Thank you _________.

(moderator) Good afternoon, I am Qhaiyummi Asyfi binti Ruslan, the

Advisor of British Institute of Human Rights. I strongly proposing that school uniform should
be abolished. As we all know, other than home, it all starts from school. School systems play
a central role in preparing young people to understand, cherish and claim human rights.

I begin this with what The United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Education and
Training has stated. “Human rights education comprises all educational, training, information,
awareness-raising and learning activities aimed at promoting universal respect for and
observance of all human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

Most of the students nowadays do not want to wear the school uniform and in order to avoid
rebellion of the students, the school uniform should be abolished because it is their rights to
choose what they want.

Not just that, The United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training also
states that Human rights education contributes to the prevention of human rights violations
and abuses by providing persons with knowledge, skills and understanding, and by developing
their attitudes and behaviours to empower them to contribute to the building and promotion of
a universal culture of human rights. From that, rebellion obviously is one of the attitudes that
shows the students’ behaviour are not developing well due to they feel like their rights are
being harassed. When the students cannot choose what they want, they tend to rebel and
rebellion can lead to many inappropriate actions. I am sure that no one want to see the youths
growing up rebelling.

Apart from that, the students are now aware with fashion. What they do is, most of the time
they express themselves through what they are wearing. As for examples, a student wants to
express himself as loud. So, he wears colourful outfit. Which it is so obvious that school
uniform appears to be formal and usually plain and in white colour.

According to F Schauer from 'First Amendment Opportunism' in Bollinger & Stone, one of the
justifications that is sometimes given for freedom of expression is the principle of autonomy or
liberty: if one is free to do as one pleases, one should be free to say as one pleases. In other
words, freedom of expression is simply an instance of the more general principle of autonomy,
or a way of giving effect to autonomy.

Speaking about autonomy, what is autonomy? Autonomy is freedom from external control or
influence; independence. What I am trying to relate here is that the reasons that we protect
freedom of expression matter. Without an understanding of the rationales underpinning this
freedom, we cannot properly explain the degree of protection that is given to it in various
contexts nor draw its limits, both in the sense of defining the ambit of the right to freedom of
expression and in assessing the permissibility of limitations on the right. It is therefore
necessary to consider some of the rationales advanced for freedom of expression.

Last but not least, the challenges of the students going to school, classes are enough to make
them stress or feel like they are hooked up too much on what the school decided for them of
what they need to do. Of that, they at least need to be at ease while they are in school so it is
part of their rights to feel and be comfortable while they are in school and at classes.

As noted by Felisa Tibbitts, human rights education historically “has primarily focused on
teaching and learning,” and should “eventually [be] seen as part of an overall ‘human rights-
based approach’ to schooling, which calls attention to overall school culture, policies, and
practices related to human rights values.”

From what noted by Felisa Tibbitts, all these while human rights focused only on teaching and
learning and it should also include overall school culture, policies and other practices that are
related to the human rights values. By feeling comfortable and at ease in school, it should
create a better environment and the students should be less stress.