1. What are human rights?

Activity 1 - What are human rights?

Activity Tasks

Define - In no more than 140 characters, write a tweet-sized definition of human rights. Be as imaginative as you can!
List - How many human rights can you recall? With a partner, write a list of as many as you can think of.
Discuss - Examine the complete list here of 30 human rights from the UDHRs. Do any of these rights surprise you?
Examine - Explore the definition of human rights on Slides 3-4 of the Lesson Presentation. Make notes on the four key principles that underpin modern human rights.

Activity Tasks

Explore - Read and make notes from Slides 5-9 of the Lesson Presentation on how human rights have evolved.
Research - In pairs, choose one of the following turning point developments in the history of human rights. Using this website or any of the links below, make some brief research notes on the significance of each milestone:
1. The Cyrus Cylinder (539 BC)
2. Magna Carta (1215 CE)
3. Petition of Right (1628 CE)
4. Bill of Rights (1689 CE)
5. United States Declaration of Independence (1776)
6. US Constitution (1787) and Bill of Rights (1791)
7. Declaration of Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789)
8. The First Geneva Convention (1864)
Present - Create a class timeline, poster, infographic, or anything else to present your findings on how your legal milestone contributed to the development of human rights.
Discuss - What was the most significant milestone in the development of human rights?

Activity Tasks

Read - Examine this opinion piece from The Guardian (UK) about human rights, then answer these questions:
1. What do you think Hannah Ardent means by saying ‘the right to have rights’?
2. According to the article, why are some people’s human rights not respected at times?
3. Why might people lose membership of a political community?
4. What does it mean to say that human rights are just an ‘aspect of human social existence’?
5. According to the article, why do we need to defend the rights of others who are deprived of their rights?
Discuss - In your opinion, what do you think are the main reasons why human rights are not respected enough in the world? What could be the solution(s) to that?