Human Rights Education
Article 26
May/June 2007
As we near the end of the school year, I wanted to take a break from our typical Voices from the Field to recognize all of the accomplishments of this school year.
It would be hard for me to think about the amazing work we have accomplished without thinking first and foremost about the HRE program interns here at AIUSA. We are truly blessed that semester after semester we manage to bring in such outstanding people, and that this year's group represented a wide range of possible interns; a high school sophomore, three high school seniors, a university sophomore, a university junior, three graduate students, and two post-graduate school interns. Each of these people brought an incredibly high level of creativity, experience, passion, knowledge and just plain fun to the program. While a few folks will be staying with us over the summer, the rest are off to new and amazing adventures. To all, my heartfelt thanks for giving so much to the work of the Human Rights Education and to the human rights movement.
Sonam Dolker
Adrianne Alicea
Barbara von Salis
Zaire
Clare Garvie
Alison Cordeiro
Sheena Loughlin
Heather Shpiro
Jillian Larsen
Sheetal Khemchandani
Rebecca Catron
I would also like to thank the individuals who volunteer their time to help guide the work of the HRE program and, in many cases, to get in there and do the work.
Steering Committee
Nick Sullivan
Mary Archer
Rebecca Catron
Felissa Tibbitts
Kim Allen
4th R Advisory
Wendy Jacques
Amy Prince
Scott Hirschfeld
Susanne Guirther
Lucy Pagoda
John Davison
Before I move into the year-end wrap up, I would also like to thank the organizations and individuals that we have partnered and worked with over the course of the last year. As people have heard me say time and time again, the need for HRE is significant, and no one organization can take on all of the work or demands single-handedly. It is imperative that we work together in a respectful and collaborative way. We also need to link individuals, those folks doing outstanding human rights work, into the realm of human rights education. I am proud to say that as a program this past year we have been fortunate enough to do exactly this with the following organizations and individuals:
National Education Association
Speak Truth to Power
Jimmie Briggs
Joy Berry Enterprises
Witness
Participant Productions
Leora Kahn
Puy Navarro - Life is a Dream
ICOPE
Somers School District in NY
2006/2007 wrap up
A brief recap of the accomplishments of the HRE program during the 2006/2007 school year:
Resource Development:
- Film companion guides: Blood Diamonds, Catch a Fire, Born into Brothels
- Issue Guides: Human Trafficking, Denounce Torture, The conflict in Darfur and eastern Chad
- Book companion guides: Stolen Voices
- Publications: 4th R magazine, Article 26
- Other: Service-Learning/HRE manual
Speak Truth to Power hits NYC:
- MLK High School
- Brooklyn Friends School
- Peace and Diversity HS
- St. Luke's Middle School
- Wings Academy
- Elisabeth Irwin
- Culture Project
HRE Networking Meetings:
- April - San Francisco
- May - New York
HRE Peer Education:
- ACTIVATE - LA
- HRESC - DC
Sound interesting? If you want to learn more about any of the above, all you need to do is contact the HRE program at education@aiusa.org.
What lies ahead?
As Amnesty International USA continues with our strategic planning process and restructuring, it is hard to say at this point what human rights education will look in the "new" AIUSA. Please keep an eye out for those details in the July/August issue.
In the meantime, what lies ahead will be partly informed by what we have going on so?we want to hear from you. How was your year? Inspiring stories to share? Great lessons that others should know about? Are you interested in networking with folks in your area? Let us know how we can help build a network of dedicated HRE professionals.
Reflecting on our work as educators and on the importance of education
Over the course of the last month, the last week even, I have had a significant number of reminders as to the importance of our work as educators. From Jonathan Torgovnik's powerful new work, Genocide Mothers: Rape Children of Rwanda to Encounter Point, an important documentary on peace-building between Palestinians and Israelis to the 50 + new youth members from St. Luke's school in New York and the many schools across the country engaging with Speak Truth to Power in dynamic ways - the work of the HRE network is vibrant, growing and reaching learners in ways that are real and relevant.
At the end of the day, all of this comes down to how we, based on what we know and how we came to know it, treat one another and how we engage in our community. As educators we have the opportunity and responsibility to provide for the students we work with, utilizing a new or in some cases more enhanced, nuanced way of doing this. To live and be involved in a community with a positive and powerful human rights framework provides the groundwork for all that we do. To collectively move us to a place where the idea of a human rights culture is not a far off notion, or only an issue that affects the "other," but instead one that requires us instead to create, build and demand a vibrant, thriving human rights culture within our lives and within our world.
Having heard from many of you over the course of the year, I know that we have the capacity and desire to create this type of change, and knowing that, I am hopeful for the future.
Wishing you all the summer you seek.
In Peace,
Karen
