All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights—the first line of the first Article in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.

Human rights—the term, is one that is very frequently used. Yet, when the simple questions ‘what are human rights’ is put forward to people, most will come up with stock answers. Important answers—such as ‘human rights means being born free and equal’, yet answers that might lack in scope.

In the introductory session at South City International School I asked the assembled group of 80 students what the term ‘human rights’ means to them. Stock answers, none of which were incorrect, followed. Then one of the students piped up—‘It means my right to comment on something that I believe is wrong, or an injustice.’ The PeaceWorks Human Rights Defenders Programme aims to do what that student did—go beyond the usual. With Holocaust and the Anne Frank story as the backdrop, it aims to take concepts of rights to students by using arts—literature, performance, films and visual arts in a manner that goes beyond classroom teaching, allowing students to express themselves in ways that they feel most comfortable.

The course curriculum was designed to fit into 20 sessions, give or take a few, with the module as the ‘text’. Interesting readings from the module or other sources are given as handouts, and the accompanying resource containing video clips and essays used with each section. Students from classes 9 and 11 were given the choice of joining the course, and we now have a group of 15 students. We started the course towards the end of November and are now exactly half way through.

The first session began with a round of introductions. The students were asked to introduce themselves with their name and class and what ‘human rights’ means to them. This exercise not only served the purpose of getting to know one another, but also allowed the group to explore, to some extent, different perspectives about a term that we often use freely without understanding fully. As one of the students said later, it was interesting to hear the opinions of his peers, some of which differed drastically from his own. The common consensus was that awareness of ones basic rights is lacking in most people. The discussion following the screening of clips from ‘The Path to Nazi Genocide’ included comments like ‘I was disgusted’ and ‘ suppression will always lead to revolution, so how can the Germans be blamed for their actions.’

The activity that followed readings of excerpts from the Diary of Anne Frank required the students and the teachers to picture themselves in a similar Holocaust like situation—what would they take with them if they were to go into hiding? Answers ranged from the practical—penknives and identification to the emotional—photographs of loved ones and diaries. Interestingly two of the students mentioned items that would safeguard them from any religion based conflict or discrimination. The topic of ‘Social Exclusion’ was dealt with next. What do those words mean to the students? Have they heard it being used before? The students were then divided into three groups and given the task to think about and begin to plan (three) campaigns against specific examples of social exclusion.

To take the process of designing successful campaigns further, Sumeet Thakur, actor and activist was invited to speak to the students about his experiences working on the Dear Neighbour project—a campaign designed to foster positive relations between India and Pakistan. Sumeet emphasized that it is important to keep the campaign simple and within the boundaries of practicalities. Not only did the students get tips about campaign design and how to make their campaign more effective, they also learnt more about relations between the two counties. As one of the students said ‘This session enabled me to understand that despite the intricacies of territorial disputes and ethnic conflicts, the people on both sides of the border were hopeful to eventually reconcile the differences…’

The students then spent the next session planning their campaigns. The following is a report on that session by one of the students.

This week’s session started out with the planning of our campaigns. We split up into our respective groups and started to discuss our topics. After 40 minutes of enthusiastic discussion, we decided on our topics and how we would convey our message. Being in the smallest group, consisting of only 3 instead of 5, we quickly decided on the agenda of dress code, particularly in colleges, about the restrictions and all things related. One by one, the groups, A, B and C, gave a demonstration of their ideas, which was the most fun for all of us present.

Group A showcased their idea in the form of a short skit, where an awkward teenage boy tries to talk to a girl, but then gets shot down by a senior, after which the bullied boy gets pressurised and criticised by his friend. He then has a mental tug-of-war about whether to go and talk to the girl again or not due to peer pressure. They then follow it up with an explanation about how in school students are preyed upon by peer pressure and bullies.

Group B, which I was part of, talked about dress code in colleges. We explained about how the dress codes are becoming increasingly unreasonably strict. We discussed how we would use social media to spread our campaign. We then talked about how due to these, students are unable to express themselves in their way of dressing. We would use social media, such as Facebook, as our platform and our target audience would be late teens to early 20’s. After our demonstration, we had a question and answer session, during which some showed clear dislike of the topic.

Group C opened their demo by talking about how many suffer from depression and the parents of some don’t take it seriously, and don’t let them see a specialist, saying that there is nothing wrong with them and they are not crazy or something. They want everyone to know that depression and other such issues are real and very serious. They stated that their target audience would be parents and other adults.

Interestingly, after group B had finished presenting their campaign ideas, the discussion moved onto decorum vis a vis the right to wear what one wants to wear. Group B agreed that that was a point that they would have to keep in mind while they finalise their campaign strategy.

While conducting this session, what struck me most were the topics chosen. While presenting their campaign ideas it was clear that each of the topics meant a lot to the students. The presentations, in particular that of the first group, were also well done.

After the presentations and brief discussions accompanying each, we moved onto the topic of ‘Propaganda’. Propaganda played a crucial role in the Nazi domination—both in grabbing power as well as maintaining it. Anti Jewish propaganda, as well as propaganda against the so called ‘outsiders’ was cleverly modified according to the target audience, and lead to widespread hatred towards these communities. The students defined propaganda and discussed instances of propaganda that they have come across recently. One of the incidents quoted was how political parties use relief material after natural disasters to convey propagandist messages. The class was then assigned the topic ‘Propaganda Then and Propaganda Now’ as presentations to prepare for homework. Interestingly, one of the students volunteered to do a solo presentation on ‘Propaganda in the future’. During the presentation, one of the students asked ‘Are we a victim of modern propaganda?’ While discussing propaganda and the various methods used to spread it, one of the points the students kept coming back to was the use of social media and how propaganda can be spread at lightning speeds by social media such as Facebook and Twitter. I left the class with three questions—when is propaganda most dangerous? What makes me vulnerable to propaganda? How can I guard against propagandist techniques?

The Nuremberg Trials of 1945 are considered a milestone in the way international crimes (war crimes and genocide) are treated in a court of law. After reading out accounts from the trials, and a discussion on Hannah Arendt’s The Banality of Evil, a discussion on ‘One man’s terrorist is another man’s revolutionary’ followed. When asked who defines who is a terrorist and who is a revolutionary, the consensus was that the decision lies with the country/person who has the most power or money. One of the students suggested that ‘failed revolutions’ could develop into terrorist acts. Who ‘makes’ a terrorist group was another point of debate with the Al –Qaeda being the point of focus.

The large section of the curriculum deals with the topic of Genocide. What is genocide? What can be classified as genocide? These were the two questions that started the discussion in class. The first example of genocide dealt with was ‘The Stolen Generation’.

Belonging where?

Caught in an abyss

Belonging where?

Thousands of children

Heartache despair

Stolen, separated

Leaving mothers behind

Lost to our culture, Music, Dance and Art.

Lost to Ourselves- our Families- our Hearts.

-Excerpt from a poem written by Lorraine Mcgee-Sippel.

I read out this poem, as well as excerpts from ‘Bringing them Home: The Stolen Children report’ 1997. The very idea that some one else decided that mothers were incapable of taking care of their children on the basis of the skin colour or religious beliefs of the mother was something that really struck a chord with the students. Some repeatedly asked ‘how can someone else decide what is best for children?’ The discussion moved onto adoption related issues and social welfare and what rights were violated during these years.

The session on the Armenian Massacre was conducting using Kathryn Cook’s photographs from the Memory Denied project and the accompanying lesson plan. Having established the basis of the massacres, we moved onto discussing five photographs taken by Kathryn Cook. This lesson successfully challenged the students, allowing them to really analyse what the photographer was trying to convey. The photograph of the woman holding an Armenian Bible led to a brief discussion on faith and why it is important. Also, when it is important. The image of Lake Van prompted words like ‘barren’ and ‘ desolate’ from the students when they were asked to describe what the picture looked like. One of the students said that it looked like the place had seen destruction and loss. As one of the students said in her report about the session—’The pictures helped us think about what the situation must have been like that time, what the people had gone through, about their concentration camps, isolation faced by the people and much more. Amongst these was a picture which I personally found very deep and that was of an old train.’

I left the class with the question what do they think the importance of sites of memory is.

We are exactly at the half way mark in the curriculum. The way the students are thinking and analysing the different topics related to human rights and applying those skills to situations that are playing out in front of them on a daily basis in the news and social media, makes me feel that we do have 15 potential human rights defenders.

–Paroma Sengupta