing numbers of non-tenured faculty. He argues that academic freedom requires more than ethical commitments—it demands enforceable legal and structural protections. Drawing inspiration from figures i.e. John Dewey and Bob O’Neill, he concludes by calling for national standards for tenure protections across K–12 and higher education and for stronger coalitions among educators to defend intellectual freedom as a cornerstone of democracy.

Topics discussed:

• Origins of Jack Nelson’s career in education
  
  
  
• McCarthyism and its lasting impact on academic freedom
  
  
  
• Critical scholarship and challenges to mainstream history education
  
  
  
• Censorship of educators and curricular materials
  
  
  
• Human rights education within social studies education
  
  
  
• Academic freedom as a human right
  
  
  
• Tenure, intellectual freedom, and structural protections
  
  
  
• Contemporary threats to democracy and education
  
  
  
• Role of professional associations in defending educators
  
  
  
• John Dewey’s influence on democratic and civic education

Full topic listing available for PDF download HERE.

Listen on our HREUSA podcast website HERE. 

Introduction and Closing Music Credit:  “Awakening-Spring” by Ketsa, from the Album Night Vision.  Available at the Free Music Archive:  https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/night-vision/awakening-spring/

This music is used in accordance with this Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Information about that license is available here  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Human Rights Education Now! is produced and distributed in accordance with Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International.  Information about this license is available here:  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/