UNIT 8: Rights and freedom – My rights – your rights

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Unit 8: Key concept – “Rights and freedom” (for primary level)

Background information for teachers: human rights: what is important to me? to you? to others?

 

Human rights could be generally defined as those rights which are inherent in our nature and without which we cannot thrive as human beings.

Human rights and fundamental freedoms allow us to develop fully and to use our human qualities, our intelligence, our talents and our conscience and they also allow us to satisfy our spiritual and other needs. They are based on humankind’s increasing demand for a life in which the inherent dignity and worth of each human being are respected and protected.

This unit provides basic information for primary school teachers who want to foster awareness and knowledge about the values of human rights, as well as the sense of reciprocity and universality upon which human rights standards are based. It is only a starting point, which should be supplemented by further research and study and/or by using national manuals and audio-visual materials that are already available. It will hopefully be used to initiate an ongoing process of adaptation and development at all levels of teaching within the world’s many and varied cultures.

The United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education (1995-2004) defined human rights education as “training, dissemination, and information efforts aimed at the building of a universal culture of human rights through the imparting of knowledge and skills and the moulding of attitudes which are directed to:

(a)  The strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms;

(b)  The full development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity;

(c)  The promotion of understanding, tolerance, gender equality and friendship among all nations, indigenous peoples and racial, national, ethnic, religious and linguistic groups;

(d)  The enabling of all persons to participate effectively in a free society;

(e) The furtherance of the activities of the United Nations for the Maintenance of Peace. (Adapted from the Plan of Action of the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education (1995-2004), paragraph 2.)

This process will depend upon local educational systems, which differ widely, not least in the degree of discretion that teachers have to set their own teaching goals. However, the teacher will always be the key person in getting new initiatives to work and he or she therefore has a great deal of responsibility in communicating and promoting the principles of human rights in the classroom. Teaching about human rights is, however, not enough. These values should permeate the classroom alongside those of democratic decision making and action. Students will not only want to learn about human rights, but to learn in and through them.

The fact that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights3 has almost global validity and applicability is very important for teachers. By working with precepts that have been so widely endorsed for many years now, the teacher can honestly say that he or she is promoting a normative system that has been accepted by the international community and its governments. Education systems differ widely. When teaching for human rights, however, teachers have a second defence – that is, that they are teaching in such a way as to respect human rights in the classroom and the school environment itself.

This means avoiding any hypocrisy. At its simplest, hypocrisy refers to situations in which the subject that a teacher is teaching is clearly at odds with how he or she is teaching it. For example: “Today we are going to talk about freedom of expression – shut up in the back row!”. In this way, students will learn a lot about power, and considerably less about human rights and the respect for human dignity, which is at the core of human freedoms. As students spend a good deal of time studying teachers and can develop a good understanding of a teacher’s personal beliefs, such behaviour could make it difficult for a teacher to have any real positive effect. Because of a desire to please, for example, students may try to mirror a teacher’s personal views, without thinking for themselves. This may be one reason, at the beginning at least, why they don’t express their own ideas. At its most complex, hypocrisy raises profound questions about how to protect and promote the human dignity of both teachers and students in a classroom, as well as in a school and within society at large. This calls upon teachers to explore ways and means to involve other parties in the process of deciding what to do, how to do it, and why; this means not only involving students, school administrators, education authorities, and parents, but also, if appropriate, members of the community in which they live and work.

The aim of education for democratic citizenship is to support the development of competences in three areas. This unit has the following competence profile:

Competence in …
… political analysis and judgment … the use of methods … political decision making and action
** *** *
Toolbox support
In this unit the following tools from the students’ toolbox will be used. The teacher must decide if some or all of the students need additional preparation to be able to work with these tools.
0 Researching in libraries
0 Researching on the Internet
X Carrying out interviews and surveys
X Interpreting images
0 Mind maps
0 Creating posters
0 Holding exhibitions
X Planning and giving presentations
X Preparing overhead transparencies or a PowerPoint presentation
0 Writing newspaper articles
0 Putting on performances
0 Holding debates

 

UNIT 8: Rights and Freedom
My rights – your rights?

Human rights: what is important to me? to you? to others?

 

Lesson title Learning objectives Student tasks Resources Methods

Lesson 1:

Wants and needs

The students learn that their individual wants – the things and ideas they would like to have and realise – are as important as the things that human beings actually need in order to live a decent life. Students select pictures that represent their wants and needs and discuss and decide on them. String (a clothes line), clothes pegs, clippings (pictures) from magazines, handout. Group work.

Lesson 2:

Human rights: what do they say?

By matching each of their own needs to an article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the students recognise that the declaration has been very closely aligned to the needs of people. The students think about lesson 1 using a list or chosen articles from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Handout (simplified version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights), lists of needs from unit 8, lesson 1. Group work, research.

Lesson 3:

Survey: What people around us think and know

The students further their learning experience by interviewing adults about their attitudes to and their knowledge of human rights. They notice how differently individual human rights can be valued. The students prepare a survey and practise working with it in the classroom. The survey itself should be done as homework during the following week. Handouts, paper, pencils and pens. Surveys in groups.

Lesson 4:

Human Rights alive!

The students become aware of the how differently people value individual human rights by presenting the results of their survey. They reflect on their own learning processes and thus enable the transfer of knowledge and competences. The students present and discuss the results of their survey. They reflect on the entire learning process. A4 size notepaper. Group discussion, plenary discussion.

 

3. Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948.