Dr Danielle Celemajer

University of Sydney, Australia

Promoting Interfaith Dialogue through schools: A Human Rights Perspective

Abstract

In his attempts to articulate inclusive political processes appropriate to modern political communities characterized by deep value diversity, Habermas insisted that ‘concrete, particular moralities rooted in particular forms of life’ had to have a universalistic kernel. He also advocated a type of universalism that attributed equal rights to the ‘alien other’ irrespective how incomprehensible they are to us. This dual demand, that out (cultural, religious) particularisms retain an eye to the universal, and that universals be sufficiently capacious to allow for the particular provides a powerful template for approaching the task of promoting inclusion of Muslim citizens in the West. Given the importance of school education in the formation of value commitments and key political virtues like respect, recognition and responsibility, we need to ask how curricula can operationalize this template. This paper considers the role that human rights can play as a mediating discourse between different conceptions of the good and discusses a project the author is currently involved in developing that aims to foster the values of recognition and respect for difference and responsibility in high school students.

Bio

Danielle Celermajer is Director of Global Studies at the University of Sydney. She was formerly Director of Indigenous Social Justice
Policy at the HUman Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. She completed her doctorate in New York at Columbia University where she went on to teach human rights and run an international project on religion and human rights.