Youth Challenge
Teaching human rights & responsibilities.
Unit 1: Human Rights in the Classroom
Introduction
Human rights are basic to humanity. They apply to all people everywhere. Because of this universal aspect, an understanding of human rights is an important part of our individual status as human beings and of our collective status as members of the global community of humankind.
To understand how human rights affect us in our daily lives and to acknowledge our responsibilities in recognising the need to balance those rights with the rights of others, we require an understanding of what human rights are. So what are human rights? Where did they come from? How do they impact on humanity? How do they affect me?
In this unit, students work to discover solutions that broaden their understanding of:
- what human rights are
- why human rights are important
- how human rights are relevant in our day-to-day lives.
The information in this unit explores different aspects of human rights which students can apply in the other units of the Youth Challenge module. The other units in the module deal specifically with how human rights apply in the school community and the workplace, within the context of Australia's anti-discrimination laws.
The Youth Challenge: Human Rights in the Classroom unit also provides a series of activities for students that are designed to clarify the concepts discussed and provide an opportunity to explore the effect of human rights in their own lives.