Lesson 2: Detecting human rights violations
Living Democracy » Textbooks » Living in democracy » Part 2: Taking responsibility » UNIT 5: Rights, liberties and responsibilities » Lesson 2: Detecting human rights violationsWhich human right is violated here?
| Learning objectives | The students can identify violations of human rights. |
| Student tasks | The students study cases of human rights violations. |
| Resources | Student handout 5.3 for each pair of students. Student handout 5.2 for each pair of students. |
| Methods | Pair or group work. Plenary discussion. |
Information boxInfringements and violations of human rights happen daily, worldwide. By looking at real cases from the past or present, the students get a clearer and more precise picture of what human rights are about. |
The lesson
The class begins by discussing the tasks and the results from the last lesson. The posters are presented and the list of conclusions compared. If useful and possible, the proposals are written on sheets of paper and pinned on the classroom walls, together with the posters.
The students now form pairs. Each pair is given a copy of student handout 5.3, Human rights violations, and a copy of student handout 5.2, List of human rights.
The list of examples of human rights violations is then divided between the pairs; for example pair 1 can be given a-d, pair 2 e-j, etc.
It is preferable to divide the list in such a way that each group of violations is examined by more than one pair of students.
The students read and discuss the example of a human rights violation. They then try to reach agreement on which human right from the list of rights has been violated or infringed; for example, in example a, the right being violated is right 10.
The responses are discussed in class. The value of having more than one pair working on an example means that if there are differences of opinion, discussion can be guided through a series of short questions:
- How did you arrive at your opinion?
- When you heard the other pairs’ answers, did it make you want to change your own response? If yes, what convinced you? Why?
The purpose of the discussion is to explore some of the examples and the responses, rather than to assume that there is only one correct answer.
Extension activity
If there is time at the end of the lesson, the teacher can ask the students which of these concrete examples strikes them most. For some of the examples given, the students can be asked:
- How would you feel if that happened to you?
- How would you react?
- What would you hope other people might do?
Such questions can help students explore the idea that others have responsibilities to act in defence of human rights.
Student handout 5.3: Cases of human rights violations
Teacher’s copy with solutions
| Human rights violation or infringement | HR violated |
| a. Mrs X, who some years ago lost her daughter and husband in a car accident, could not marry another man unless her brother-in-law explicitly gave his permission. | 10 |
| b. The prison guards used dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance they made dogs bite a detainee. | 2 |
| c. In the local factory, the workers have to work for at least 10 hours a day without a break. | 21 |
| d. Since the three men were arrested, they have had problems getting access to lawyers. On many occasions the lawyers would arrive and not be permitted to see them; the men were not allowed to have a collective discussion with their lawyers, which effectively meant that two of them had no access to their lawyer. | 5 |
| e. The woman, doing exactly the same job and having the same age and experience, received a lower wage than her male colleague. | 7 |
| f. X abducted and detained Y for three days and shot him in the head, which resulted in his death 3 days later. | 1 |
| g. A photo of Mrs X, a drug addict, was taken when she was leaving a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. Later the photo was published. | 9 |
| h. A woman, mistreated by her husband, was only able to obtain a divorce when she gave him her house, her car and all her properry. She was left with nothing. | 11 |
| i. X, suffering from a life-threatening case of pneumonia, received no medical treatment in hospital, as she had entered the country illegally | 18 |
| j. Seventy per cent of the population of area X were forced to move away from their homes and were later prevented from returning. They were not allowed to leave their camps to go to nearby fields to cultivate their crops, and they were forbidden to travel on many roads. | 12 |
| k. Black Africans were bought in Africa for, for example, a bottle of whisky, and sold in North America for between 1 200 and 1 500 US dollars. | 3 |
| l. In country X, all means of survival for the local population have been intentionally destroyed: crops, water supplies and livestock. | 17 |
| m. In country X, Citizens may be jailed without being charged. | 4 |
| n. A 26-year-old reporter for a daily newspaper was shot dead in a suspected reprisal attack for his coverage of recently concluded election campaigns. | 15 |
| o. Mr X was called up for enrolment in the army. He wrote to the military office declaring his conscientious objection to military service and refused to report for military duties. He was charged with insubordination and was banned from leaving the country. | 14 |
| p. In country X, those who want to belong to the Falun Gong religion are prohibited from meeting. | 16 |
| q. The ethnic majority ruled that those belonging to the minority groups, such as Jews and Roma people, were obliged to live in defined areas of the town. | 25 |
| r. The children living in the village are unable to attend a primary school, as there is no such school available within a reasonable distance. | 19 |
| s. Because the religious authorities of the country disapproved, X could not run as a candidate in the pariiamentary elections. | 23 |
| t. Being black, X cannot get a job as a doctor in the local hospital. | 20 |
| u. In some countries underprivileged people have no access to food or housing programmes, nor to affordable health services. | 26 |
| v. Mr X, whose house was burned down, could not make any claim for compensation. | 6 |
| w. X, a 47-year-old woman, who has always worked in the home as a housewife and mother of five children, loses every social security benefit once she is divorced from her husband. | 22 |
| x. Mr X, father of two, was jailed and tortured in country X for writing poems criticising the regime in power. His application for political asylum in country A was turned down. He claimed he would face torture if he returned home, as he is now obliged to do. | 13 |
| y For so-called practical reasons, physically disabled people such as wheelchair users are not allowed to attend cultural events at the local theatre. | 24 |
| z. To apply for nationality in country X, a 15-year period of residence is required, plus a physical and mental health test and unreasonably high administrative fees. As a result, thousands of Roma, who have long-standing ties to their country, are stateless in their own land. | 8 |
