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The ideas for lessons detailed in this section have been mostly taken from an activity folder given out by 'Projektbüro Minden' for the second worldwide solidarity project day to mark "50 Years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights". You might find some useful ideas for your own lessons among these suggestions, which are aimed at creating lively discussions and encouraging activities on the subject of human rights. This page contains texts under the following headings:
"The following suggestions
are intended to prompt varied and detailed discussions on the subject of
human rights. This can be achieved in one of three ways: One, by 'Using the
brain' (understanding, reflecting, inquiring), two, by putting oneself in someone else's position
and/or
active forms of learning (perceiving, portraying, dramatizing) and three by ones
own actions (standing up for, intervening, taking action). While these three
aspects may set different priorities, they are not fundamentally different in helping
pupils to appreciate the subject. Indeed, quite the opposite is true: In most cases at
least two or even all three approaches are often combined. (...) [Taken from: „50 Jahre Allgemeine Erklärung der Menschenrechte, 2. Weltweiter Projekttag der Solidarität", Aktionsmappe ´98, Projektbüro Minden] [Back to top of page] [Back to overview]
Some questions on human rights that teachers might want to address in lessons The questions and approaches detailed in this section are aimed at creating lessons that are question-orientated. All the questions listed here can be answered using the text, materials and notes provided on this D@dalos server:
Research into the history of an idea; how long has the idea about human rights existed? How, when and why did the Universal Declaration of Human Rights come about? What shape and course did the path take from the 'birth' of the idea to the adoption of the Declaration? What obstacles did it face? [See also basic course 2: How have human rights developed?]
Compare the wording of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with the wording in your own or other constitutions; how and in what form are human rights introduced into the legislation of individual countries? [Document: Universal Declaration of Human Rights]
What does human dignity mean? Who defines the term? What is inhumane? What facts, relationships, laws, measures and crimes can infringe upon human dignity? [See also advanced subject of human dignity] [Back to top of page] [Back to overview]
Why do children need special rights? How long have people been considering children's rights and how did we arrive at the current situation? What is their relationship to human rights? [See also advanced subject of children's rights]
Human rights have their roots in the period of enlightenment, or rather in western culture. What does this mean for other cultures? Are foreign values being forced upon them? What is your opinion? [See also the advanced subjects of human dignity and world ethic]
Tolerance and freedom of religion - a part of the history of human rights: Since when and in what form has there been protection against religious persecution? Who were the champions of this idea of tolerance? When, where and how was it set down in law? Where and how is it threatened today? - The material can be collected and put together in a 'book of tolerance'. [Back to top of page] [Back to overview]
Is everyone entitled to think, say and write what he/she wants? Press freedom is disapproved of by all authoritarian states. How did freedom of thought and the press manage to prevail increasingly in Europe? What is the situation in Europe today? Should the press be allowed to write whatever it wants? What limitations might be sensible?
To impose forceful rule people are tortured, humiliated, degraded and broken: What facts are available for the current year? In which countries are they forbidden by law? To what extent does it happen anyway? How can this discrepancy be explained? What are human-rights organizations doing about it? How successful are they? [See also basic course 5: Human rights violations] [Back to top of page] [Back to overview]
Equal pay for equal work - this is a human right that has been and is being reluctantly implemented even today. Unequal pay is a practice that is still widespread. Women are considerably more likely to be the victims of violence and sexual abuse, they are disadvantaged in many ways, and on a worldwide basis have far less access to education. Are human rights primarily men's rights? What can women do about this? What has been achieved and what remains to be done? What are the chances of equal pay being realized on a worldwide scale?
Human-rights organizations are dedicated to helping people whose rights are threatened, suppressed, limited, disregarded or violently destroyed. What organizations are dedicated to which particular groups of victims? Are any of these represented in our town/region? What do they actually do? How is their work financed? [See also our link list on the subject of human rights]
The actual living conditions of people are often in stark contrast to the human rights 'written down on paper'. A photo documentary with comments reporting on hunger, violence, persecution, deprivation of rights... can provide a powerful visual picture. [You will find materials across this D@dalos website as well as on the sites presented by our link list on the subject of human rights] [Back to top of page] [Back to overview]
Talk to people whose human rights have been violated, collect authentic reports and make them available as a brochure or wall newspaper.
What is the current situation across the world as far as the upholding of human rights is concerned? Using a world map, known human rights violations are highlighted with corresponding numbers and/or symbols. [See also basic course 5: human rights violations]
Individual human rights or themes are illustrated, documented and commented upon over the pages of a calendar; a human-rights project, for example, can be supported with the proceeds from the sale of the calendar. [Document: Universal Declaration of Human Rights] [Back to top of page] [Back to overview]
Benefit concerts, theatre performances in school; open days for the sale of self-made toys, foods and plants, jumble sales; providing services such as pushbike repairs, car washing, doing the shopping for the elderly.
Pupils question representatives from political parties, administrative bodies and associations about the contribution they are making toward human rights. They might want to prepare some questions to pass on to the said representatives. When a little time has passed, they can make inquiries about what has happened to their suggestions. [Back to top of page] [Back to overview]
Suggestions for presenting results When a project on human rights has been carried out in a school, it makes sense to present its results publicly or at least to make them available to the entire school. The project office in Minden, Germany, has come up with several suggestions as to how these results might be presented:
[Back to top of page] [Back to overview]
We would like to suggest choosing a subject from the text offered here on the D@dalos site (you will find ideas as to the questions that you might want to address in the previous chapter) and, together with your pupils, creating your own mini-website on the computer (text, pictures, real-life reports, statements from witnesses, the situation on the ground etc.) We can then present this 'electronic wall newspaper' on this D@dalos education server (contact). [Back to top of page] [Back to overview] We have taken the following ideas for lessons from the activity folder produced by the Projektbüro Minden ("50 Years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights"):
[Back to top of page] [Back to overview]
(By Wolfgang Emer, Oberstufenkolleg Bielefeld)
[Back to top of page] [Back to overview] The Declaration of Human and Civil Rights on 26.08.1789, which still influences discussions about values, the UN human-rights declaration and today's political goals and objectives, only came about after long and drawn-out disputes in the French National Assembly. These arguments about values demonstrate the skepticism and fear among the ruling elite that they might lose political influence and power to the people. These rights slowly filtered there way down to all levels of society in a historical process which is still in progress today. "What meaning has the constitution for us, when we are of no meaning to it", was a favorite chant of English workers at the beginning of the previous century. [Back to top of page] [Back to overview] Jürgen Harbemas also writes in this respect today: "These so-called equal rights were extended very slowly to suppressed, marginalized and excluded groups. Only after tough political battles were workers, women and Jews, Gypsies, gays and asylum seekers also recognized as 'human' with a claim to complete equality. In retrospect, these battles for individual liberties also reveal the ideological function that human rights have provided until this point. In each of these cases, the egalite demand for universal validity and involvement also served in masking the actual unequal treatment of silent and excluded groups" (Frankfurter Rundschau from 04.02.1997). This process, which eventually led to the Declaration of Human Rights and the idea that all people are equal, has its roots in the renaissance. This process was and is always open to corruption, yet it accompanies and serves in criticizing political actions now and in the future. [Back to top of page] [Back to overview]
This role-play can be used a curtain-raiser or as a way of advancing the subject of human rights. It can also be used as a way of posing questions that introduce an historical (French Revolution and further development) or a comparative (rights then and now) course of lessons. [Back to top of page] [Back to overview] For and against the Declaration of Human Rights: Members of the National Assembly respond to the question: Is a declaration of human rights necessary or not (during the Assembly's session on 01.08.1789): Target: "The rights of the person are not sufficiently well-known; they have to made well-known. I believe this knowledge to be anything else but dangerous and can only have beneficial effects. If our ancestors had done what we want to do, if they had been as well-informed as we are, if positive articles in law had set limits to despotism, which could not be overstepped, then we would not find ourselves in this position. By setting in stone the Declaration of Human Rights, we have to mend the mistakes contained within our constitution and protect our successors from their return." [Back to top of page] [Back to overview] Count Castellane: "just take a look at our planet and, like me, you will tremble when you see how few nations have actually upheld the entirety of their rights, instead choosing to uphold only a fraction of their rights and the leftovers of their freedoms. Without having to mention the whole of Asia and the unfortunate Africans, who suffer as slaves to a far greater degree than in their native countries, without, I say, having to leave the shores of Europe, do we not see entire populations regarding themselves as the property of a handful of masters, do we not see, almost to a man, a belief in following laws made by despots, to which they themselves do not feel bound? Even in England, this famous island that would appear to have upheld the holy fire that is freedom, is there not abuse, which would disappear were human rights more well-known?" Malouet: "The government of France currently finds itself without power and means, its authority has been degraded and the courts are inactive; the only thing in movement is the people. Taxation has ceased, spending is increasing, income sinking, all those annoying responsibilities are now apparently unfair. Under such circumstances a clear declaration of universal and unconditional basic principles of natural freedom and equality could lead to the tearing down of bonds which are necessary". [Back to top of page] [Back to overview] Delandines: "An unlimited declaration of rights offering to give back to the people their innate equality and freedoms would be eagerly sized upon by the masses; but would the same people understand that the idea of equality is, unfortunately, only an philosophical one, which disappears in a flash when another child is born that is physically and mentally stronger than the just-born weakling lying next to it? Will the same people understand that freedom, as the daughter of nature itself, is protected by positive laws and is not intended to allow an individual to as he/she pleases, if in doing so it hurts another, nor to do as he/she wants, if it restricts others in enjoying the same? If equality and freedom in the natural order of things are a part of the inheritance of each individual, then each individual must be prepared to sacrifice a part of this to maintain order in the nation state and in order to secure reciprocally equality and freedom for all... let us take care not to pull down in one blow the dam that has taken hundreds of years to build and leave ourselves without protection against a flow whose floodwaters could extend much further than we have considered and the result of which might be both horrific and devastating." [Back to top of page] [Back to overview] The Declaration of Human and Civil Rights from the French National Assembly on 26.08.1789: "The representatives of the French people, organized as a National Assembly, believing that the ignorance, neglect, or contempt of the rights of man are the sole cause of public calamities and of the corruption of governments, have determined to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, unalienable, and sacred rights of man, in order that this declaration, being constantly before all the members of the Social body, shall remind them continually of their rights and duties; in order that the acts of the legislative power, as well as those of the executive power, may be compared at any moment with the objects and purposes of all political institutions and may thus be more respected, and, lastly, in order that the grievances of the citizens, based hereafter upon simple and incontestable principles, shall tend to the maintenance of the constitution and redound to the happiness of all." [You will find the wording of the Declaration of Human and Civil Rights in more detail on our document pages] [Back to top of page] [Back to overview]
(from UNICEF) Before planning human-rights activities together with class, you should first find out which issues they regard as being important. For example, you might want to use simplified wording from the Convention on the Rights of the Child (document pages) or to work with children's rights cards (see also children's rights illustration). In small groups, pupils should be allowed to choose the 9 articles from the declaration, which they themselves find important. They should then write a summary of each article on an empty card and mark it according to rank (1 being the most important). [Back to top of page] [Back to overview]
Step 1: Subsequently, pupils should be encouraged to consider different options about how they might actively tackle the problems surrounding the declaration's individual articles. They should develop their own ideas for solving the problem that they regard as being most important, during a brainstorming session. Pupils should be aware of which problems are most important in their area. At a local level, pupils could find out about what is on offer for children and young people in their surroundings. Do all children enjoy equal access to educational facilities, health care and leisure facilities? The publisher of the local newspaper could be sent some suggestions as to how the Convention on the Rights of the Child could be realized. Pupils might want to arrange a meeting with local councilors to discuss the things that could be done to improve local facilities for children and families. [Back to top of page] [Back to overview] Step 2: When all the suggestions about the options for action have been noted, the groups go through the list and evaluate each one. Some of them will probably been thrown out immediately as being unrealizable. Step 3: Talk to the pupils about the difficulties expected, about the time required, about financial or other requirements, about possible dangers and the resistance to be expected from authorities. Step 4: Choose the action project that has the best chance of being successful. [Back to top of page] [Back to overview]
Create an exhibition together with your pupils using photos, texts, documents etc. on children's rights. You will find material for this on D@dalos (advanced subject of children's rights) . One approach, for example, might be to structure an exhibition according to the individual articles of the children's rights convention. The text from each of the convention's articles could be presented along with photos and articles detailing the unsatisfactory progress in implementing children's rights. Here it is especially important to point out the reasons behind the violation of children's rights (poverty, war, persecution etc.) Present your exhibition in a school or other public building, invite journalists, document your exhibition and send us some material to present here on this server (contact). [Back to top of page] [Back to overview]
(By: The Bielefeld Project Group) One of the most important challenges for the new century is to find an effective way to realize human rights worldwide. A calendar should be created for 2001, the first year of this new century and new millennium, with the aim of keeping human rights alive as an issue in the minds of people and transporting the issue into the new millennium.
[Back to top of page] [Back to overview] Example: We have decided to quote point one and two from article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (on the right to work and equal pay): "Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work." Comments could point out the discrepancy between these rights and the situation in reality: How high is unemployment in your own country, how is the situation expected to develop over the coming years and what is being done (at home and internationally) to combat unemployment The calendar also points out that unequal pay for equal work is a practice that remains widespread globally; this can be proven using the wages of men and women as an example The organizations working hard to bring about a fairer situation (for example Terre des Femmes) in this area should also be highlighted. Specific examples and successes achieved by these organizations could complement this information and perhaps even a call for donations [Back to top of page] [Back to overview]
[Back to top of page] [Human Rights start page] [Illustrated overview]
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