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| Materials for basic course 5 (human rights violations)Unfortunately there is a great number of examples for human rights violations all over the world. It is one of the most important tasks of the globally active human rights organizations to make them public and to blame the people responsible for them. Therefore you can find lots of materials for basic course 5 on the websites of these organizations.
We have also provided a small selection of material on human rights violations. You will find
[You can access these texts either by clicking on them - they are opened in a new window, when the window is closed you are returned here -, or by clicking on the links at the top left of the page] Note: There is a wide selection of songs and films available to enrich lessons dealing with the death penalty, a good introductory issue for the subject of human rights. We particularly recommend:
The following texts address two particularly serious human rights violations: Disappearance and torture. You will find other materials on the subject of human rights violations as part of the advanced subject of children's rights (basic course 3).
"I was there in 1973, as we first started using this word as a 'Terminus technicus' in Chile to describe the vanishing of people. They had started arresting people in their own houses during the evening curfews. These events were witnessed by entire families and often by neighbors. It was usually plain-clothed men that forced their way into houses. They had no identification, no arrest warrant. Yet they carried machine guns and their freedom of movement during the curfew meant they were 'official'. Only the secret police and other officials would be able to take people away under such circumstances. Regardless of whether it can be proved or not, there is absolutely no doubt that the long arm of the state was at work here. Remaining family members, friends and neighbors were powerless to anything in the aftermath. The curfew prevented them from starting the search for the missing members of their families. Only after the curfew had been lifted could their search begin. They first turned to a local police station: They
knew nothing about it. "Public admissions on behalf of the government that it is not holding the missing persons coupled with its inaction in getting to the bottom of the affair only provides the snatchers a freehand to do with their victims what they will. And that is exactly what happened" [Helmut Frenz, Menschenrechte — Anspruch und Wirklichkeit, in: Gisela Klent-Kozinowski u.a. (Hrsg.), Das Recht, ein Mensch zu sein, Baden-Baden 1988, 27f.]
"Victims of torture no longer feel at home in the world". This sentence by Jean Améy attempts to convey the difficulties experienced by torture victims in finding any foothold and any place in human society after their experience. Since torture has taken something away from them that is as essential to each and every one of us as the air that we breath: They have lost their belief and trust in human nature. [Helmut Frenz, Wer der Folter erlag, in: Thomas Becker u.a. (Hrsg.), Eine Welt für alle. Lesebuch Dritte Welt, Reinbek 1990, 82]
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