HUMAN RIGHTS

The EU Commission, in its manual "Compass: a Manual on Human Rights Education with Young People", has done this job better than we could hope to! The book is available on the internett for everybody, and we therefore strongly recommend that you browse in this book. In Chapter 2 there are 51 downloadable activities, sorted by the Article in the Declaration of Human Rights that the activity illustrates.

Another excellent site is the People's Movement for Human Rights learning (PDHRE), at http://www.pdhre.org, where one can find among other things, the complete list of human rights conventions.

Below are a few of the exercises and activities that we have collected, including background exercises, general human rights exercises and exercises on specific rights. These exercises are Word files. To load the file down onto your computer, right click and choose "save target as".
(we thank Wolf and Water, Mediation Services Oslo, and Save the Children Norway for permission to use many of their exercises/)

The activities are marked with colour codes according to the age group they are suited to:

- Primary (6 -9 years)	- Middleschool (10 –13)
- Secondary (14-16)	- College (17+)

*Background exercises*
My day if	The students look at values in relation to needs.
Raise your hand	Gives students the experience of violations of human rights: how it feels when somebody makes an unreasonable decision.
The IF-game	Stimulates students to reflect on the values that are important to them.
Take a step forward (from the Compass Manual)	A lively exercise that allows participants to experience for a moment the injustices of different life conditions, and reflect over how much they take for granted.
Maslow and human rights	Looks at what can happen in a society where human rights are being violated.
Build a society	Stimulates reflection about values in a good society and how they are being protected.
Human needs	Gives students a clearer understanding of the content of the human rights and relate it to our primary needs (see also Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs).
*Exercises on Human Rights in general*
Brainstorming human rights	Raises students' consciousness about human rights.
Human Rights Grouped	Gives students knowledge about the content of the human rights and knowledge on how the different articles are sorted into groups.
the Balloon Exercise	Promotes reflection about the relative values of the 27 Human Rights, and is excellent for familiarising students with the content of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
*Exercises on specific Human Rights*
My values	Gives students knowledge of values and how they shape us as human beings.
Trans Siberian Railway	helps the participants to become aware of their own prejudices, and reflect over whether it is possible to live without prejudices.
Freedom of expression	Looks closer at the limits to the freedom of expression in a democracy.
Women and human rights	Raises consciousness among the students about gender roles in today’s society.
Aker Kværner and Guantanamo	Looks at the responsibility of business corporations internationally for human rights - gives the chance of developing a project.