Abbie Godoy-Guillen | Expand human rights education in the Caribbean

Across the Caribbean, the denial of human rights is neither a rare nor exceptional event. It is woven deeply into the fabric of everyday life. It appears when young men are stopped and searched without explanation, when women are denied safety, when migrants are rendered invisible, and when poverty results in endless uncertainty and exclusion.

However, human rights are not abstract legal language or foreign ideals. They are fundamental freedoms inherent to every individual. They affirm that no one’s life is worth less because of where they live, how they look, or how much they earn. Across the Commonwealth Caribbean, our constitutions are built on these very foundations. They express a deep commitment to human dignity forged through histories of colonialism, struggle, and resistance.

Yet, there remains a dangerous gap between constitutional promise and lived reality. Too many people experience rights only as words on paper, not as protections that they can claim. This is why human rights education must be a regional priority in 2026. A people who do not know their rights cannot defend themselves. A people who do not understand dignity cannot demand it.

While much attention is directed towards raising awareness of political rights, such as freedom of speech, less focus is placed on civil and social rights. It is thus imperative that governments and civil society begin the conversation about these rights especially at the secondary and tertiary levels. This is of paramount importance as people at these levels of schooling are about to enter the workforce and lead their societies into the future.

Therefore, human rights education empowers citizens to recognise injustice, to question authority, and to insist on accountability. It transforms rights from legal abstractions into lived values. A region that invests in human rights education invests in freedom itself.

Abbie Godoy-Guillen is the project coordinator for the University of Belize’s European Union-funded Human Rights Project. She completed an MPhil in Social & Cultural Anthropology at the University of Oxford as the 2020 Commonwealth Caribbean Rhodes Scholar from Belize.