14

RESPECT FOR HUMAN DIGNITY

"What man has done to man has no limit. He has tortured him, he has burned him, he has killed him, he has exploited him in every possible way-religious, political, economic. This has been the story of man to man; the clever exploit the stupid, the ignorant."
J.Krishnamurti

Objectives

  • Concerns for others' rights
  • Tolerant behaviour towards diversity of views, culture, and beliefs.
  • Responsible performance of one's social roles
  • Translates human rights into social reality


    • Core Values

  • Non-violence
  • Kindness
  • Empathy
  • Equanimity


    • Content

  • Understanding the concept
  • Education for human rights
  • Intended outcome
  • Classroom practices
  • Hints for peace culture


    • Learning Activities

    1. Identifying my responsibilities
    2. Building a new society
    3. He is my brother
    4. Why do I love my family?
    5. Trust walk
    6. Exclusion
    7. Exploring stereotypes
    8. Children against toy weapons
    9; Understanding gender roles
    10. Understanding the Declaration of Human Rights

    Understanding the Concept

    The tradition of human rights concepts is as old as human civilization. Every society had varying norms to protect human life and dignity. Great religions strengthened the traditions.

    Human rights can be broadly defined as those rights which human beings are entitled to which no one can deprive them of. They are a set of guarantees that ensure not only living but also those basic conditions to live with dignity as a human being. They are designed to protect individuals from the threat to life and human dignity With the growth of the power of states, complexity and stratification of the society, such a set Oi guarantees was necessary.

    The Declaration of the Universal Human Rights by the United Nations

    Organization is a moral victory of mankind as a whole in recent times. It is the culmination of the moral values that all religions advocated from the beginning of history. Now for the first time in history the whole wcvld has accepted a set of rights applied to every human being, irrespective of nationality, religion, sex, social status, occupation, wealth, property, or any other differentiating ethnic, cultural, or social characteristic. The declaration begins with the article; "All human beings ure born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should uct towaids one another in a spirit of brotherhood. "

    The purpose of the declaration is obviously to provide a global foundation to protect human dignity. It subsequently initiated various States to adopt and enlarge the principles of human rights in the Constitutions. Many codes of rights, like Arrican Charter on Human and People's Rights, European Convention on Human Rights and American Declaration of Rights and Duties of Man sprang up following it.

    The declaration also led to include principles of human rights into various sections of public laws, such as race equality, sex discrimination, and court procedures. The declaration covers right to life, liberty, and security of person. Slavery, torture, cruel punishment, arbitrary arrest and detention, and invasion of privacy and family are banned. Due process of law is guaranteed using such principles as "innocent until proved guilty." Freedom of thought and speech, conscience and religious beliefare accepted. Private ownership of property, freedom of movement, right to employment, health and education are also guaranteed. The Declaration covers such major areas like survival, dignity, political action, culture, and economic and social rights. However the convention in the present form may not be perfect according to certain cultural perspectives because of the strong Western cultural influence in their make. At least, it has got to be accepted as a set of minimum moral standards required by all cultures.

    Developing consciousness of rights is important in that they are strong factors in peace. Most of the conflicts arise from violation of human rights. Mere acceptance of the rights nationally or internationally alone is not sufficient. The political, cultural and economic diversities of the globe are so complex and therefore there is a need to have determined action to make human rights a reality in the societies. It is the responsibility of every citizen, government and civil organization to secure them.

    Education of Human Rights

    Schools have the responsibility to educate the next generation on human rights and inculcate the basic values imbedded in there. Although many curricula have it as a unit generally it is taught only at the cognitive level. Such academic learning has little impact on the actual behaviour. Merely memorizing the articles in the convention does not go far. What is necessary is to help learning them in a manner that the respect for human dignity is internalized and be a part of one's character. We have yet to search for effective methods of teaching human rights.

    One of the critiques of the present approach to teaching rights is that it ignores the responsibility side. In the West we see the overstress for the rights has led to imbalance of civic consciousness and human relationships. Campaigns that propagate human rights rarely speak about duties that go with them. Therefore the message that people get is "Fight for your rights; neglect your duties." In the Orient the emphasis is always given to one's duties before rights. There is an interesting Buddhist discourse called Sigalowada Sutta, which reflects the Oriental attitude to rights. Therein the Buddha explains that parents are bound to do their rightful to children when children perform their duties to parents. Masters are bound to do their rightful to workers when they perfarm their duties to masters. One has to earn one's rights by performing the duties. They are inseparable as the two sides of the

    same coin.

    Children, especially in primary grades may find it difficult to grasp the concepts involved in human rights, Their ability to understand abstract concepts like rights, freedom is yet to develop. Learning human rights should begin with understanding them in daily experiences of the personal life of children. For instance:

    1 Standing in a queue for one's turn
    2 Keeping promises
    3 Returning a debt in time
    4 Helping the injured and sick
    5 Keeping the public places clean
    6 Not encroaching on others' property

    Sharing experiences of such familiar situations are helpful.

    Individual introspection under such circumstances is encouraged. The teacher opens up students to discuss, share their feelings and thoughts. The experiences are interpreted and judged by the principles of human rights, equality and justice. The basic approach adopted here is to develop sensitivity to deep suffering experienced by human beings in situations where their natural rights are deprived of. For instance, the feelings of being socially rejected are recognized. Along with the development of affective feelings of deprivation students begin to broaden their consciousness and change their attitudes towards the necessity of respecting and protecting human dignity. Building on that issue of the rights of women, children, minorities, religious sects, refugees and various other social groups could be discussed. The notion of rights needs to be extended to the animals and from there to Nature as well. Peace recognizes and respects life in every form.

    As you move forward, you begin to see every right arises from a basic human need. For example, the right to education has that education is a need in man. Thus denying him an education is violating a right. All violations of human rights are violent acts, because they involve depriving a person from fulfilling his need. Taken as whole all the rights as expressed in the articles provide the foundation for democracy. In short, democracy is the governance that ensures human rights. Democracy is the process of ensuring and securing human rights. It is basically a conflict resolution process. Peace arises from the proper functioning of democracy. In other words, peace in a country is the product of democracy.

    Intended outcome

    Concern for equality id justice

    a Respect for others' rights
    b Concern for others' feelings and needs.
    c Respectful and decent behaviour to people even under provocative situations, e.g conflict.

    Democratic conduct

     1 Tolerance and respect for diversity, in views, culture, and beliefs.

    2 Identifying the types of human rights' violations in social issues/situations.

    Responsible behaviour

    3 Responsible performance of one's social roles

    Ability to apply and translate human rights into social realities Respect, for Human Digniry

    Use examples of characters and incidents found in the texts to discuss the issues of human rights.

    Collect cases of violation of various types of rights from the current news report. Use them as case studies.

    Let children identify a current violation of a human right in their community. Facilitate a discussion to analyse it, and decide what actions could be taken to rectify it.

    Use the human rights' perspective in a different subject context wherever relevant, e.g. in analysing a historical event, in appreciating prose, a biography of a great person, or a drama.

    Use human rights values and principles in dealing with problems in classroom management.

    Broaden the views of human brotherhood in discussing diversities of human cultures.

    Encourage seeing the global interlink in the world in our daily life, e.g. the food we eat, clothes we wear, etc.

    Hints for peace culture-building

    Initiate a tradition of respecting children and their rights. Eliminate practices of physical punishment. Adopt positive disciplinary methods such as methods of reinforcements.



    Respect Human Dignity

    1. Identifying my responsibilities and rights This is an activity that helps to understand one's responsibilities and rights. Curriculum Concern: Social studies/ when you discuss rights

    Objective: Understanding one's responsibilities and rights in different situations.

    Activity:

    Discuss the need to know one's rights and responsibilities in various situations. Take a situation for study, e.g. going on an education tour.

    Brainstorm responsibilities and rights you have as a student in a school education assigned to me. List the responses from the class, e.g.

    Responsibilities

    * To perform duties assigned.
    * Not to disturb others rest.

    *...........................................................

    Rights

    * To renrind others in my group of their duties when necessary.

    * Not to be disturbed by others.

    *...........................................................

    Develop the list as much as possible

    Discussion: Guide questions

    a What can we recommend from our analysis?
    b How rights are related to responsibilities.

    2. Building a new society

    This is an activity about understanding the need of human rights for a society.

    Level: Upper secondary

    Curriculum concern: Social Studies/ when you want to introduce the concept of human rights.

    Objective: Understanding that human rights lay the foundation for a democratic society.

    Activity:

    Present the following imaginary situation:

     A country is having a protracted internal war. The community life is increasingly affected and the country is reduced to a lawless land. People have no protection. There is a small fertile island two honeyed kilometres away from the mainland. A large group of people leave the country and go to settle down in the island with the intention of living in peace.

    These people as soon as they settle gather at a meeting to establish a government. They work out a constitution for a new government. They appoint a commission to prepare the constitution for a peaceful and just society, where people can live in dignity and freedom.

    Now you are that people. Appoint a commission of three persons. Others present their vision and dreams of their new government.

    Step 1: Students appoint a commission. Others divide into groups of five. Each group decides on making five proposals and presenting them to the committee. The chairman conducts the interview with each group with the help of the other two. They question the principles, values, rights and viability of the proposals. The third person in the committee plays the role of devil's advocate, i.e. as a person who argues against the proposals. The groups have to argue for their case. This activity can be continued for several sessions.

    Discussion :

    1. What were the human rights proposed by the groups?
    2. Tell us one thing you learnt from the activity.
    3. "A demarcated society is based on human rights." Comment.
    3. He is my brother.

    This is an activity about human brotherhood.

    Level: Lower primary/primary.

    Curriculum concern: Environmental Studies/ when you want to discuss and focus on people in different countries.

    Objectives Valuing human brotherhood.

    Activity : Narrate the following story.

    Once upon a time, a teacher asked his pupils. How do we know in a night that morning has dawned?

    The students thought for a while.

    "When I can see a tree," said one.
    "When I can see a road," said the other.
    "When I can see an animal," another replied.

    The teacher was not happy with any of the answers. Finally he said, "I'll tell you. We know that morning has dawned, when you can see another human being as your own brother."

    Discussion: Guide questions

    a What is the moral of the story?
    b Why people in different countries look different in their colour, language and ways of behaviours?
    c Why should we respect all human beings, in spite of their colour, social status, nationality, religions and other differences?
    d How should we behave towards other people?
    4. Why do I love my family?

    This is an activity, about the rights of family.

    Level : Upper primary

    Curriculum concern: Environmental Studies/ when you discuss that the basic unit of society is family.

    Objectives:

    1. Valuing human family.
    2. Understanding the significance of family.

    Activity :

    Step 1. Draw students' attention to the importance of family. Discuss the benefits they enjoy within the family. Identify the significance of the family in relation to society.

    Step 2. Students work in groups and prepare a list of suggestions of how society should protect families. They present their suggestions.

    Discussion: Build on children's suggestions.. Bring into attention, any aspect they haven't considered.

    5. Trust Walk

    This is an activity about building trust and experiencing dependency Level: Upper primary to upward.

    Curriculum concern: Physical education / Social studies/when you discuss privileges.

    Materials: Big handkerchiefs big enough to blindfold. One for each student.

    Objectives: Building trust

    Experiencing dependency.

    Activity:

    Take children outdoors to a safe place. Let them pair with one another. One child is blindfolded. The other child leads him around, without touching. He/ she takes the other through exciting experiences allowing to touch, smell and guess various objects in the surroundings. The leader has to take care of the blindfolded,, avoiding falling on and collision against objects.

    Discussion: Guide questions.

    1 How did you feel when walking blindfolded?
    2 When do people experience such feelings in life?
    3 How did you feel when leading the partner?
    4 What were your responsibilities in leading the blindfolded?

    6. Exclusion

    This is an activity about understanding the nature of being excluded.

    Level: Secondary.

    Curriculum concern: Exploring the nature of social exclusion.

    Activity:

    Students sit in a circle on chairs. A group of five students are asked to go out for a while. In their absence, their chairs are removed and the class starts singing a song. Those who went out are asked to come back while the class is singing.

    Purposely the rest of the students do not pay attention to them. They are made to feel excluded.

    Discussion: Guide Questions. a What happened here? (Tell the five students the exclusion was done purposely to provide a learning experience).

    b How did you feel being excluded? (Question everyone, students excluded)

    c Have you experienced exclusion before? If so when? Relate your experience.

    d What are the situations where people feel excluded?

    e Complete the sentence. 'Ifeel excluded in school when . . . . . . . . . . . ...' (Every student fills the blank).

    7. Exploring stereotypes

    This is an activity about sexism.

    Level : Upper secondary.

    Curriculum concern: Social Studies/ when you discuss gender issues.

    Objective: Understanding sexism.

    Activity:

    Explain the meaning of stereotype: "It means an over simplified fixed generalization or image constructed about people."

    Examples for stereotypes of sex roles.

  • Sons are more important than daughters.
  • Boys need more independence than girls.
  • Boys are more intelligent than girls.
  • Parents' property should go to the sons.
  • Girls should get married as early as possible.
  • Explore the sex role stereotype thinking about boys and girls found in your society.

    Discussion : Guide Questions
  • Are the assumptions about girls true?
  • Are the assumptions about boys true?
  • Why girls are discriminated against traditionally?
  • Should women be subordinated to men?
  • "The purpose of discrimination of women is to exploit and repress them."


    • Discuss.

  • How are women exploited and repressed in traditional societies?
  • How do we get rid of sexism?

    • 8. Children against toy weapons

    This is an activity of developing a children's movement against gun culture.

    Level: Lower secondary

    Materials: A few toy weapons.

    Objectives: Creating attitudes against use of weapons.

    Activity:

    Step 1.

    Draw children's attention to the destruction of wars. List them as extensively as possible.

    Then show a few toy guns briefly and ask the class how they affect their minds. (Expected responses)

    1 You learn to enjoy shooting.
    2 You begin to thinking shooting is an heroic act,
    3 I begin to love weapons.

    Conclude from the responses that the use of toys develop aggressive attitudes in children.

    Discuss what Jesus Christ said about weapons.

    i.e. : Those who take weapons are destroyed by weapons.

    Explore new ways of saying the same message.

    Step 2.

    Let children form a movement Children Against Toy Weapons (CATW). They appoint office bearers and a committee. They draw a constitution for the movement; identify objectives and a course of action.

    Examples for activities.

    a Awareness raising against toy weapons within the school and community through posters, meetings, lectures and pamphlets.

    1 Organizing children's rallies.
    2 Linking with other schools.
    3 Symbolic destruction of toy weapons by public demonstration.
    4 Appealing to shopowners not to sell toy weapons.
    5 Appealing to parents not to buy toy weapons for their children.

    9. Understanding gender roles

    This is an activity about gender relationships.

    Level: Upper secondary.

    Curriculum concern: Social studies / when you discuss gender problems in society. Objective: Reflecting upon one's gender roles.

    Activity:

    The class is divided into single sex groups, e.g. three girls' groups and three boys' groups.

    They go to the groups and discuss their responses to the following questions (Questions can be written on the board)

    1. How do we feel like being girls / boys?
    2. What experiences make us happy as girls/ boys?
    3. What experiences make us sad as girls / boys?
    4. What are the types of behaviour we appreciate in the opposite sex?
    5. What are the types of behaviour we do not appreciate in the opposite sex?
    6. How can we build good relations as girls and boys?

    The responses of the groups are presented in the plenary group. The good points in the presentation are appreciated and valued at the follow-up discussion

    10. Understanding the Declaration on Human Rights

    Activity After the basic study of the Convention on the Human Rights, write the following five categories on the board.

    1. Right to life
    2. Right to equality
    3. Right against servitude, and torture
    4. Right to education
    5. Right to culture
    6. Right to political decision-making

    Divide the class into six groups and assign each group one topic. They have to find articles that fall under the topic.

    On the completion of the activity they present their findings followed by discussions.

    This activity can be continued with other types of categories of rights.

    Find the evaluation instrument in the following page.