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.

Overview: Participants match examples of human rights affirmations and abuses in selected countries with articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

Time: 60-90 minutes

Materials: Copies of the UDHR and "Rights around the World" handout.

Setting: Jr. High to adult groups

Procedure:

Part A: Identifying Rights Issues Around the World

1. Divide participants into small "research groups" and give each member a copy of the UDHR and the "Rights Around the World" handout.
2. Assign each research group a different set of 3-6 statements from the "Rights Around the World" handout. They have 15-20 minutes to find 2 or more articles from the UDHR that apply to each sentence. For example, statement 12 ("Government troops kill advocates for democracy in China during a peaceful demonstration.") represents an abuse of Article 3 (right to life) and an affirmation of Article 20 (freedom to assemble). A guided example may be helpful to start the process.
3. Regroup participants: if there are 4 in a group, assign each a number 1-4. Then all the "one’s" form a group, all the two’s," etc.
4. Ask the participants in the new group to report to each other on their research group’s findings, so that each statement on the handout is covered. Discuss selected statements that they find especially important or interesting.

Part B: Identifying Rights Issues at Home

5. Have participants generate a similar list of 10 affirmations and abuses that are specific to their own country and community.
6. Ask participants to return to their original research groups. As in Step 2, participants match the new list of statements with articles of the UDHR.
7. As a whole group, identify those affirmations and abuses that particularly touch their lives:

Why are these particular statements especially meaningful?

Are there individuals and groups working to promote and defend the rights people now have?

Are there groups working to correct the abuses?

Are there actions that participants themselves might want to take? If appropriate, begin developing an action plan.

by Patrick Manson, Amnesty International USA Human Rights Educators' Network

Rights Around the World

1. A person in South Africa registers to vote.
2. The Chinese government punishes a couple for having a second child.
3. The government of Turkey burns down villages of Kurds—an ethnic minority of southeast Turkey—and forces them to move to new towns.
4. A Brazilian child is denied a school education because the family can’t afford to pay for books.
5. The Burmese military overthrows a democratically elected government.
6. A criminal in El Salvador is held in jail for months without being charged with any crime.
7. A fourteen-year-old girl in Burma is sold by her impoverished family to a house of prostitution where she must work until she earns enough to repay the money given her parents.
8. Garment workers in Sri Lanka are forced to work long hours in unhealthy shops and to wait months to be paid.
9. A Native American asserts her rights to collect eagle feathers for a religious ceremony.
10. People fleeing armed violence in Haiti are refused admission to the U.S. as refugees.
11. A retarded man is sentenced to death in the U.S. for a crime he committed when he was fourteen.
12. The government kills advocates for democracy in China during a peaceful demonstration.
13. Women in Afghanistan are not allowed to attend school or hold jobs.
14. During World War II Japanese-Americans are forced from their homes and held in concentration camps.
15. Students in Germany read the newspaper about politics in their country and human rights in other countries.
16. During elections the government of Croatia allows only government candidates to appear prominently in the state-run media.
17. Activists in Guatemala start a cooperative to provide food and education for homeless children.
18. Children in Pakistan are forced to work in carpet factories for little pay and long hours; they cannot go to school.
19. A city council in the U.S. removes books from the public library that it considers immoral or unpatriotic.
20. Native people of Nicaragua establish a university to maintain their cultural traditions and better the education of their people.
21. Parents in the area of Chernobyl, whose children have birth defects resulting from a nuclear accident, demand information from the Russian government.
22. Students in Europe and North America boycott soccer balls made by child laborers and write letters to Pakistan and India to end this abuse.
23. Native Americans are forced to attend boarding schools where they are forbidden to speak their tribal languages.
24. Workers in Poland demand the right to form a union.
25. A terrorist from Ireland bombs a public restaurant in England.
26. Ethnic Ogoni people in Nigeria protest the mining of oil in their traditional homeland.
27. A woman in Iran is beaten for not covering her face in public, an illegal act.
28. Australian aborigines regain land taken by the government and are allowed to make official their names for traditional landmarks.
29. Palestinians demonstrate for statehood.
30. A teacher in the U.S. insults a student for answering a question incorrectly.
31. In Saudi Arabia the hand of a thief is cut off, a punishment endorsed by religious teachings.

Students in the Philippines form clubs to debate current political policies.

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