Introduction
A human right will never be respected if no individual or authority takes responsibility for its realisation. Although governments are the main duty-bearers in this case, there is a strong need for other bodies and for individuals to promote and protect human rights. Every individual has the moral responsibility to contribute to a culture in which human rights values inspire our behaviour in daily life.
This webquest is designed to teach students about the internationally recognised human rights.
Task
Your task for this webquest is to answer multiple choice questions and discuss the implications of your answers. The purpose of this webquest is not to test your knowledge, but to enhance your understanding of human rights in an active way.
You and your group (4 - 5 students in each group) will become "experts" on internationally recognised human rights.
Process
Follow the steps below for the first process in your project.
Step 1:
What do you think these numbers represent, in connection with human rights?
33, 9, 14
Watch the video and check:
Step 2:
Do an Internet search for Universal Declaration of Human Rights and find out which of the 30 articles are violated in the following situations.
You can use these websites to help you:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people/features/ihavearightto/four_b/all_rights.shtml
1 The police arrest a man, then hit him until he makes a confession. No torture
2 The government arrests a group of men and women, charges them with terrorism, then refuses to let them go before a judge or jury. ...
3 People only have the right to travel in certain areas of a country and at certain times. ...
4 A woman applies for a passport in the country where she was born and lives, and is refused. ...
5 A young man and woman turn 18 and want to get married, but their parents tell them they can’t. ...
6 A journalist is arrested when he writes something against the government. ...
7 A government declares that women can’t vote in a national election. ...
8 A family doesn’t have enough money to pay for vital medicines it needs, and the government refuses to help them. ...
9 A child works all day to help earn money for the family and has no time or energy to spend time with other children. ...
10 A family doesn’t have enough money to send its children to school. ...
Step 3:
In the same teams, ask each other questions about human rights. Every question has three possible answers, namely A, B or C . You choose what you believe to be the correct answer to each question (more than one choice could be correct). There is sometimes more than one possible correct answer, as human rights is a dynamic concept that is constantly evolving and this leaves room for interpretation.
Though human rights is a dynamic concept, and one which is therefore constantly evolving, international law defines the content and scope of human rights. The human rights quiz helps to show you at what stage we are now in the elaboration of human rights. It also helps to avoid misinterpretations of the human rights framework.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_yZg8MrMmZ3wjOWYV_3MTsCTQynBRXCK-zc-DLoqfzs/edit?usp=sharing
Your teacher will now give you a set of answers. Match each answer with the corresponding question and check to see if your initial choices were correct.
Great work! You are now at the last part of your project!!
You don’t need to be a front line human rights defender to become involved in human rights. You may already be involved in human rights work or you may never have considered becoming involved before. There’s always more to learn and know, always something to do. Here are a few suggestions of things you could do:
1. educate yourself about human rights
2. support a local, national, regional or international human rights organization
3. write a letter
4. sign a petition
5. make a donation
6. volunteer
How do you think each of these actions could be helpful?
Evaluation
The last step of your webquest is a short evaluation quiz, this time on Kahoot:
https://create.kahoot.it/share/human-rights/49e7e01a-98f3-4010-b918-2b49fc2e54cc
Conclusion
The idea of education for democratic citizenship and human rights education is not new. Civic or citizenship education has been present in various European countries for many years and has been implemented in many different ways. Mainly this has consisted of informing learners about the political system – that is to say, the constitution – in place in their country, using formal methods of instruction. The underlying model of citizenship has therefore been a passive and minimal one. Citizenship for the vast majority of ordinary people has consisted in little more than the expectation that they should obey the law and vote in public elections. These responsibilities have been prescribed by the legal and cultural environments that citizens live in. Some countries have also included human rights education in their curriculum. Increasingly, educators across Europe are becoming aware of the links between education for democratic citizenship and human rights education.
Credits
This webquest was created by a team of teachers, within the co-funded Erasmus plus KA2 partnership “UNITED STATES OF EUROPE: FRATERNITY, UNITY, LIBERTY” (USE:FUL), project no: 2018-1-PT01-KA229-047349, KA2 - Cooperation for Innovation and the Exchange of Good Practices, KA229 School Exchange Partnerships.
The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.