Laura Wood Human Rights Education

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Laura Wood – Brown Summer Action Plan Final Summary This summer I attended the course of International Human Rights at Brown and it

inspired the main goal of my action plan: human rights education. My school’s motto is “The

World is Our Classroom” and in order for this to be completely true, I thought it would be

necessary to educate students about global human rights. My action plan had two parts: a

curriculum and a club. I first started by presenting the curriculum to the head of my history

department and he was immediately interested. After presenting it to the rest of the teachers, he

informed me that will be a two-week workshop worked into one of two history classes. In

addition, I will be co-teaching this class with him, which is really exciting. The second part of

my plan, the club, is now called Children’s Rights Watch, which addresses the issue of child

labor in the United States, which is an issue that I was not aware of. There are about 10 members

and a faculty advisor. The main project of the club this year was a Dance-a-thon that raised

approximately $300, which is great for the club’s first fundraiser. The money is being sent to

Human Rights Watch with a letter informing them of our efforts. I am trying to reach out to their

organization to gain assistance to improve the performance of the club as well as its impact.

With all the successes that have come with the project, there have also been some

obstacles and lessons learned along the way. It has definitely been a balancing act between

school, other activities, and the project, but it has been worth it. One of the main challenges is

making sure that things keep moving. It is easy to think that after one great meeting that you can

stop, but next week comes much faster than you think and you need to start all over again. A

class at the Symposium actually helped me with this. I learned how to effectively plan and

facilitate a meeting, which is something that really helped with not only the club meetings, but

also just working with other students and teachers. Another challenge was working with my

history department and making sure that my project was taken seriously. This was not

necessarily a major challenge, but I was put in a situation in which I had to stay on my teacher’s

back in order for him to remember that the human rights curriculum was important.

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This project has been an amazing experience, which is still on going. The curriculum

has been accepted for next year and the club, still in its infancy, is gradually gaining support. I

have learned so much throughout this entire process and I continue to everyday. From the first

day I started the action plan I knew that I wanted to make a difference in my community, and my

action plan has allowed me to do just that.

Attached below is a copy of the curriculum outline I presented to the head of the history

department at my school and some pictures from the dance.

Curriculum

Rationale: “Human rights are those rights which are essential to live as human beings basic

standards without which people cannot survive and develop in dignity. They are inherent to

the human person, inalienable and universal (cite).” This past summer I attended a human

rights initiative at Brown University and it inspired me to bring the program to Gill St.

Bernard’s. My proposal is to begin a human rights course at the school. This course would be

a major innovation to the curriculum here at GSB. The main objectives would be to raise

awareness and take positive strides towards understanding and overcoming human rights as

well as to create a more globally aware student body at our school.

Outline:

• The Origin and Evolution of Human Rights o Human Rights is a relatively new concept that was developed following the First

World War, but even before this event human’s were fighting for their own rights. This section would explore what came before and after the concept of human rights had been developed into a concrete policy in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

• Universalism vs. Relativism o Human rights can be separated into two groups universal and relative, but these

distinctions aren’t always concrete. This section would cover the definitions of universalism and relativism as well as which category the student believes a certain human right should fall.

• Discussion of Human Rights o This section would provide the class with the knowledge of some pertinent human

rights. It would discuss rights that are heavily enforced, others that need to be enforced more, and others that have not been declared a right and ask the question, should they be? Some examples of these rights are:

� Equality and Non-Discrimination � Freedom of Expression � Freedom of Assembly � Freedom of Self-Government � Right to Democracy � Freedom from Physical Harm and Arbitrary Punishment

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� Education � Health � Poverty � Group Rights

• Ethnic • Religious • Refugee

• The Future of Human Rights o As previously stated, human rights is a relatively new concept to the modern

world and this section would give the class a chance to discuss what will be the future of human rights.

Resources:

• Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice by Jack Donnelly • International Human Rights by Rhona K. Smith • Amnesty International Curriculum at

http://www.amnestyusa.org/resources/educators/lesson-plans o Example Activity: Human Rights Activities: “Where Do You Stand?” and “Never

Again” � “Where Do You Stand?” � Activity #1: Where Do You Stand? Materials:

- A set of Decision Cards for each group of 3 to 5 players. (Decision Card statements are listed below.) - A game board, drawn on a large sheet of heavy paper, poster board, or construction [sugar] paper - ca. 42 cm X 60 cm/ca. 18” X 24”. The game board contains three concentric rectangles: the rectangle in the center of the board is marked: IN EVERY CASE the second rectangle (moving outward) is marked: IN MOST CASES the third rectangle is marked: IN SOME CASES. A sheet of paper (ca. A3/11” X 17” or larger) for each group and markers for groups to record their lists of rights

• Brown Choices Program at http://www.choices.edu o Topics discuss human rights concepts as well as historical background.

• United Nation Website • News articles and other current event databases

Photos:

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Some of the participants having a blast!

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We did some line dances as well some balloon games (see below)

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Crowning the winner of the Dance-a-thon! (I’m the girl in the white shirt)