Exploring the Issue of Discrimination

Introduction

Many violations of human rights take place because one group of people feels superior to another. This often results in discrimination - the decision to exclude, restrict, marginalize or humiliate people because of their race, colour, religious beliefs, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, or other characteristics. Such discrimination is a denial of human dignity and of equal rights for those who are discriminated against.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is founded on the basis that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

Methodology

The activities suggested below are learner-centred and use participatory methodology. This methodology is particularly appropriate when exploring the nature of discrimination in society since it allows the learners to relate the issue to their personal experience and environment. It involves young people fully in their learning so that they become active explorers of the world around them, rather than passive recipients of knowledge. The activities can be used in the classroom, or alternatively in non-formal educational settings such as in youth clubs or community groups.

A variety of methods are contained in the activities. The first activity suggests the use of cartoons, such as those produced for AI Week. Cartoons and comics are powerful influences on young people. They can entertain and inform, or more negatively can encourage prejudices and stereotypes. In an educational setting, cartoons drawn by young people themselves can be used to develop observation skills, imagination, and feelings of empathy. When put on display in a classroom or on a community noticeboard, drawings and cartoons can also be used as a way to communicate messages about human rights to other people.

Other methods proposed include simulation games, creative writing and project work. Simulation games aim to bring to life circumstances which are unfamiliar to the students. They can be useful for improving analysis and understanding of a situation, helping to develop participation skills and for encouraging empathy. Creative writing - for example, of short stories, poems and plays -helps develop communication skills and encourages the imagination. Projects are also useful for teaching about human rights because they allow learners to take control of their own learning and create opportunities for young people to interact with each other and with diverse people in the community.

All the activities below aim to make young people more aware of the discrimination that occurs in society. They aim to help them understand that discrimination is wrong and that it denies people their fundamental rights. They also highlight the need for action to prevent discrimination.

Classroom activities

PICTURING DISCRIMINATION

For this activity you might like to use the Freedom from Discrimination cartoon strip written by Enrique Rodriguez Sanchez which has been produced as part of the AI Week materials. Alternatively you may wish to select an appropriate cartoon yourself. The activity is divided into three parts.

Purpose: This activity aims to draw attention to discrimination, as well as issues to do with diversity, equality and universality. It also encourages empathy with victims as well as the need for young people to take action to prevent discrimination.

Age:14 and upwards

Time Needed: Part 1 Discussion 45 minutes

Part 2 Group Exercise Approx 45 minutes (Time needed will vary according to the number of participants)

Part 3 Project work or homework

How to Do It: Distribute the cartoon to the participants and allow 5 minutes for them to read it.

Part 1 - Questions for Group Discussion

How did you feel as you read the cartoon?

How do you think the children in the cartoon are feeling?

In what ways do you think the children in the cartoon live a very different life from you? Have different values? hopes? needs? expectations of life?

What human rights do you think are the most important to the characters in the cartoon? Are these rights also important for you? Why?

Do you think the children in the cartoon enjoy the same human rights as you? Why or why not?

What do you think is the message of the cartoon?

What is discrimination?

Name some groups in your society whom you believe are frequently victims of discrimination.

What do you think can be done to prevent this kind of discrimination from happening? What can you personally do?

Part 2 - Group Exercise

Divide participants into small groups of three to four. Ask each group to carry out the following exercise:

Make a list of all the human rights you can associate with the cartoon. Include both rights being exercised and rights denied or violated.

Match the rights you have listed with specific articles of the UDHR or the Convention on the Rights of the Child. (For younger children, you might choose to give them copies of simplified versions of the UDHR or the Convention).

Allow each group 5 minutes to report back.

Part 3 - Project Work

Suggest that the learners create their own cartoons focusing on the issue of discrimination. They might select a real life example on which to base the cartoon for example using AI appeal cases or an article from a newspaper. Alternatively, they might invent a situation involving a group in their country that experiences discrimination. Ask them to try to present the topic in the most powerful way, so that the pictures will make people think about the issues. Display the results on the classroom wall or on a noticeboard - for example outside a place of worship or community centre, or perhaps arrange for the cartoons to be printed in a school magazine or community newsletter.

STORIES ABOUT DISCRIMINATION

Purpose:This activity encourages creativity, communication, observation skills and imagination, as well as empathy with victims of discrimination.

Age:10 and upwards

Time Needed: 1 hour plus

Process:

Explain to the group that you would like them to write about the topic, How It Feels to Be Discriminated Against. Perhaps they might feel that, as a member of a particular group in society that has experienced discrimination, they can write from their own experience. Otherwise, participants should be asked to use their imagination and try to write from the viewpoint of a person of a different race or culture, or a person with a disability.

Participants could write a story or a poem. Alternatively, working together, they could write and perform a drama, or stage an impromptu role play using discrimination as the theme.

Points to note

Give participants the opportunity to read their stories and poems aloud to the group if they wish, but do not force them to do so if they dont want to.

Alternatively with the authors permission they can be published in local newspapers or newsletters, or perhaps displayed on a public noticeboard.

Always allow time for analysis and group discussion of the issues raised following a role play or the performance of a play.

Additional activities

See Learning Activities for use with Young People to Explore the Issue of Discrimination

Original source

http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engACT310051998?open&of=eng-326