Overview of Human Rights today, Human Rights Today, Amnesty International Australia

Overview of Human Rights today

10 February 2008, 02:00PM

Human Rights today: Discussing the issues, Accepting the Challenge is a curriculum resource developed for use by teachers and students in years 9 and 10. Developed by Curriculum Corporation for Amnesty International, Human Rights today is designed to be used in Humanities/Social Science, History, Geography, Health, Civics and Citizenship Education, Religious Education and Values Education.

Authors: Robert Baker, Beth Gilligan, Kathleen Gordon, Brian Hoepper.

Chapter overviews

Each chapter in Human Rights Today is outlined below.

Tuning in to Human Rights

Download the full sample chapter: Tuning in to human rights

Download chapter sections:

Protecting childrens rights

Children rely on their families and other adults for their needs for survival and protection, and for reaching their full potential. They can be more vulnerable than adults in situations where human rights are abused, and they usually lack a voice in decision-making. Education is a fundamental right for children as it provides them with opportunities to reach their potential and break out of poverty. Around the world millions of children miss out on education as they are trapped working, often in dangerous situations, because their families are poor and their countries are unable to enforce laws to protect them.

This chapter explores the right to education, types of work children do, reasons why they work and some of the difficulties in addressing these issues and protecting children's rights.

The chapter features:

Introduction: child labour and sporting equipment
The Convention on the Rights of the Child
The right to education
Child labour: the global picture
Why do children work?
Where do children work?
Investigating an industry
Child soldiers
Human rights defender: Iqbal Masih
Human rights defender: Craig Kielburger

Indigenous peoples rights

Indigenous peoples globally face unequal access to justice and government services, as well as the loss of their identity as a result of policies designed to assimilate them by destroying their culture. In Australia the dispossession of Aboriginal Australians from their land and resources has contributed to their impoverishment and ill-health. From 1900 to 1969, Australian Aboriginal children were removed from their families to assimilate them into the white way of life. This chapter explores how this experience of forced assimilation has affected many Indigenous people's lives and some of the efforts to redress this historic abuse of their human rights.

The chapter features:

Introduction: Rabbit Proof Fence
Exploring the issue: overview of Indigenous history
Assimilation, integration and self-determination
Investigation: Aboriginal-led initiatives
Stories from members of the Stolen Generation
the Stolen Generation and human rights
Indigenous people worldwide
Draft Declaration on the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples
The Sorry campaign
Attitude scale: who is responsible?
Compensation for the Stolen Generation
Investigation: broader justice for Aboriginal people
Human rights defender: Michael Long

The rights of women and girls

This chapter explores discrimination against women and girls and addresses political, cultural, social and economic dimensions to this issue. It includes a focus political and civil rights for women, and on women in the economy. It addresses an extreme form that discrimination can take: violence against women and girls, given how widespread it is and how much it has been ignored. The chapter explores how discrimination can be challenged and overcome.

The chapter features:

Introduction: attitude scale on current views and values about the rights of women and girls.
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
Political and civil rights
Investigation: women in Islamic countries
Social and cultural rights
Girls and marriage
Economic rights
Womens role in the economy: case study of Bangladesh and South Asia
Investigation: gender and development
Amnesty International's Stop Violence Against Women campaign
Gender-based violence against women
Government aid: microfinance projects
Investigation: the Grameeen Bank
Amnesty International report on violence against women in Papua New Guinea
Human rights defender: Nang Charm Tong, Myanmar (Burma)

Human rights and conflict

"Conflict" includes conventional war, rebellion against an occupying power or dictatorship, clashes between ethnic groups, terrorism, and the responses to terrorist attacks. In each situation, governments, communities or individuals see others as a threat and take action to protect themselves.

These are situations in which human rights often come under pressure. Words may be censored, movement restricted and people imprisoned without a fair trial. Torture is one of the extreme human rights abuses that can occur in conflict situations.

This chapter explores how fundamental human rights can both be threatened and defended in times of conflict.

The chapter features:

Introduction: Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya
Scenario: investigative journalism
Human rights and conflicts in the AsiaPacific region: Lao People"s Democratic Republic, Vietnam and Nepal
Investigation: news coverage of human rights in the AsiaPacific region
Human rights under pressure: human rights and the "war on terror"
Should human rights be suspended at times of national emergency?
The "War on Terror": timeline
Australian counter-terror laws
Investigation: human rights and conflict
Attitudes to torture
The ladder of torture
Australia"s attitude to torture
A Human Rights Act for Australia and the New Matilda campaign
Human rights defender: Jumana Musa

Taking action for human rights

This chapter explores how students can make a difference and includes ideas for what they can do, including:

Producing posters
Writing letters
Writing media releases
Speaking out
Connecting with like-minded people
Organising events
Campaigning
Fundraising

You will find ideas, guidelines and an example to indicate what students can do for each of these forms of taking action

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