Human Rights Education: The 4th R
Get Up, Stand Up! Celebrating 50 years
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
vol. 8, No. 2, Fall 1997.
Two Activities Connecting Human
Service and Social Justice Work to the UDHR
One goal of Amnesty International’s UDHR
50 Campaign (see pages 1-2) is to build coalitions of human rights, educational,
social justice, human service and other community organizations which will
work together to further community awareness of and adherence to the principles
set forth in the UDHR. Human Rights USA, a new coalition-building and human
rights education initiative (see page 19), has similar goals. Often community-based
organizations do not explicitly frame their work in terms of human rights.
One of the opportunites provided by coalition-building around the UDHR
is that such organizations can recognize that their work is truly human
rights work.
The two activities below are designed to
explore the links between human service/social justice work and the articles
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They were designed for Human
Rights USA trainings in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Participants in
the training were primarily staff members and clients of local human service
and social justice organizations.
Building a Community Human Rights Tree
This activity is a modification of an exercise
designed by the Austrian section of Amnesty International, which is included
in Human Rights Here and Now. Materials needed include posterboard or a
blackboard, markers, and post-it notes, and a copy of the UDHR for each
participant. It would be helpful, but not necessary, if the group already
has participated in an exercise to familiarize them with the UDHR.
- Prior to the activity, on a posterboard or
blackboard, draw a tree with many branches and roots, and ample room in
the trunk.
- Give participants (members or staff of community-based
organizations) post-it notes. Say that there are basic human needs that
must be addressed for all people to live in dignity and justice. Ask them
to reflect on the human needs that their organization or their individual
work supports. Ask them to write these needs on post-it notes, one need
per post-it note. (Ex.: food, shelter, medical care, fair trials, physical
safety, spiritual guidance, etc.) The post-its will make up the leaves
of the tree.
- Ask the participants, in turn, to go up to
the tree. They should explain their organization’s work and their own particular
role in their organization. Have them explain each of their human need
"leaves," placing each post-it at the end of one of the branches.
(In a large group, you might ask people to explain only one of their "leaves,"
but put the others on the tree or to the side if there isn’t room.) Point
out that the needs described define basic human rights.
At this point, or at the end of the exercise,
have the group identify the articles of the UDHR to which the needs correspond.
(Groups may choose to use the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the
Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women,
or other treaties.)
- Each participant, during his or her turn,
identifies the responsibilities that their organization has chosen to take
on to help people meet their needs. (For example: advocacy, education,
referral service, financial assistance, legal counsel, access to the media,
direct medical care, lobbying, etc.) The participants should write the
responsibilities on the tree’s branches leading to the appropriate post-it
notes.
- As a group, decide what makes up the roots
and the trunk of the tree. What governmental institutions, belief systems,
and other societal structures support—and perhaps sometimes hinder—the
social justice and human service organizations from carrying out the responsibilities
that they have chosen to take on? These might include financial institutions,
local, state, or national government, industry, public education, etc.
As they are discussed, someone from the group should write these in the
appropriate locations on the tree. Discuss the connections between the
roots, trunk, branches and leaves of your Community Human Rights Tree.
Connecting Social ProbLEMS to a Human Rights
Framework
The second activity attempts to explore
the ways in which the UDHR can be applied to local human rights issues.
Materials needed are newspaper articles on local social problems, such
as articles describing issues of violence, poverty, educational issues,
drug problems, discrimination, etc.
- Divide participants into small groups of
three or four.
- Give each group a newspaper article to read,
one copy per person.
- Ask the group to discuss and write down their
answers to the following:
- Identify the rights issues in this news article.
- Connect the rights issues with the specific
articles of the UDHR.
- Think of yourselves as advocates for one
or more of these rights issues. How could you use the UDHR to change attitudes
and behaviors in your community? Identify your targets. Describe the strategies
and tactics you would use.
- After groups have been given sufficient time,
return to the larger group. One person from each group briefly describes
the group’s news article and explains their thoughts on the items in #3.
Further Activities:
In taking part in the above two activities,
participants have reflected on how their work relates to the UDHR, and
have discussed a number of different strategies and tactics for using a
human rights framework to tackle local social problems. Now they are well-prepared
to start considering how they can apply a human rights framework to their
particular area of social justice or human service work. Individually,
or in small groups of people who do similar work, the participants can
consider the third question from thenewspaper activity with respect to
their own situations. They can ask themselves what strategies and tactics
could be used in applying the UDHR to their work.
By Karen Kraco and Kristi Rudeliius-Palmer,
AIUSA HRE Network Steering Committee and human Rights USA.
