How children learn to understand human rights

Today is Human Rights Day. And human rights are already a concern for children. They experience at an early age what it means to be excluded or bullied on social media. This makes it all the more important that they also learn to say stop when boundaries are crossed. The Robert F. Kennedy Foundation offers schools the Speak Truth To Power educational programme free of charge, which addresses human rights in a variety of ways.

The children from primary one are sitting on a colourful rainbow that they have painted on a poster. They tell us where their families come from: From Graubünden, the canton of Zurich, Syria, Romania and Portugal. The girl from Syria says that she doesn't understand German well yet, but her best friend Lena helps her. Then they hear the story of Ayize, who, as a black boy in South Africa, was not allowed to play with the white children or travel on the same bus. They learn about Nelson Mandela, who campaigned for black and white children to be allowed to splash around in the same swimming pool. Nelson Mandela called the coexistence of people from different backgrounds the rainbow nation. The children discuss how colourful their lives are because they also come from different cultures. The food is different, the language is different, there are different songs and games. The teacher is enthusiastic: «With this lesson sequence, the children develop an interest in things that are different and they experience how they can help children from different cultures to live together peacefully.»

Human rights are a question of attitude

Human rights have to do with an attitude and cannot simply be taught as school material. It is about dealing with one's own world of experience and actions in one's personal environment. In order to create this attitude, the focus is already on living together in kindergarten. At primary level, the focus is then increasingly on critical reflection. In the transition to lower secondary level, pupils are sufficiently advanced to be able to deal with the connections between local behaviour and global development as well as the effects of our current actions on future generations. The new compulsory school curricula contain specific descriptions of this.
The Robert F. Kennedy Foundation's educational programme Speak Truth to Power is based on these curricula and offers teachers suggestions for incorporating the topic of human rights into lessons across all subjects. The programme includes a book with portraits of people who stand up for human rights. The internet platform www.SpeakTruthToPower.ch offers corresponding activities for lessons from kindergarten to secondary school.

Raising awareness of human rights starts with our children. However, the topic cannot be delegated exclusively to schools. That is why the Speak Truth to Power educational programme also includes a photo exhibition with 52 photos of the people portrayed in the book. The photos were taken by Pulitzer Prize winner Eddie Adams and appeal to children and adults alike. The travelling exhibition (see cover picture) is open to the public and school classes. Children are offered workshops and teachers are given a box with didactic suggestions for visiting the exhibition. There is a supporting programme for adults.

Karin, museum educator from artefix kultur und schule, organised workshops with school classes at the exhibition in Rapperswil: «The portraits of Eddie Adams and the stories behind the faces gave the young visitors access to the big wide world, but also to their own living environment. Questions about art, ethics and politics were discussed and thoughts about their own life's dream and personal conflict behaviour were also included. A wonderful opportunity to learn about the world and question your own life at the same time!»
Liz and Jörg, who visited the exhibition together with their children, appreciate the fact that the exhibition builds a bridge to the classroom: «It's a great idea to introduce the education programme with the Speak Truth to Power exhibition. The compelling content and beautiful presentation of the exhibition, together with the teaching materials, make for a successful educational programme. This inspires our children to uphold and defend human rights.»

INFORMATION ON THE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME:
The entire programme is constantly being expanded and is available to schools free of charge thanks to donations. Further information on the educational programme can be found at www.SpeakTruthToPower.ch and on the foundation at www.rfkhumanrights.ch.

Dr. Sandra Hutterli ist Bildungsexpertin mit breitem Erfahrungshintergrund zum Beispiel als Vertreterin der Schweiz in Bildungsfragen im Europarat und der Europäischen Union und als  Verwaltungsrätin eines internationalen Forschungszentrums. Heute ist sie als Leiterin der betrieblichen Bildung der SBB und hat einen Lehrauftrag an der HSG inne. Diesen Artikel schrieb sie in Ihrer Funktion als ist Vizepräsidentin der Robert F. Kennedy Stiftung für Menschenrechte in der Schweiz.
Dr Sandra Hutterli is an education expert with a broad background of experience, for example as a representative of Switzerland on education issues in the Council of Europe and the European Union and as a board member of an international research centre. Today, she is head of corporate training at SBB and holds a lectureship at the HSG. She wrote this article in her function as Vice President of the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation for Human Rights in Switzerland.