The Trump Effect, Children, and the Value of Human Rights Education

• Author: Jonathan Todres
• Date: 01 April 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12350
• Published date: 01 April 2018

THE TRUMP EFFECT, CHILDREN, AND THE VALUE OF HUMAN

RIGHTS EDUCATION

Jonathan Todres*

Since launching his presidential campaign, Donald Trump’s rhetoric has often been divisive as well as demeaning of selected

groups. This article examines the impact of Trump’s rhetoric on children and their communities and explores the role that

human rights education can play in responding to Trump and forging broader support for human rights. The article reviews the

research on human rights education and considers how human rights education can be embedded in broader ef‌forts to educate

children. Using children’s literature as a case study, the article argues for the importance of mainstreaming human rights educa-

tion and meeting children where they are, in order to foster greater recognition of and respect for the rights of all individuals.

Key Points for the Family Court Community:

Trump’s policies and rhetoric, which have demeaned many historically marginalized groups, appear to be spurring

adverse consequences for many children in the United States.

Responding to Trump’s rhetoric requires not only immediate action but also longer-term strategies that help foster

rights-respecting communities.

Human rights education is a key, albeit often-overlooked, component of human rights law.

Human rights education means not only teaching about human rights but also instructing and learning in a way that

respects the rights of students and teachers and empowering individuals to exercise their rights and respect others’

rights.

The research on human rights education shows that it produces a range of benef‌its for children and their communities.

To reap the benef‌its of human rights education, it is important to mainstream human rights education and meet children

where they are.

Children’s literature of‌fers a safe, imaginative space for children to confront human rights themes and provides a model

for mainstreaming human rights education and meeting children where they are.

Keywords: Children’s Literature; Children’s Rights; Convention on the Rights of the Child; Discrimination; Human

Rights Education; Mainstreaming; and Tolerance.

The culture of human rights must be a popular culture if it is to have the strength to withstand the blows

that will inevitably come. Human-rights culture must be a popular culture if it is to be able to innovate

and to be truly owned at the national and sub-national levels.

–Sergio Vieira de Mello, then-U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights

1

I. INTRODUCTION

In January 2017, mere days after Donald J. Trump swore an oath as president to “defend the Con-

stitution of the United States,” the Trump administration issued its f‌irst executive order attempting to

close the United States to refugees as well as other immigrants from selected countries.

2

The courts

struck down that attempt, and he tried again.

3

The “Muslim Ban”—as Trump has called it

4

—and its

associated rhetoric has demonized the nearly two billion people in this world who call Islam their

religion.

5

In August 2017, Ku Klux Klan members, neo-Nazis, and other White supremacists marched on

Charlottesville, Virginia.

6

This hate-f‌illed rally turned violent, resulting in the tragic death of one

Corresponding: jtodres@gsu.edu

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Vol. 56 No. 2, April 2018 331–343

V

C2018 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts