TEACHING MODULE ONE: INTRODUCTORY EXERCISES FOR A COURSE ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND JUSTICE
By Julie Mertus and Nancy Flowers
[Adapted from Julie Mertus, Nanancy Flowers and Mallika Dutt, Local Action/ Global Change: Learning About the Human Rights of Women and Girls (New York: UNIFEM, 1999)]/
ABOUT THIS MODULE
Too often courses on human rights begin with either an overview of political theory and philosophy, or a summary of human rights treaties and the various systems and mechanisms for human rights promotion. While these topics are important, jumping into the topic at this point can give the impression that human rights are technical and historical concerns of other people, detached from our own lives and contemporary responsibilities. We have also found that some students become deeply upset and numbed by stories of human rights abuses if they are not first prepared to hear them. Classroom dynamics in human rights and social justice courses can be upset if the group as a whole is not prepared to respect different feelings and experiences within the class itself. This module addresses these concerns.
This module provides a variety of exercises for preparing a class to think about human rights and social justice issues. No group should expect to use all the exercises. Select those best suited to the group and if necessary adapt them to meet the group’s needs. We have found that in heterogeneous groups (i.e., men and women, people of various races and nationalities), the inclusion of at least one exercise on sameness and difference fosters a better learning environment, but in more homogeneous groups the question of “who is here and who is not” should be introduced as well. In addition, if there is time for only one of these exercises, we suggest the “wheel of equality” as a foundation for thinking about the nature of human rights violations and a bridge to discussions of human rights theory and mechanisms.
Exercise 1: Active Listening
Objective: To emphasize the importance of respectful listening to human rights discussions; to highlight the importance of recognizing feelings
Time: 15-20 minutes
Materials: None
1. Active Listening:
Ask participants to work in pairs: One participant speaks for three minutes about what she feels when she reads about or sees visual images of violence/ gross human rights abuses. The partner listens carefully without interrupting or taking notes. The "listener" then has two minutes to repeat to her partner what she has heard. The partners then switch roles.
2. Discuss:
Invite participants to share their experiences with the group. Discuss:
· What was it like to be listened to intently? To hear your words repeated?
· What was it like to listen and repeat?
· In what situations in our lives do we have similar opportunities to be given full attention? In what situations would we like to be given such attention?
· Was it difficult to talk about feelings?
· Why is respectful listening about feelings essential to human rights discussions?
Exercise 2: Standing Together/Sitting Alone
Objective: To explore participants’ diverse and shared experience and relate to human rights
Time: 15-20 minutes
Materials: None
1. Action:
Ask participants to sit in a circle. Explain the object of the exercise and how it works: anyone may stand and name a category she belongs to; others who wish to acknowledge that they also belong to this category stand up with her. Emphasize that no one is forced to participate unless she so desires. Start by demonstrating the process with a relatively ordinary category to which you belong such as "oldest child" or "left-handed."
Generally the categories grow more personal and sensitive as the exercise proceeds. Draw it to a close when you feel that the objective has been accomplished.
2. Discuss:
Point out the multiple identities we bring to the workshop. Discuss:
· What were the largest shared categories? What were the smallest?
· Were some of the minority categories’ sources of pride? Of shame or embarrassment?
· What kinds of people were not represented at all in this group?
· How do the differences, similarities and omissions of the group relate to human rights?
Exercise 3: What I Like/ What I Do
Objective: To explore general stereotypes and their effect on women’s and men’s lives
Time: 30 minutes
Materials: Chart paper and markers or blackboard and chalk Paper and pen (optional)
1. List:
Ask each participant to list two things in each of these categories:
· Things that I do and like that are considered "women’s activities" (or “men’s activities” for the men in the group)
· Things I do but don’t like that are considered "women’s activities" (or “men’s activities” for the men in the group)
· Things I do that are considered "men’s activities"(or “women’s activities” for the men in the group) regardless of whether I like them or not
· Things I don’t do but would like to do that are considered "men’s activities"(or “men’s activities” for the men in the group).
Go around the group asking participants what they listed in each category.
2. Discuss:
Ask the group to consider the four lists and discuss these questions:
· What generalizations about the roles of males and females can you make from these lists?
· To what extent are gender roles unconscious and/or internalized?
· How have stereotypical images of women and men influenced your personal history?
· What experiences have you had in challenging gender roles?
[Adapted from gender training of B.A.B.E., a women's human rights group of Zagreb, Croatia, 1996.]
Exercise 4: Wheel of Equality
Objective: To recall and analyze personal experiences of self-assertion
Time: 20-30 minutes
Materials: Copies of the UDHR (complete or simplified version). Chart paper and markers or blackboard and chalk. Paper and pens (optional)
Step A: Telling the Stories
Divide participants into small groups. Ask participants to tell a story about a time when they asserted their human rights or stood up for themselves as a person entitled to dignity and fairness. Alternative: Encourage participants to create pictures or dramatizations to illustrate their stories.
Read aloud, post or pass out copies of "Some Points to Consider in Telling Your Story" (below).
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SOME POINTS TO CONSIDER IN TELLING YOUR STORY
· Where did this event occur? The home? The workplace? School? Was the location significant?
· Why did you assert your rights? What was your driving motivation?
· Did you make a conscious decision to do so?
· How did you feel before, during, and after?
· Was this experience in the private sphere? If so did it change your sense of your role in your home and family?
· Did this experience involve entering the public sphere of life? If so, did it change your sense of your role in the community?
· How did people respond to your action? Did you receive any encouragement or support for your action?
· What were the consequences of your action?
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Step B: Analyzing the Stories
After everyone has told a story, ask each group to analyze the conditions that make possible each set of assertions. Ask someone to serve as Recorder, writing down the factors that are mentioned. Read aloud, post or pass out the factors that are mentioned. Read aloud, post or pass out "Some Points to Consider in Analyzing Your Story" (below).
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**********************************************************************************SOME POINTS TO CONSIDER IN ANALYSING YOUR STORY
• Who or what helped you to stand up for yourself?
• What aspects of your own character and personality led to your action?
• Did you have the support or encouragement of other women? Of any men?
• Did you have the role models of other women?
• Did your social or economic situation enable your action?
• Did your education enable your action?
• Did community traditions or institutions support your action?
• What other factors supported or enabled your action?
• What were the consequences of your action?
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Step C: Retelling the Stories
1. Ask each small group to select one story to retell or dramatize for the whole group. Participants might retell their own stories or someone else might tell it for them. Or members of the group might act out the central events of the story. Or the group may wish to create a composite story that contains elements of each personal story.
As each small group presents its story, represent each graphically as a wheel with spokes: on the spokes are written the acts of assertion (e.g., "demanded equal pay," "challenged harasser"); the area between the spokes becomes the factors that helped the person in the story stand up for herself ("self-worth," "mother," "role model," etc.). See the graphic below for a demonstration.
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Step D: Relating the Stories to Human Rights
1. After all the stories have been told, ask the group to examine the various "spokes" and "supports" on this wheel and derive from them the basic human rights or needs the stories represent (e.g., "Education," "Economic Equality," "Freedom from Violence"). Record these rights or needs on the rim of the wheel. (Note: Say "rights or needs" at this point as some of the items mentioned may not be legally enforceable rights.)
2. Ask participants to return to their small groups and use copies of the UDHR to match the needs on the wheel to particular articles.
Alternative: Each group takes a different document or the facilitator presents a simplified version of the UDHR, CEDAW or another document as the basis for discussion.
3. Ask each group to report its findings. Write the relevant article(s) next to each need written on the rim of the wheel.
4. Conclude with a brief discussion of the relationship of human rights to people’s real- life situations.
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Exercise 5: The Effects Wheel
Objective: To raise awareness, clarify thinking and generate discussion about the interrelatedness and consequences of human rights abuses
Time: 30 minutes
Materials: Chart paper and markers. Copies of "Effects Wheel" for each small group (below).
1. Illustrate:
Demonstrate how the Effects Wheel works by starting with a general question related to a women’s human rights issue phrased as "If..., then what are the effects" (Ideally base the question on an issue listed in Exercise 11). Write this statement in the centre of the Effects Wheel. For example:
• "If only women could own property, then ... "
• "If women shared equally in decision making in the family, then..."
• "If girls receive less food and health care than boys, then..."
• "If women held as many elected positions as men in our government, then..."
• "If women were given an equal voice in planning development projects, then..."
Ask participants to call out responses to the statement and record them in the First Order of Effects ring on the wheel. For example, in response to "If girls receive less food and health care than boys, then...", these might be some of the First Order of Effects:
• "Girls would be more susceptible to disease."
• "Boys would be more vigorous and energetic than girls."
• "More baby girls would die than baby boys."
• "Girls' mental and physical development would be stunted."
Take one or more of the First Order of Effects responses and follow it out to the Second Order and Third Order of Effects rings. For example, in response to the effect "Boys would be more vigorous and energetic than girls," these might be some of the further effects:
• "Traditional gender roles of aggressive males and passive females would be reinforced."
• "Girls would experience less academic or athletic success."
• "Girls would be less likely to be ambitious."
2. Complete:
Divide participants into small groups and ask each to develop a similar "If..." statement about a women’s human rights issue and write it in the center of their chart. Each group should then develop the First, Second and Third Order of Effects as far as it can.
Alternative: Provide participants with a list of such statements and ask them to select.
3. Discuss:
Ask a spokesperson from each group to present its wheel. Discuss the results:
• Are you surprised by some of the effects?
• Which of these effects are desirable to your community? Which undesirable?
• What must be done to change the undesirable effects?
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[Adapted from Sue Lewis and Anne Davies, Gender Equity in Mathematics and Science, (Canberra, Australia: Curriculum Development Center, 1988).]
Exercise 6: What Must Be Done?
Objective: To prioritize different kinds of action for change and examine the principles on which those priorities are based
Time: 60 minutes
Materials: Set of statements (see below) for each group cut into strips. Chart paper and glue or tape for each group.
1. Discuss:
Divide participants into small groups and give each group a complete set of statements cut into strips, glue or tape and a sheet of chart paper divided into three columns labeled "Essential," "Useful," and "Irrelevant."
Explain the procedure:
a. Someone then reads each statement without comment and the group decides where to place the statement on the sheet in answer to this question: "In order to achieve women's human rights to ____, is this statement essential, useful or irrelevant?" No statement may be taped to a sheet unless everyone in the group is in agreement about where it belongs. When the group cannot reach consensus about a statement, it must be put aside.
b. When all the agreed-upon statements have been attached to the sheet, the group then discusses those statements that were set aside. The group tries to reach consensus. Participants may alter the wording in order to achieve consensus.
2. Analyze:
Ask each group to hang its chart and allow time for everyone to compare charts. Ask groups to identify differences in priorities. Then ask everyone to return to their own chart and note whether any pattern exists in terms of where the have placed the different colored statements. At this point, draw attention to the significance of the colors of the statements: pink = legislative change, blue = attitude change, and yellow = action for change.
3. Discuss:
Ask the participants to examine their decisions:
• In general, what principles guided you as you placed the statements under the three columns?
• Was there a pattern of bias for or against legislative change, attitude change or action? If so, why do you think your group has such a bias?
• Can the priorities generated in your group be used to build an action plan to address the human rights violation the group identified?
Sample Questions
The following are sample questions are based on violence against women. Facilitators can make similar statements for any other issue involving human rights.
What Must Be Done to Achieve Freedom from Violence?
(Pink/legislative)
· Immigration law should be extended to grant political asylum to women fleeing violence of any kind.
· Employers who tolerate sexual harassment in the workplace should be legally liable.
· The government should recognize violence against women as a human rights violation and impose strict punishments against perpetrators.
· Survivors of rape should be required to testify in open court.
· Pornography should be made illegal.
· The government should give economic support to survivors of domestic violence.
(Blue/attitude)
• The idea that women ask or deserve to be victims of violence must be challenged.
• Children's books should address violence against women in the home.
• Advertising agencies should be challenged when they objectify women or stereotype women as victims.
• The belief that women are inferior to men should be addressed at all times.
• Police should not interfere in family problems unless a life is in danger.
(Green/action for change)
• Women should always support other women.
• Women should take action in solidarity with other oppressed groups to stop violence.
• Those who support women's right to be free from violence should lobby the government as well as religious and other institutions.
• Businesses that consistently degrade women in their products or advertising should be boycotted.
• Women should organize against stereotyping by the media.
• Battered women's shelters should place equal emphasis on violence prevention.
[Adapted from David Donahue and Meg Satterthwaite, Breaking the Classroom Silence, (Amnesty International, 1995).]
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