Majority rights and minority responsibilities: young people’s negotiations with human rights


 

ISSN: 2535-5406                                        Vol 4, No 3 (2021) http://doi.org/10.7577/hrer.4536  

© 2021 the author(s). This is an OpenAccess publication licensed under terms given in: 
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (CC-BY 4.0). https://www.humanrer.org 

Obituary 

Shulamith Koenig 1930-2021 

Many have been inspired by the work of human rights education advocate and 

activist Shulamith Koenig. All who encountered her recall her passion, whether 

or not they agreed with her approach.  Below Human Rights Education Review 

includes an obituary written by respected human rights educator Nancy Flowers.     

 

Nancy Flowers 

Human Rights Educators USA, nancymaryflowers@gmail.com  

In August 2021, human rights education lost one of its earliest and most passionate advocates 

with the passing of Shulamith Koenig, whom some have called ‘The Mother of Human Rights 

Education’ or human rights learning, as she preferred. When she founded the People’s 

Movement for HRE (PDHRE), in 1988, no other organisation in the world had made HRE its 

sole purpose and no other activist had envisioned its transformative power. Indeed, she was 

a rebel and a visionary, seeking what she called a ‘human rights revolution’.  

Shula was the driving force behind a campaign advocating for worldwide human rights 

education that sparked the UN Decade for Human Rights Education (1995-2004). As Executive 

Director of PDHRE, she conducted consultations and workshops with educators and 

community leaders in more than 60 countries. Under her leadership, PDHRE established 

‘human rights cities’ on every continent. In 2003 the UN recognised her work with its prize in 

the Field of Human Rights.  

Born in Jerusalem in 1930, Shula Koenig was an industrial engineer and fierce defender of the 

human rights of Palestinian activists, which led to her emigration to the USA in the 1960s. She 

developed that passion for social justice into a global vision of human rights as a way of life 

for all people. She was an inspiration and mentor to many. As activist Loretta Ross said of her, 

‘She was not perfect, but she was perfectly Shula, a sculptress, artist, mentor, and the 

grandmother I wish I'd had’. 

http://doi.org/10.7577/hrer.4536
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://www.humanrer.org/
mailto:nancymaryflowers@gmail.com


HRER Obituary 

122 

 

As she said many times in many different ways: ‘It is not enough to have human rights; it is 

essential that everyone owns them and are guided in their daily lives by the holistic human 

rights framework, enabling women and men to participate as equals in the decision-making 

process towards meaningful, sustainable economic and social transformation. There is no 

other option’.