Activity One

This activity is to accompany Unit Five of the Curriculum Guide.

Incorporating the C.E.L.s:

• Independent Learning
• Critical & Creative Thinking
• Personal & Social Values & Skills
• Communication

Concept Development Lesson for:

• Human Rights
• Privileges
• Moral Vision
• Obligations
• Universality
• Humanity

This purpose of this concept application activity is to expand students knowledge of the concept of human rights and to think about what their personal stand on human rights will be.

Knowledge Objectives:

The student will:

• know that human rights are a paradigm people within a society collectively use to define how people should behave in order to maintain successful relationships;
• know that a moral vision establishes the standards to be used in determining the minimum requirements for a life of dignity;
• know that each society will develop its own moral vision that will identify the minimum requirement for a life of dignity;
• know that application of specific human rights requires obligations on the part of society and of individuals within that society; and,
• know that human rights are universal and as such apply to everyone regardless of nationality, race, religion, political beliefs, age, or gender.

Skills Development:

The student will:

• learn/practise defining sets of criteria that can be used to make decisions about the correct course of action;
• practise applying the thinking skills of:
  • stating criteria that can be used as a basis for decisions; and,
  • presenting tests such as consequences that justify the criteria selected;
• practise selecting and applying the abilities of:
  • problem solving,
  • dialectical thinking,
  • decision making, and,
  • conflict resolution, to an issue.

Values Issues:

The student will:

• discuss what constitutes a life of dignity and humanity;
• discuss the rights to which everyone is entitled regardless of their contribution to society; and,
• discuss the obligations that everyone in society has toward the dignity of each and every individual?

Outline of the Activity

Step One

Discuss with the students the concept of human rights and develop a list of critical attributes of this concept.

Provide students with the following grid and ask groups to make decisions about the following issues represented on the grid.

Issue/social practice	Is this an ordinary right	Is this a human right	Should this be a human right
Driver's license
Freedom of speech
Other

2. Indicate to the class that every human right also has associated obligations and duties that every citizen has to accept.

• Ask each group to consider the obligations and duties associated with the human rights they have selected in the previous exercise.

Issue/social practice	Is this an ordinary right	Is this a human right	Should this be a human right	What are the obligations involved in this right?
Driver's license
Freedom of speech
Other

Ask the student groups to consider:

• Whether they are prepared to accept and live by the responsibilities accompanying the human rights they selected?
• What it would be like to live in a society without some of the human rights they have listed?

Have the groups attempt to reach consensus about the basic human rights they believe are necessary to maintain a life of dignity.

Indicate to the students that in considering a life of dignity and humanity they should ask themselves what they believe about:

• the rights to which everyone should be entitled regardless of their contributions to society; and,
• the obligations everyone in society has for the dignity of each and every individual.

Provide the students with the following directions.

• Each group is going to read out a human right, explain what the related duties of the human right are, and give a rationale which explains why they believe the right is fundamental to a life of dignity.
• Each person will have four coloured cards, and when a right is suggested, each person can select a card to hold up:
  • a green card signifies that the person agrees that the right is acceptable and should be adopted by society;
  • a yellow card signifies that the person agrees with the right but is not prepared to actively support it;
  • an orange card signifies that the person disagrees with the right but will not actively try to prevent its adoption; and,
  • a red card indicates that the person disagrees with the right and is vetoing it. (This system allows nothing to be adopted so long as one person holds up a red card.)

This can proceed for several rounds with the students returning to confer with each other within groups and then meeting to negotiate and vote between groups in order to come up with an acceptable list of human rights.