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Key date
10 December
Human Rights Day |
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49 Practical Activities and Methods for Human
Rights Education > Fighters for rights |
Fighters for rights
"It is an ideal to live for and to achieve."
Nelson Mandela
| Themes |
General human rights, Media,
Citizenship |
| Complexity |
Level 2 |
| Group size |
Any |
| Time |
60 minutes |
| Overview |
This activity uses information cards to stimulate interest
in human rights heroes. The issues addressed are:
- Political repression
- Human rights activists in the twentieth century
- The struggle for rights in various countries
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| Related rights |
- Freedom of opinion and expression
- The right to a fair trial
- The right not to be tortured.
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| Objectives |
- To learn about some of the individuals who have fought
for human rights in different countries
- To develop skills of handling and ordering information,
co-operation and group work skills
- To promote respect, responsibility and curiosity about
human rights.
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| Materials |
- One set of thirty cards per small group
- Scissors
- Envelopes
- Optional: glue and pieces of stiff paper for backing
the cards
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| Preparation |
- Arrange the room so that people can work in small groups
- Make copies of the cards on the handouts, so that you
have one set for each small group
- Cut up each set of thirty cards, shuffle them so that
they are not in sequence, and put them in envelopes. It
is important to keep the sets separate from each other!
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Instructions
- Ask people to get into small groups (3 or 4 in each group),
and hand out one set of cards to each group.
- Ask them to spread the cards out, face down on the floor.
- Explain that the cards describe events in the life of six
human rights activists. The aim for each group is to match the
events with the correct character, and thereby to build up a
brief description of each person.
- Explain that each of the characters is made up of a "set
of five" (i.e. one 'A', one 'B', one 'C', one 'D' and one
'E' card).
- Tell each group to do rounds of picking up one card at a
time, until the cards run out.
- Give people a few minutes to read their own cards in silence.
- Then let them go... Allow each group to devise their own
strategies for building up the personalities. They will need
about 15 - 20 minutes for this stage.
- Gather everyone together, and ask a representative from one
group to introduce, in their own words, one of the personalities.
Then repeat with the other groups in turn, so each personality
is presented in full, and each group can check that they put
the "pieces" together correctly.
Debriefing and evaluation |
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- How easy was the exercise, and which strategies did the different
groups use to sort the sets of cards?
- Which of the characters had people already heard of, and
which of them were new? Why were some of the personalities better
known than others?
- Were people surprised by any of the information? What did
they find most impressive?
- Ask people to select the quotation with which they most strongly
identify: how do they think they would have behaved if they
had been put in the same position as this person?
- What actions are available to people?
Tips for facilitators |
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There is a huge amount of information
available on each of these characters and the short biographies
that have been supplied offer a very shallow (and subjective)
perspective on the matter. There are also hundreds of other activists
who could just as well have gone onto the list - those selected
here are intended only to give a "taster", and a way
into the subject.
Suggestions for follow-up
It is highly recommended that you try to follow up this activity
by encouraging people to find out about other human rights activists,
so that they develop a feel for the characters who throughout
history have contributed to the struggle for human rights. The
group could start to build up its own "portrait gallery"
of human rights activists. The six given in this activity can
be used as a starting point: the photographs can be stuck to pieces
of card together with the quotations and the short biographies,
and displayed about the room. Each member of the group could be
asked to find out about other personalities and to add them to
the portrait gallery. The six that have been introduced here are
all campaigners in the area of civil and political rights, but
you may want to extend the range of rights to include social and
economic ones as well. In civil society there are several channels
for expressing opinion and fighting for rights. If you want to
take a closer look at these you could do the activity "Making
links".
You might now want to think about situations in which you might
have to stand up for your own rights. If so then the role-play,
"Guess
who is coming to dinner" in the all different all
equal education pack sets the scene for exploring
what could happen if you brought an "unsuitable" boy/girl
friend home to meet your parents.
Ideas for action
Find out about some of the current political prisoners or activists
- for example, those that Amnesty International has labelled a
"Prisoner of Conscience". Write a letter or organise
a campaign to inform people about this prisoner, and to put pressure
on the relevant individuals to release him or her. |
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| Handouts |
Discussion cards
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A
"I have fought against white domination, and
I have fought against black domination. I have cherished
the ideal of a democratic and free society in which
all persons live together in harmony and with equal
opportunities. It is an ideal to live for and to achieve.
But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared
to die."
Nelson Mandela |
A
"As a result of certain painful but at the
same time comforting encounters, I saw for myself
how from the depths of moral savagery there suddenly
arose the cry 'it's my fault' and how, with this cry,
the patient recovered the right to call himself a
human being."
Evgenia Ginzberg |
B
Born in a village near Umtata, and was elected President
of the Republic of South Africa in the first democratic
elections in that country at the age of 76. Up to
that point - and beyond - his/her life was devoted
to |
B
Born in 1906 in Russia and died in Moscow in 1977.
Worked quietly as a teacher and journalist until branded
a terrorist by the Stalin regime in a fabricated trial.
Spent 18 years in |
C
the fight against apartheid, the racist system used
by the former white government to suppress the majority
black population. S/he suffered various forms of repression:
was banned from meetings, forced to go into hiding,
and was finally |
C
Siberian prison camps under horrifying conditions
because s/he refused to accuse others of crimes they
did not commit. Spent the first year in solitary confinement
in a damp cell, forbidden to exercise, speak, sing
or lie down in the day. Later on s/he was |
D
arrested, and sentenced to life imprisonment at
the age of 44. S/he spent the next 28 years of his/her
life behind bars, away from his/her family and children.
|
D
arrested, and sentenced to life imprisonment at
the age of 44. S/he spent the next 28 years of his/her
life behind bars, away from his/her family and children.
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A
"I have a dream that one day this nation will
rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed:
'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all
men are created equal.' I have a dream that my four
children will one day live in a nation where they
will not be judged by the colour of their skin but
by the content of their character." Martin Luther
King |
A
"Non-violence is the greatest force at the
disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest
weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of
man."
Mahatma Gandhi |
B
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1929, when the law
required blacks to occupy special seats in buses,
theatres and cinemas, and to drink from separate water
fountains from whites. When s/he was 28, co-founded
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B
Born in 1869, to Hindu parents who lived in Gujarat,
when India was still held by force in the British
Empire. S/he led the struggle for Independence, never
straying from his/her firm belief in |
C
an organisation of black churches that encouraged
non-violent marches, demonstrations and boycotts against
racial segregation. The organisation participated
in a protest in Birmingham, Alabama, at which hundreds
of singing school children |
C
non-violent protest and religious tolerance, despite
being arrested and imprisoned on several occasions.
When Indians acted violently against one another,
or against the British Raj, s/he fasted until the
violence ended. S/he led a 241 mile march across India,
and |
D
filled the streets in support. The police were ordered
in with attack dogs and firemen with high-pressure
hoses. S/he was arrested and jailed. |
D
persuaded followers to accept the brutality of the
police and soldiers without retaliation. S/he spent
a total of 2338 days in jail in a life tirelessly
devoted to peace. |
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A
"We're not trying to destroy or annihilate
the military regime; they are always threatening to
annihilate us but ... the purpose of our movement
is to create a society that offers security to all
our people, including the military."
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi |
A
"Alas, this sad song in my mind I send to those
who help prisoners. These feelings in this dark season
- I will never forget the horrible tortures. May this
present misery in prison never be inflicted on any
sentient being."
Ngawang Sangdrol |
B
Born in 1945, in Burma, s/he was the child of the
assassinated national hero in the struggle for independence
from colonial rule. Became a popular leader of the
struggle for democracy against |
B
is a Buddhist nun who believes Tibet should be independent
from China, and who was arrested for the first time
at the age of 10 by Chinese authorities. His/her only
crime was to participate in |
C
a cruel military regime and was nearly assassinated
by an army unit ordered to aim their rifles at him/her.
Was placed under house arrest for 6 years without
being charged with any crime, and was effectively
cut off from the outside world. Even when released,
the government |
C
a peaceful demonstration for the independence of
Tibet. Was arrested again at the age of 15, and sentenced
to 3 years imprisonment. The sentence was extended
first because s/he sang an independence song in prison;
and then again for 8 years because s/he |
D
prevented him/her from seeing his/her dying spouse.
In 2001 s/he is still confined to his/her residence,
with access tightly controlled and the telephone lines
cut. |
D
shouted "Free Tibet" while standing in
the rain in the prison yard. Today s/he has problems
with her kidneys as a result of the torture s/he has
suffered. |
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Further information
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