Lesson 3: Conflicting human rights

Living Democracy » Textbooks » Living in democracy » Part 1: Individual and community » UNIT 4: Conflict » Lesson 3: Conflicting human rights

A clash between human rights. What now?

Learning objective Learning to recognise and analyse situations where human rights are in conflict.
Student tasks Analyse a situation where human rights are in conflict.
Resources Large sheet of paper and marker for each group.
Student handout 4.3.
Student handout 5.2.
Methods Small group work
Critical thinking

Information box

Although at first sight human rights may seem to offer clear answers, this is not always the case. Indeed, there are many situations in which someone’s right conflicts with someone else’s. In such a case, critical thinking can help one to weigh the rights involved against each other, and to determine one’s own solution.

The lesson

Working groups (four or five students per group) receive a case about conflicting human rights (student handout 4.3 “Five cases of conflicting human rights”), a large sheet of paper and a marker.

First, the students are invited to discuss which human rights are involved in the conflict. For the discussion the group can be given a list of human rights (student handout 5.2). Once they have agreed on which rights are in conflict, they divide their sheet of paper as shown below. The teacher could prepare this on the blackboard and enter the rights involved into the first box.

Case Number
Human rights involved

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Solution
Why?

The second task is to have an open discussion on what the students believe the solution to the conflict could be. They give reasons for their choice and add them to their sheet.

Each group is then asked to appoint a spokesperson, who presents the group’s answers to the whole class. The teacher can ask the class for feedback about the choices made and whether or not they agree or disagree with the group’s ideas.

 

Lesson 2: Applying the six-step approach
Lesson 4: Using violence
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