Look at the wordle above. Can you make some links between the words that catch your attention?
The word that stands out the most is “RIGHT”. Think of yourself as a person, as a citizen of your own country. Are there any rights you think you are not guaranteed? What about other countries? Can you think of any right that is not safeguarded? If you refer to what you read in the papers or what you watch on newscast on TV, that may help you.
Look at this poster created by Simone Verza. What malaise do you think he denounces?
The title of this poster is: When lying on paper human rights can hurt.
(source: http://good50x70.org/2010/2007-edition/human-rights-violation/)
So one important article of the Human Rights Declaration is not respected in Simone’s view. What is it?
Look at the Human Rights Declaration, find out the aricle that is violated and while reading the document jot down on a piece of paper the other possible articles that you think you see violated in your own country. Obviously be prepared to provide examples.
If you find it difficult to read the above poster, you can download the following pdf document, which mentions the number of the articles: eng
Look at the following images, what aspects do they have in common?
Watch this video, it will give you a general idea of what we are going to investigate together!
Now watch another video meant to disclose to people what human rights are. What extra information do we learn from it?
Which video do you like better? Why?
What are human rights then? How would you define them? Do you think most people know? Watch just the first 43 seconds of the video, then stop it.
The very fact that most people do not know how to define human rights implies that we need to “do a little bit of homework” (as one speaker says) to make sure that we know what our rights are and we can do our best to safeguard them, for our sake, but also for the sake of other humans.
Now let’s go on watching the video and let’s take notes on the history of human rights.
I had asked you to go to the photograph exhibition by Pierpaolo Mittica entitled “Ashes” (a very powerful name, imbued with painful meaning!) dedicated to the safeguard of human rights. Ms. Cimetta dedicated a nice post to the exhibition, look at it!
I asked you to carry out two CREATIVE TASKS:
1. Choose a photo (the one that strikes you the most, the one that speaks to you deeply) and write a monologue through the eyes of something that catches your attention: it could the sky in the chosen photo, or the shoes of a child, etc.
2. While looking at the photos and watching the videos jot down thoughts, feelings in key words. Use those words to write a poem entitled “Ashes”.
These are the photos I chose along with my “creative pieces”.
This is my contribution:
TASK 1
At the beginning we did not like each other. We were both used to being worn on the left, but the little boy did not let us be ourselves. He forced one of us to change habits. The ankle boot was furious. I was blessed (the sandal!), I was free to follow my own nature. This is the reason why I (the sandal) and Mr. Fashion (the ankle book) got on each other’s nerves straight away. I despised him and he loathed me.
Things changed after a short while. At the beginning we were blind, we did not know what was happening, we did not think of things. In other words we were superficial. Then, we both started grasping things and we understood we were lucky and we made a difference once again. We realized we had been dumped, the owners who had loved us once, had thrown us away heartlessly. How ungrateful! They could have kept us for longer. We were not worn out at all, but you know how things work in the “upper spheres”: the more money they have the more they squander. They think they make the world go round by buying things all the time. To me, they are just spoilt, their life acquires meaning only in the act of purchasing something. They exist because they buy. Poor them. That’s why our masters were so ungrateful. When they dumped us, they did not make sure that we were not going to be separated from our twin shoe. Ruthless bastards. Where is my twin brother now? I miss him.
I have another brother now, though. I jokingly call him Mr. Fashion because he is trendier than me. He belonged to a higher caste. You can see that immediately. He must have cost his master a fortune, but…now he is in the same sinking boat with me. We used to tread the floors of nice houses, the pavements of safe places in Calcutta. Now we are smeared in dust and at times in dung too. You may think that our existence sucks. Well, it may stink at times, but it does not suck at all. Know why? We have a mission. We make a difference in the life of Amal. His name means “bright, clean, pure, hope” in Hindu. He is not clean, because he lives in the dumpsite, BUT he is bright, yes so bright. One day, while sifting through the trash, he prayed and prayed for shoes. His feet were swollen, sore; there were deep cuts on the soles of his feet. A broken bottle was to be blamed, he had not seen it, so… Well, to cut a long story short (you’ve understood I love words so I am pretty long-winded!) his mantra went like this:
- Om Bhur Bhuva Svah
- Tat Savitur Varenyam
- Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi
- Dhiyo Yo Naha Prachodayat
- On the absolute reality and its planes,
- On that finest spiritual light,
- We meditate, as remover of obstacles
- That it may inspire and enlighten us.
How couldn’t his prayers be listened to? He delved his hook deep inside the huge fuming heaps of rubbish and I was the first one to resurrect. You should have seen Amal’s face. Beaming with joy. He hoped he could find my twin brother. So he continued with his mantra and he plunged the hook repeatedly into the smelly trash. His eyes were like the eyes of a maniac. He wanted to find the pairing shoe. He longed for it. The hook was drawn out of the mound heavy with discarded things and with them Mr. Fashion popped up. Amal was incredulous at first. That was not what he was hoping for. His disappointment elapsed in a few seconds. As soon as he put us on he collapsed on the trash and started weeping. He was so grateful. He was so joyful. Mr. Fashion and I were irate at first, but when we heard Amal’s sobs, when we felt his bleeding feet, we were touched. Never ever had anybody loved us so much, so dearly, so purely. We have been with him for a while now. We are seeing things you cannot even imagine. Dreadful scenes, appalling conditions, yet we are dignified. Amal’s dignity gives us dignity every single step we take with him.
TASK 2
Ashes
Anguish surrounds the boy’s existence, silently
Ashes
Appalling scenes hurt my eyes and my soul
Ashes
Anger surges inside of me, to the core of my very being, surreptitiously engulfing my hope
Ashes
Thus I ask myself why?why?why? The “why” blasts in my brain
gives me no peace till the day
all humans
will be dignified with humanity
Till that day
We are all
Ashes
TO BE CONTINUED!
You did a great job. I’ll send my students here then 🙂
Laura
Thanks. This is the secret of collaboration. It is great being able to collaborate with colleagues like you, Nella and Maria. It is a privilege!
Well, human rights. Like the persons at the begining of the video about the history of human rights say, it’s really difficult to say what they are.
Maybe in our society we have some of them and that’s why we don’t know how to define them, but if we think about the people who lives in undeveloped countries, we an just immagine people who live in bad conditions and can’t eat or drink. They can just go to other places, where they hope they can have a chance.
After a lot of wars, rebellions and march we can not have the rights that we should have.
Now-a-days we always hear about people that are mistreat for their religion, nationality or sessual tendency.
A lot of people tried to tell their opinion about human rights, but they have been killed.
Is that the way to solve this problem? Taking their life away?
People should think that we are in the 21st century, not still in Rome of the 1st century and everybody should have the right of be equal to the others and the human rights should be respected.
Human rights are those rights that allow any human being to be free to express themselves and to live the way he believes in, without harming others
Is that all?
Human rights are the rights we all should have but that unfortunatly not every one has. There is a lot of people whose rights are not considered and we all are just looking at them not doing anything thinking that this is not our problem and believing that we can’t solve it. If we have a little bit of common sens,that we have to start thinking more of others and less of ourselves. But problaby we think it doesn’t worth..
I haven’t quite grasped your last consideration. We should think more of other people than ourselves, but we do not generally do this because we do not think this worthwhile. Is this what you meant?
What are human rights? It is a difficult question and we never think about it. Personally, I think they join all the rights and freedom that allow us to live in harmony with other people without restrictions and discrimination. They are called “human rights” because they are universal and they belong to each person of the world, independently from the place where he live, the religion, the sex and the social class. In the human history, these rights were not always guaranteed and many years passed before that United Nation wrote the “Declaration of Human Rights” in 1945-1948: probably this is the consequence of the Second World War where 19 million of people died by the Nazis. I believe that human being needed to secure these rights on paper to avoid committing other cruelty or abuse as the saying says “verba volant, scripta manent”. Despite this, in the world there are many people with no rights: they have no rights to seek a safe place to live, freedom of thought or expression, to education, to food and they are not equal before the law. According to the video, it’s important that human rights are not only history lessons, speeches or used for commercial campaigns but they must been used to respect each other and to protect us. A good way to ensure rights since childhood is to teach them in schools: the children can have more responsibility and they grow up with the idea to respect the humanity.
This is the reason why my colleagues and I thought that it was mandatory to deal with this project at school. There are lots of students who do not know what human rights are. So, Marta, thanks for mentioning the fact that we can do something at school to promote some kind of awareness and sensitise people to this issue.
The Universal Declaration of the Human Rights is a document where are written the most important rights that every person must have. Unfortunately, in different countries of the world, these rights are not always respected; for example in the Muslim countries women don’t have the right of education and expression and often are given in marriage against their will to elderly men. In America there is still racial discrimination and the right to life is violated by the death penalty. In Africa many people don’t have a home and enough food to survive. Also in our country some human rights are broken: for example the right to have an education, because studying is too expensive and not everybody can afford it. Talking about the Internet, also the right to have privacy is violated because everyone could know what we are searching and what website we are visiting right now; we are constantly watched. And even the right to life is not respected; just think about how many babies are abandoned, and so condemned to die because they are not wanted. And last but not least for this, the equality in front of the law; sometimes it pays more criminally one who stole something for hunger than one that has killed or raped someone else.
The declaration of the human rights would have more value if it was respected by all countries of the world.
Human rights are for everyone. It’s not important the social level, the religion you belong too, your nationality. Human rights should be accorded everywhere, everytime. They are not respected still now, because there are million of people ho live without school instruction, the right to food ect. We all have to work hard, to make that every single world’s citizen has rights. Because all people has human rights.
This is a very interesting theme! I think the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the best invention ever because after thausends years we have finally understood which are the rights of everyone. These are very important for the freedom and equality of every person.
Unfortunately not everyone can benefit of these rights. There is still a lot of people without freedom to speak, to learn, to study. So many people without house or even something to eat. They are poor and the government doesn’t give them the necessary help.
Everyone has the right to live but there are still so many wars and murders around the world. This is so sad because we could live in peace if everyone respected the Human Rights.
Irene Piva 4^M
It’s difficult to say which of the two videos I liked most. They are both beautiful and convey both important concepts. I totally agree with what they say, we all have the same rights. I love the phrase “We are all born free”, because it really is, we are born with rights, obtained in hard years of fighting, we all have the right to life, to think and to say our idea, to be treated all the same way, no matter what community we belong to.
What are the human rights for me? Like most of the people interviewed, I could’nt give a proper definition. Is a difficult issue, but to summarize in short words, then, what the meaning of ‘rights’ is, we can simply say that, they are the rights that we all have, that we deserve as human beings.
However, I think that, each of us sholud think about it, because we take for granted the rights that we have, because it seems normal, but it’s not so simple. If we all had equal rights, equal dignity and equal opportunities, there should be no poverty, slavery and illiteracy. Let’s think about.
I really enjoyed the video about The story of human rights. It was interesting to see how Human Rights have changed in time and how people developed their sense of humanity. Human Rights have passed through revolutions, wars, documents and declarations. People complained, fought and also died to make Human Rights a universal responsibility but also a duty which everybody must respect to live peacefully with other human beings. However this process of awareness is not completed and it never will, we must refuse to be silent. Human Rights are not just some words written on a piece of paper or a theoretic history lesson, they are our choices and our responsibility that we make everyday as human beings to respect those who surround us, in particular those who really need our help and protection. If we are all equal to every human being in the world, it is necessary to bring to reality those general laws written on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We cannot close our eyes in front of certain situations that are definitely in contrast of our rights. We should use every means that we have today to bring our voices as far as we can, to support and to make something change. Indifference, shyness and fear should not overbear our sense of humanity , we need to seek our brotherhood.
We need to seek brotherhood/sisterhood, you’re right!
For me all of the 30 Human Rights are foundamental.
At the top I would put the Right to live a decent life, in freedom and equality.
The Right to food and shelter it’s important, but as we all know, it’s not always observed.
I find the Rights to family and religion significant and if they would be abided, there were surely less wars.
The Right of education it’s weighty when we want a civil society, where everybody could know the Rights they have.
Human rights are those rights that make you free. They don’t depend on the colour of your skin, on your religion, on what language do you speak, on your sex, on your age or on your nationality. You are a human being so you have human rights. They defend your life from when you are born since when you pass away. They make your life safer and are universal and inviolable. We are all equal, so we should live in brotherhood and respect each other’s human rights.
Before watching the video I didn’t know what precisely human rights were, as many interviewees, but then I realized that they are all those laws which allow us to live free and equal before the law. No discrimination, no slavery, no torture, no unfair detainment, none of this. Human rights are based on the principle of respect for the individual, who deserves to be treated with dignity. These rights, in fact, exist for protect us from all that can harm, and help us to get on well with each of us and live in peace. No matter what country you come from, what religion you practice, or if you are a man or a woman, WE ARE ALL EQUAL BEFORE THE LAW, and we have the right to be treated everyone equally. In conclusion, human rights for me are the rights that belong to every person simply because they’re alive, no matter who are or where they live.
Human rights are the most important rights that we have.
Despite these rights have been declared inviolable, even today most of them are not respected. And we can see it every day.
The major examples are poverty and racism. The Universal Declaration of Human Right says that we all have right to food and shelter, and that we are all born equal and free.
So when we see children dying of starving or people being teased for their skin color or their religion, we realize that human rights are not understood by everyone and that they have been infringed.
In my opinion we all should take care of these rights and we should try to put ourselves in others’s shoes. Especially help each other, not to harm them.
Sympathy is something we owe to other people. On top of that you are right when you claim that we should never take our rights for granted and we should put ourselves in another person’s shoes, in the shoes of the ones who do not see their rights safeguarded. That way we become aware of one important aspect: the rights we have nowadays won’t necessarily be the rights our children will have, so we need to safeguard them every single day of our existance, we should not “dilly-dally”!
I think that everybody should have the same rights, but unfortunately not all of us have all of them. Honestly I don’t often think about the argument, like the majority of the people who live for example in my country, I think. We don’t worry so much about human rights because we have all of them. We should put ourselves in the shoes of the children who can’t for example go to school, who have to work, of women who can’t choose their husband or can’t vote. We understand the value of something just when we lost it or when we don’t have it.
Thanks for acknowledging that most people in Italy do not think of human rights because they tend to take them for granted. We live in a democratic country so we have the perception that our rights are safeguarded. Can you think of any human right that is not guaranteed in our country? Can you think of any Italian citizen who does not see his/her human rights guaranteed?
For me are Human Rights something fundamental that would change the world into a better place. A place where people are equal, where there is not a distinct difference between rich and poor, where women are equal to men, where kids are happy, free to play, eat a lot and don’t have to be little soldiers, where everyone can decide to be right or left wing and where everywhere democracy is the only sovereign. I think that the Human Rights is go where you want without being afraid of your religion, your skin color or your way of thinking. Human Rights will really exist when everyone would have his idea of the right to be human that respects all the people, that is something else from religion, that is not racist. The world would be the perfect human planet when everyone will be equal in dignity and rights and would just be slave of themselves. Right is watch the last video without being sad thinking on how many people are suffering now.
I must quote this from your comment “The world would be the perfect human planet when everyone will be equal in dignity and rights”, I loved the way you put it. 🙂
At first only few privileged people had human rights untill one of these chosen decided to apply these rights also to other people. Unfortunately that didn’t go as planned because some powerful people didn’t agree, so after many years of fighting and declarations and more fighting they finally agreed that human rights should apply to everyone.
And yet most people don’t even know what human rights are, don’t even waste time reading them, we just take them for granted, because they’ve always been there since we were born, because we’re in the modernized 21st century where war and famine and death is just sometime you study on history books or see on tv, something far away from where we live and everyone has the right to speak and think freely. Not true, not every kid or teenager or adult is as lucky as many of us.
In fact human rights are technically just words on a paper because if people have freedom of speech then why are thousands of them being imprisoned for speaking their minds, if people have the right to education then why are there billion of adults unable to read and ecc.
This is why we are the ones that need to make these words our reality, everyone’s reality. We can make a difference just like Mandela or Martin Luther King did, we can fight poverty, discriminations, torture ecc. It’s also very simple because it all starts with the choices we make every day, the responsibility we have to help and respect each other and to protect those in need.
I think that human rights are extremely important and we should take the time to read and study them so that we can apply them better in our everyday life, especially since they take such little effort. Everything we do is of importance even if it doesn’t seem so, we are just free thinking individuals but so is everyone in the world, we are one and the same fighting for the same things : to make human rights our reality, make them more real, no more wars, famine, poverty or bloodshed but peace, cooperation and harmony.
I don’t know if it fits but I think that what we do, is like what Neil Armstrong said just in a different view and topic, ” one small step for a man, is a giant leap for mankind”.
Basically we just need to make our voices clear and make ourselves be heard, be an example so other people or the new generation can look up to us and repeat the same thing thus we will continue to keep human rights alive and not just words on a paper.
Yes, definitely so, LET’S MAKE HUMAN RIGHTS COME TO LIFE, LET’S MAKE SURE WE CAN DO A LITTLE BIT TO IMPLEMENT THEM IN OUR DAILY LIVES AND SOMEHOW MAKE SOMETHING TO PROMOTE THEM. WE NEED TO RAISE AWARENESS TO THE NEED TO SAFEGUARD HUMAN RIGHTS EVERYWHERE.
Poem
Ashes,
Everything around you is dull and gray
No vibrancy of life, just devastating isolation.
Suddenly as you wander around aimlessly
you hear church bells tolling
And looking at those pictures, staring silently at you,
imploring you with those eyes full of sadness,
you understand that only the dead have seen the end of the war.
Because the living are constantly fighting
against pain,despair and fatigue,
but in the end are suppressed by routine.
Day by day, doing the same things
over and over again, living but not yet living,
just breathing through the smoke-filled air and through the heat.
And the kids, oh the kids, those innocent souls
that should be the blinding colors to our black and white world
are too exposed to this madness
and slowly lose their inner spark till their eyes become dull,
windows to a soul that has already seen too much
and stare at you through a picture hung on a wall
for everyone to see and maybe in a not so distant future
for someone to answer their call of help.
My opinion of Human rights
Based on the definitions given by the video, a right consists in a freedom of some kind. It is something that will be due for the fact of being human. The Human rights are based on the principle of respect for the individual. Their basic premise is that each person is a moral and rational being who deserves to be treated with dignity, because every man must be free to do what they want, within the limits of the law, without which no one prevents him. They are called human rights because they are universal. In the past, there were no human rights. Later developed the idea that people should have certain freedoms. That idea, after the Second World War, finally gave birth to the document known as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the thirty rights that belong to everyone.Many people in the video, asking them to mention their rights, have cited only the freedom of speech and faith, or a couple of other rights. There isn’t doubt that these rights are important, but I think that today many people have forgotten these rights.The rights also mean power of choice and opportunity, freedom of getting a job, a career, to choose their own partners and raise their children. Despite all these statements, there are totalitarian regimes in the world in which there are still mass executions, torture and exploitation of minors. But also, not too far from us. Some states have very often ignored the application of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights .According to me, isn’t enough to make statements if they aren’t followed by a radical change of mentality of people. It’s difficult that a country where women are forced to cover ,leaving visible the eyes, or the woman can recognize the same equality with men. It ‘difficult for a country where children work in the mines from childhood to recognize the Rights of the Child.So I think that we must teach according to the mutual respect and tolerance of each individual and personal to the next.
Greta Mazzon 4^M
Interesting observations. How would you personally promote the knowledge of human rights? How would you try to spread what they are and what they really mean
When somebody asks you about human rights and about what you think they are or what they mean for you, it is quite always difficult to answer. Not because they’re like math problems where you don’t know the solutions, but simply because human rights are a deep and indelible part of ourselves. That’s what they’re for me too. Human rights represent the way each one of us instinctively expect to be treated with dignity, to live, to enjoy every single day as human beings and as we are. I think that, no matter where or when, human rights are the rights to which everyone is entitled simply because they are alive. They remember to the people that we are here for all of us : we’re on this world together to cooperate, to respect each other, to feel free to study, to choose, to take part in governing our countries, to believe in whatever we want and to have food, water and shelters.
Unfortunately I think that those words, those thoughts are not enough. Most people in fact restrict themselves to only think about human rights like habits/natural actions, but they do not think that it is not the same for everyone. Millions of people (included kids) are still dying every day and furthermore, we underestimate that problems like apartheid are NOT completely disappeared thanks to Nelson Mandela. Men and women like him had done, without any doubts, incredible steps, but now it’s our turn to keep on fighting for our human rights. Since I went to visit some extermination camps and countries like South Africa, I become aware of having this topic really in heart.
In my opinion human rights are fundamental to make people realize that we do not have to accept the world as it is, but that we can remake the world as it should be without wars, slavery, famine or bloodshed.
It is nice to read that there are lots of young people like you who are willing to fight for the cause of human rights. This is not always the case, so, thanks for having written what your wrote and I am sure you will contribute greatly to our project. Share with us your visit to South Africa and to the concentration camps. You could think of presenting to the whole class a powerpoint presentation with some images and considerations of your own, linked to the theme of our project, that is “human rights”.
I’m firmly convinced, that “human rights” is just one word, not exactly, in fact, two words. Just it. Two really illusory words, invented by the human being to deceive himself of his greatness and goodness. Something as artificial as fake, something which in nature doesn’t exist. Right has been the word of the century, the trendy topic for mediocre people, matter of interesting chats, in which completely shallow and ignorant they turn taken on rights safeguarding, simply feeling sorry for “those miserable Africans”.
For human being right means a duty that everyone must enjoy, because everyone “was born not different from the others”, and therefore everyone “must have the same opportunities of life”. What a fantastic fairy tale! We were born in an egoistic world, where we have to strive to succeed, as in the nature: is there any right? No: stronger beat weaker. But we should be different, advanced, or at least, so say philosophers and wises, and so we decided to live in community. But to do that, humanity had to sacrifice our full liberty, recognizing common duties and rights. That is what it seem to had happen. But than our disposition comes out, and egoism overpowers any convention: it’s normal, and so we are; when strong, we don’t respect any right, any liberty restriction. But than, if just something not fair is done to us, we turn to the existence of inalienable rights, which we absolutely must enjoy. That is the human hypocrisy: the existence of rights just in the moment of longing, and the inconsistence of them when an obstacle to the own business.
Alessandro Candido
Dear Alessandro,
There are observations of yours that are likely to raise some kind of debate. I see your point and to a certain extent I agree on the fact that sometimes words are abused or overused and thus become deflated. You may be right when you cynically state that “human rights” is a word that cannot possibly be guaranteed in a world overridden by hypocrisy, self-interest, personal gaint, etc., yet your view is so bleak that it leaves no room for hope, which must be inborn in human beings (unless we aim at collective suicide). Then, as I often point out, when we generalize we somehow commit a “crime”, we become unjust, because we drag all people who are “categorized” under a certain umbrella term (e.g. “power”, etc.) and label them, which is totally wrong. Not all powerful people abuse of their power. There are mediocre people who are not rich and who are not successful at all, that crush human rights. Thanks to the words “human rights” a girl from Pakistan, who was a nobody, who was shot in the head because she wanted to go to school, was granted the “right” to speak at the United Nations and this led to her winning the Nobel Prize.
All this to say: let’s agree that we disagree!
What Human Rights mean to me.
Human Rights are rights that apply to absolutely everyone without any type of discrimination. Nobody can take these freedoms away from us because they belong to us. Entire nations and people fought for what they believed was right, until the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed. But it didn’t mean that all the problematic issues had come to an end. It didn’t mean that every single child in the world could go to school, receive an appropriate education. It didn’t mean that hunger in the poorest countries had estinguished. It didn’t mean that racial discrimination no longer existed.
All that is still here and it is visible to everyone. In many countries, includind Europe, there are children who can’t afford an education, who have to work sometimes to maintain an entire family. In other countries it is forbidden to girls to attend school, they are treated as if they were objects with no value. This way they are not aware of their rights and do not have the means to stand up against these injustices that they have to put up with. These are the kinds of discrimination that we need to eliminate for the sake of those who before us spoke their minds, made their voices be heard and fought for social justice. I believe that all of us should follow their example and cooperate together for a better future. A future where Human Rights truly apply to everybody in the world, where children are free to live their childhood and receive an education. A future where people no longer suffer wars, hunger or slavery.
A future where everybody has the right to think for themselves without anybody imposing them something that they do not believe, and mostly a future where everyone has the right to be free. This is what is worth fighting for.
A really heart-felt comment. I am proud of you Elidona. Your considerations do you justice. You are an incredible young woman.
At first sight my attention is obviously caught by the most colored and largest words, like EVERYONE, RIGHT,FREEDOM. Looking more carefully at the terms written above, I can deduce a meaningful link among all of them: COMMUNITY, WORK, RELIGION, SECURITY, ONE, FAMILY, LAW, PROTECTION, OFFENCE, OBSERVANCE. In my opinion all of them share the same basic idea, that is , the need to ask for equality, to get respect, to appreciate,difference, to bridge the gap existing between different cultures, languages, colors and races. Everyone should be aware of who he/she is and must pretend to be respected but at the same time he/she must be conscious that each of us deserves to be appreciated and approved. The value of the world lies in all those species that make it up. The word “RIGHT” should be a “must” for us. I think that we are always more and more prone to criticize the others, to judge the behaviour of our teachers, parents, friends even that of men of church and state. I think that relationships among different people could be better, if everyone started to be humbler. Personally I considered myself completely guaranteed: our country doesn’t deny any race, creed or ethnic group, women are treated as equal as men, no one is used or sold as a slave, punishment -such as torture or execution- are not used on any person, citizens may leave or return to their country and education is never denied. Therefore, living in this country, I feel safe and protected, because I consider myself free to believe in what I want, I am respected as much as a man, I get an education and I’m free to decide. The situation is different in many other countries: a lot of people are deprived from the right to get an education, to get a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being, including food, clothing, housing and medical care; they can neither express their opinion nor manifest their religion or belief: but, as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights States, all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. But this rule is not easily respected, in fact there are some countries in which people are still tortured or abused; others where unfair trials must be faced or where freedom of expression is restricted. Moreover children and women are marginalized in numerous ways, the press is not free: this means that human rights violation is still threatening the world today. I think that it denounces the violation of the right to express your own ideas. This regards not only single individual but even the press itself. Common people as well as politicians and media are often obliged to state not what they really think, but what they are asked to say. They can be punished if they try to be different and find the courage to paddle against the stream. Sometimes it is better not to think but to be only a foolish instrument in the hands of the leading party: this could be the message of the poster. It is the article 19 of the Human Rights Declaration: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”. Sincerely I wasn’t particularly informed about the violation of the human rights in Italy: I thought to live in an happy country, where everyone’s right were respected. When I started to sum up information, I realized that the reality is different. For example some minorities, like the gipsy, are still isolated or left without a house. Authorities in Italy have not protected the refugees’ rights asking for a shelter and in many cases immigrants have been exploited. Not to mention the widespread episodes of violence against women: researchers have shown that the number of murders hasn’t decreased. I think that all these images try to point out that human rights are not a choice; they are neither a possibility nor a grant. We must be respected for the only fact of being born. It does not matter if we are men or woman, old or young , black or white, we are human beings and this is the point. Nobody has the power to spoil our freedom, we deserve to be free and to decide what we want. There should be an only rule: not to damage other’s freedom. Your rights finishes where the other’s one starts: one’s belief mustn’t interfere or damage that of the other human beings. PS: I will post on another page the end of the comment 🙂
As you point out Valentina, it is unbelievable, isn’t it, that in a country like ours (democratic) some rights are not safeguarded or guaranteed! Unfortunately, though we are lucky to see most of our rights guaranteed, we cannot bury our heads in the sand. It is extremely important for us to admit that we are privileged, we have enough money to do what we desire, but lots of Italians don’t. We tend to take for granted the family background we have and we shouldn’t. We live in a country whose real plague is corruption. Corruption breeds where there is greed but also where there is desperation. Criminals rely on young desperate people to peddle drugs, etc. So, though we live in a democratic country this does not mean we live in a fair country. A country plagued by mafia is not the “ideal”. Mafia thrives on human trafficking too, so…the very presence of mafia is a violation to human rights. Hope this project will work as an eyeopener: seeing the beauty of things yet taking a stand against the brutality of others.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was written in 1948. After the Second World War Europe was a disaster. Everithing was destroied and everithing had been flattened by the bombs.
History has a great impact above the present. To prevent that humans perform again the error of exterminating, was written this Declaration.
There are too many rights that aren’t guaranteed all over the world, like the 3rd Article „Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.“ or the 4th „No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.“, because in many countries of the world, there is no liberty. This is unaccetable, but is the sad truth. Each person should help each other trying to be considered himself of the same importance of the other. It would be a better world, without prejudice, avidity and superiority.
We think that in Italy we are totaly free, but it isn’t true. Over the problem of the child labor, there is the big problem of censorship. It’s alarming because it implize that in Italy journalists can’t write what they want to write, because they are censored immediately. This is a problem because the average person believes in mas media. So, there isn’t a system that wont bring wash you. We can overcome this problem by crossing information, to become mentally free. We can make a change by using our head indipendently.
Obviously not all people are “brainwashed” by the system, yet it is interesting that you point out that the lack of freedom of press is a serious problem most Italians seem to ignore or be unaware of.
I think that right is the word that stands out the most, I have to say that us as Italian don’t have so many problems linked to the respect of our rights. We have the right to vote, to believe in what we want, we can speak and we aren’t killed if we think in a different way and we express our own opinions.
We don’t live in a country where religion is too oppressive and we don’t have problems if we have to fly or move to another country. I think that nowadays the most relevant problem in Italy is that of job. In fact many people don’t have a job and they can’t provide to the family. But we aren’t in a good economic period and many countries are fighting against this problem.
In other countries problems are more relevant: in some parts of Africa now are escaping thousand of people because of the war and their government isn’t doing anything to relove the problem.
In some countries like Iran the Musliums imposed their regime and no one can do anything if they really care about their families’ lives. They put girls in sort of prisons where they can’t excape from. They are subject to their men and they are not free, they have to be dressed from head to toe and nobody can see anything except for their eyes. They have to be always with a man and they can’t go to a male doctor, but girls can’t go to school and study.To me, the most relevant rights that are not safeguarded are the female protection and that of education. Girls that get married to a muslium find themselves pented-up in the prison of their religion. They can’t divorce or denounce the man if they are molested if the don’t want to be killed. And in some countries children must work and can’t go to school.
Simone Verza denounces the deprivation of freedom to speak. In the declaration is written that everybody has the right to express opinions, but in reality in so many parts of the word, people can’t protest or rebel because of the regime not democratic.
All these poster contain the words human and rights.
I liked both the videos, in the first I liked the fact that all the articles are semplified and told us by the children. In the second I really liked that the man explains us some articles with examples.
Good considerations. Read my reply to Valentina’s post if you are interested in taking into consideration another major problem of our country.