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!
CONTINUAZIONE
Wich video do you like better?
I prefer the first video, because I find it more touching and deeper. I like the images and still more the words: I think they transmit a teaching to all of us. At the beginning there are two kids, and this is meaningful, because this lets us see that only if you start respecting the others’ rights from an early age, you will be able to be a real person. Being a person means owning the right to be free without depriving anyone else from his/her own rights. Our liberty ends where the others’ one begins. Some boys and girls lift up some posters, where important messages are written in capital letters, like for example ” WE ARE ALL BORN FREE AND EQUAL”, “WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO LIFE”, “NO SLAVERY,NO TORTURE”, “EQUAL BEFORE THE LAW”….
The content of this video is less political than the other one; the concepts are the same, both of them stress the importance of human rights, but the first one is made to hit directly the heart, conscience and soul of people, while the other more focused on the social and political aspects of human rights.
Now watch another video meant to disclose to people what human rights are. What extra information do we learn from it?
This video explains what human rights are. We learn that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was written in 1948. The Declaration has got an enormous importance, because it was the first document to establish the human rights at a universal level. It consists of 30 articles, wich belong to all of us. It stresses the individual civil, political, economical, social, cultar rights. The first two articles state the concepts of equality and freedom. Other articles are focused on the individual rights in front of the society: for example the article 15 states the “RIGHT TO BELONG TO OUR COUNTRY”, this means that nobody can be sent away from his/her own country. The next session deals about the so called “constitutional liberties”, that is freedom of thought, speech, opinion, faith, word. This video ends with the statement that “we are all born free”: I completely agree with this teaching, because I think that there are not white people and black people, Christian people and Muslims, rich and poor, young and old: we all are human beings, we have a different language, culture and faith, but we all need the same things: love, peace, understanding and, from a practical point of view, food, a shelter and health.
What are human rights then. How would you define them? Do you think most people know?
Human rights are then the rights of each human being. They correspond to the spiritual, material, civil, political,cultural,social and economical needs. There should be no difference regarding the race, gender, language, faith, color of the skin, political opinion and so on. No one must be deprived from them and on the other side,no one can refuse to get them at birth. I think that everyone knows them but not everyone respect them at all.
People of different races and nationality are interviewed and they express their opinion and idea about this topic. Later the history of human rights is explained. At the beginning there were no human rights, it was a time of revolutions, wars, many people were slaves. Justice came from nature rather than from the rules of society. In 1215 the Magna Charta was established by king John of England: it stated the rights between the king and his vassals, but it was not addressed to all the subjects. In 1689 the Bill of Rights was written, and it is considered one of the main documents of the constitutional system of the UK. It granted several rights, like the freedom of speech in Parliament, the refusal to be submitted to a catholic king, the possibility to persecute the subjects for religious reasons. In 1776 the Declaration of Indipendence was signed by the 13 colonies in Philadelphia. Finally from the natural law we passed to the natural rights. Many events and tragedies followed until Gandy appeared on the international scene with his message: he was against all the forms of violence, because violence produces only other violence. Our history is marked by the two World Wars, by racism, by the desire to create the pure race, by millions of deaths,desperation. And after all these massacres and fights we are now living in a country where a lot of people die of starvation, are imprisoned, are unable to read, are slaves. Why is this still happening? No super man could ever come to save our humanity, we must rely on our strength, coming from our being mothers, fathers, kids. We must know our rights to be able to defend them, because here is a little meaning in everything.
Yes, that’s the crucial point: to defend our rights we need to know them first.
You wrote a thorough account of the videos, that will help your classmates too. Thank you.
When we speak about “rights”, the words that catch my attention are freedom, free and life. In fact, for me the most important thing that we must have is the one of live in a free way and without any privations or obstacles.
Nowadays, there are a lot of rights that the law wrote for our society but there are also a lot of rules that we must respect. In my opinion, our country does not guarantee to us all these rights and this thing is a lot more not respected in the poorest countries, where people are punished if they do not respect the rules but where the government is unpunished if it does not guarantee at them their rights.
As the poster created by Simone Verza says, I think that the rights are our weapon and if we use them in the better way we can; making them respectable from others, they can save us from a lot of injustices. But to make it possible we must make our voice heard.
However, the problem is that is very difficult to make our right respected: for example, in different countries is very difficult to belong to a different religion from the one of the country to which we belong. In Italy, for example this right is not respected because there are a lot of people that are discriminated for their religion and the bed thing is that we are also private to belong of our religion in our country because a some immigrants want us to hide our faith because it bother them.
The video “WE ARE ALL BORN FREE” is very interesting because it gives to me a complete and good idea of what human rights are: they are something essential for us! Moreover, without them our life cannot be definite as it.
We cannot be defined human if we are not respected in our rights and if, in turn, we do not respect other people’s rights. Things are getting more and more complicated because we are living a difficult era: the world is overpopulated and the resources we have are not sufficient for the number of humans there are on this planet. People get greedy, some do not want to renounce all the privileges they have, others do not want to share what they have, others do not see why they should care for people in other countries (their govenrment should take care of them!). The worst aspect, however, is that some people do not knwo what human rights are and do not know about their violation. Then they do not know that in the very democratic country they live some of these rights are not respected either. This is the reason why you can make a difference and to do so you need to learn something about human rights in general.
I think that in Italy some of the main human rights are not guaranteed as they should be. For example, there’s no very freedom of expression, because many times people with a different sexual orientation are beaten up from homophobic people. The same thing happens with people from other countries or people who believe in a different religion. But why? The religion is part of the culture, so if our culture teach us one thing and another culture teach a different thing, why people should have mortal conflicts to oblige other people to believe in the same divinity? We have the right to be whom we want, and these things destroy our self-confidence. The right that touched me the most, because in Italy is not truly guaranteed, is “every adult have the right to marriage and to raise a family”. Last year there were many manifestations to have the right to marriage whoever you want, but not all the homosexual couples could have their marriage, but this didn’t come out in television, maybe because it’s true that not everybody in Italy want that it will be one of the Human Rights. “Every adult has the right to have a job…”: here, in Italy, the majority of guys who hold a degree doesn’t have a work because of the crisis. Now if you want to work (that is a right) you must be graduated, and nevertheless you don’t have the certainty to obtain the job. But if all these belong to human rights, why aren’t them always guaranteed? This is what I can’t understand. If I worked where human rights are decided, I would make sure that every nation respects what my colleagues and I have established. If every country respect human rights, everybody would be more self-confident and the world would be a better place.
The world would definitely be a better place if human rights were guaranteed. Unfortunately this is not the case. As you pointed out there are incongruities in Italy too. You mention homophobia or the right of homosexual couples to see their right to get married or adopt children. This is a hot issue that some former students of mine investigated last year (http://cristianaziraldo.altervista.org/taking-stand-against-homophobia-schools/) and they did a wonderful job. Then you mention the rights to have a job. Yet, as we saw in the different videos, few people know what human rights are and few people know that they are largely violated all over the world. This means we need to study them and take a stand against their violation.
We live in a democratic country and so most people take for granted our rights, but I think that everything we do is important and we have to think about it even if it doesn’t seem important. In some countries children and women have no rights. The children can’t go to school, can’t play because they have to work and they don’t receive as much money as they should have and so they are treated like slaves, the women can’t drive or can’t do the things that their husbands do and so they don’t have equitable rights.
I also think that in my country some rights are not respected for example the right to work. In this period of crisis most citizens are unemployed and the people who work don’t have an appropriate salary. I also think that some girls, usually girls that come from eastern Europe, are exploited as prostitute, and so these young women don’t have rights because they’re treated like objects.
I think that Human Rights are very important to us and everybody has the right to do everything because we are all equal. In our world every kid has the right to have an education, to play and not to suffer from hunger and every parent has the right to have a job and to be able to provide for his family.
I think that discrimination has to be eliminated and I know that it’ll take a long time but we have to live in harmony and peace and to respect the others so as to live in a better world.
This is the reason why, Claudia, it is important to deal with this issue at school. We can all do something to create a more just and peaceful world, but we need to be aware of the violation of human rights first.
In the world there are some countries where human rights are not respected. In some place people are treated like a dog and they have nothing to defend their selves. I think that here in Italy we’re enough lucky because most of the articles about human rights are respected. In my opinion human rights are respected by the law, but not by the society. For example the first article says “All human beings are born free(…)”, I don’t agree at all because people are subjected to money. To live we have to get up early in the morning and go to work for the rest of the day, who more and who less, but everybody have to do it. Furthermore to eat, to go out, to heat us up we need money and so, obviously we are slaves.
Then in the second article we found this “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.(…)” and this is the human right that society ignore most of all. In Italy if there is a person with dark skin not always is treat as other people. There are a lots of case where people look at the race and not at the person. This makes that foreigners close off and they don’t integrate with the Italians. Instead is difficult to find a company where there are Italian people and foreigners people. This doesn’t happen only between adults but even between children, that is worse because it means that in their education they have seen or heard acts of racism. Then there are discriminations against people with different sexual leanings.
At the end, one of the articles says that, as human beings, we have the right of thought and speech. Yes, if we express our own opinion nobody kill us or some of our relatives (as could happen in Americas for example), but people have a view of us on the strength of our ideas. So we cannot say that our thought is respected by other people.
In conclusion I think that the problem is not of the law, but of the people that don’t follow rights. So are our culture and our ignorance that take us to judge the other and this is difficult to change in a whole country.
You are one of the many that mentioned the fact that in Italy people with different sexual orientation are not respected. I am happy to read that so many young people are sensitive to the issue of homophobia and discrimination against people other than heterosexuals. Last year my final year class carried out a thorough investigation of homosexuality (homophobia, homosexual rights, etc.) in Italy and other countries in the world. Quite interesting.
The first words in the wordle that catch my attention are the ones which are zoomed because they are the keywords of this important topic: HUMAN RIGHTS.
In fact they itemize to whom human rights are addressed, namely EVERYBODY, so to every human who lives in the world, to all people.
Then there are other prominent words too, for example freedom, protection, dignity, but there is also one word which is really outstanding: EQUAL; in fact we are all born equal and free and we have all the same rights. But, why aren’t they respected in all countries? So, what has helped to change the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? In my opinion there are some rights in Italy which aren’t safeguarded, for example women’s rights because many women are subjected to violence and the TV news talk about this very often.
The poster of Simone Verza is really considerable and can make us think over the situation in all the countries and in Italy too. In this poster he’s denouncing that there’s no freedom of speech and that not all human rights are respected all over the world, perhaps in Italy too. In my opinion this is absurd because the Declaration was created on purpose to render the countries civilized without no more wars, discriminations, misery and exploitations.
Nowadays, while watching television we become aware of killings, violence, slavery, wars and rebellions against the government in some countries of the world like Eastern and Arab countries.
The three images are really similar to each other because they affirm that the human rights are addressed to everybody and they always must be respected everywhere.
In the second video we can gather further information of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for example the reason why it was created: it was created in 1948 after the Second World War when the leaders of the nations which took part of it decided that it was enough and that it was correct to do away with wars.
I think this is a well done video but the one which I found more striking is the first because it summarizes the 30 articles in a best way and also because I really like the idea that they were presented one at a time on a blackboard with the help of some children.
Finally I reckon that human rights are like rules that everybody has to follow for a mutual respect between people.
In the video most people find difficult to define “human rights” and it’s also true that a person can give different opinions on them, if we think about his/her native country; and that they can mean different things from person to person.
I definitely agree with the statement of a speaker in the video: giving a definition to “human rights” requires “a little bit of homework” in order to assure that we know what they are because only in this way we can collaborate to make them considerable and respected in all countries.
HUMAN RIGHTS:
Every human being is entitled to human rights, no one can take away any of your
rights. If this is the truth why in the world are there so many people who are treated
as slaves, are tortured, are punished for their religion, are illiterate because they can’t
go to school, are not able to vote, are not protected by the security and the state, are
not treated equal to someone more important than them?
Human rights are not published on tv, radio and newspaper, because if people don’t
know their rights they can’t protest if one of the rights is violated or not respected.
Everyone should know what human rights are, and everyone should respect them.
If everyone respects human rights we would have a better world, a place where
people are equal, where kids are happy and free to play every day, where there is not
difference between rich and poor, where women are equal to men, ,where everyone
can decide to be right or left and where everywhere democracy is the only
government.
I think the problem in Italy is that we think we are free to say what we want and free
to think what we want and most important we take human rights for garanted, but this
isn’t true because here in Italy there are problems and one of them is censorship.
This implies that what we know about the rest of the world is not completely true
because journalists can’t write the truth, and the news are manipulated by the state so
we will never be aware of what is happening, and we will always be led to think
what the state wants. I think that the people who are more conditioned by the mas
media are the children and the teenagers because they were born in the tecnology
period and they live on that. They are induced to be what they want and to be
theirselves, but then the mas media gives them an idea of beauty, intelligence and
happiness which is the same for everybody and if you are not like that you are a
“loser” and you will never be happy, this is obviously not true, but people believe
this. Certanly not all people is brainwashed, but the majority is.
In my opinion human rights are very important to our world because they help us to live better…but they aren’t always guaranteed and respected.
I live in Italy and I think that some rights aren’t considerated . For example, Italy has one of the lowest levels of press freedom in Europe, especially for censorship (the suppression of speech, public communication or other information). The government filters and changes every piece of news: they oblige journalists to write what they want to and not the truth. We can’t exatly know if what we read on the newspaper or what we hear on tv is true, we should think with our brain and be aware of what it’s happening.. Everything is filtrated by the state and if they don’t want us to know the truth, they don’t write that. Journalists can’t express themselves and I think it’s not right: we are all humans and we have the right to say what we are thinking about and what we are feeling. In other countries, this right is not respected at all because if a citizen express his/her opinion, he/she is arrested or ends up in prison.
I think that in Italy and in other states the human right number four and five are not respected. Everyday a lot of people (and kids!) are obliged to do what the ‘superior’ person wants to, to work a lot of hours to earn only money to survive and some of them are also obliged to prostitute and if they don’t do those things, they may be killed or tortured. It’s a bad thing.
In my country the right number twenty-six which talks about ‘The right to Education’ is respected but not at all. There are a lot of kids that don’t go to school and don’t have to possibility to an education. In other countries, the situation is even worse because girls can’t go to school and learn! I think we should be grateful to our parents that send us to school and give us an education.
In my opinion, in Italy there is also the problem with marriage. The human right number sixteen which says that every adult have the right to marry the person who he/she is in love with is not respected because of homosexual people. I think that everyone should have the right to love who he/she wants and I think that everyone should have the right to marry who he/she is in love with but in Italy this right is not considerate, in fact there are a lot of homophobies that are against this. In France and in Spain for example, this right is respected and I think it’s a very good thing.
Personally, I think this rights should be safeguarded and respected. Human rights give us the opportunity to live better.
The words that catch my attention are dignity and human. In my opinion as human everyone has a dignity that must be respected and when one of our rights is violated we lose our dignity. For this reason the human rights must be respected because if they aren’t a human can’t be considerate such.
In my opinion there isn’t a country in the world where all the rights are respected but in our society few realize it because things are hide very well. In Italy for example there are lots of workers that work for a lots of hour but are underpaid. In some countries of the world, women and children haven’t the same rights of men, for example women can’t go out alone and can’t chose who they want to marry, children can’t go to school because they have to work. There are also different punishments for women and men. There are also the problems of organ trafficking and prostitution. I think Verza denounces the fact that is some countries people don’t express their opinion and don’t live freely because there is a dictatorship or under a regime very hard. For example in Russia the life for the homosexual is very hard and they have been persecuted and beaten by the police. The images have in common the words human and right. I like both the videos because they are very clear but they are involving, I like the idea of the blackboard in the first one and in the second one the fact that the man put in the video some examples. I would define in one world the human rights universal. I don’t think most people know what they are. I personally didn’t know all of them before doing the activity.
I think human rights are really important to live in our world, because they give us the chance to live well. Because of them everybody should be respected and we should all live in peace. But this has not happened yet, and that’s because many rights are not safeguarded and many people are not aware of them.
In Italy, for example, the freedom of expression is not well guaranteed, because journalists can’t write the truth of the facts or what they think it’s right, otherwise they are censored. In other places this right is not respected at all, because there are countries where the citizens can’t express their opinions or they are arrested.
Another right that is not safeguarded here in Italy is the one who says that all adults have the right to marriage. In fact, in Italy there are discriminations against homosexual people, and there isn’t a law that says they can marry, although other countries have it. In my opinion, this isn’t fair, because everyone should have the right to love.
In Italy the right to education is respected, but there are still children who live in the street and don’t go to school. In other countries of the world this right is even less safeguarded, for example in the countries where girls can’t go to school.
Also, in many countries, luckily not in Italy, people who are in prison are tortured to make them confess what they did. A lot of women are tortured too, because the are considered inferior by men. To me this is terrible and violates the right who says that nobody can torture you.
I would also say that in Italy immigrants are welcomed, but in other countries they let them die and drown in the sea, so the right who says that they can seek asylum in other countries is not respected.
These are the rights that I think should be definitely safeguarded, but they aren’t and to me it isn’t fair at all. I think that if at least these rights were respected all over the world, we would live much better and in peace.
Definitely so. The rights which are not safeguarded are many, both in Italy and in other countries. This should make us think: we should all claim for our rights, together.
Watching the videos I obtained more awareness of the power that we all have!
I think Human Rights are phrases which give at us the freedom and the equality for live in peace.
It’s interesting and absoludely depressing that a lot of people don’t know what Human Rights are. But the most demoralizing thing is that Today in 2015 after almost a century since when Human Rights have ben written, lot of people don’t have their right even now.
I think that, in my country , the right to be equal before the law and the freedom of expression aren’t guaranteed.
First I want to express my opinion about the right to be equal before the law.
More and more time when I see the newscast with my dad I listen about some cases.
Well, I’m agree that in our country (and not just in Italy) , if you pay for a good lawyer you can continue live up.
There isn’t justice, just tones of corruption.
I really hate that because if you commit something bad you have to pay the price!
I’m not amazed that there is so much criminality and racketeering.
The other point is about the freedom of expression, and it is connect with racketeering.
In the south of Italy there is Mafia ( unfortunately nowadays it is everywhere), when you talk about mafia and freedom of expression the first word that you think is “code of silence”. If you express your opinion against these people or you say names, you are a dead man.
Not at all for this we don’t have this freedom. But also because in Italy we have censorship. I discovered this thanks a discussion in class and some research at home. And it is astonishing! It makes me think of the place where I live! All the news is controlled.
I really enjoy the picture that Simone Verza made. It is powerful and perfectly connected with what I’m saying.
Anyway there are other countries that don’t have, for example The Right of Religion (in the world two-thirds of the population don’t have this right). Or the Right of Education (especially the girls).
If we make a share every country doesn’t respect these Hunan Rights.
I’m definitely sure that thanks to the power of these rights we can change the rules and help the others as the picture says “spirit of brotherhood” and give RIGHT JUSTICE and RIGHT EQUALITY to everybody.
I think that the word “right” is a particular word because not all the people know what it means. And we go more on specific when we talk about human rights. In fact if we look up in the dictionary the word right, they give us the definition of privilege. But the definition of human rights is more simple. Because they are the things that make us be, do or have.
Humans right are the right that every every single person in the all world have.
They are fundamental for everyone. They exist because the protect us and they help us to live in piece.
They aren’t the same rights that a citizen has but the go after, because they are universal without any differences of race, color of the skin, religion, political opinion, where they come from or whatever other condition.
They are inviolable because they belongs to everyone and nobody can take them away.
The human rights are important for everyone and everyone needs them.
Unfortunately not all the people know what they are.
In Italy human rights are not safeguarded too much. In 2012 Italy was the third country in Europe that didn’t safeguarded the human rights and in 2013 it was the second country. This two quotations must make us think about the human rights.
In 2014 Onu made a control in Italy to see if the human rights are safeguarded but they aren’t so much.
I think that human rights should be safeguarded more in Italy.
There are lots of cases where the humans rights where not safeguarded in Italy. For example 11 African workers were critically injured , 35 immigrants, policeman and citizens went to the hospital and more then 1000 of migrants had to leave the city where they were living because of the racism. The last thing a mentioned made lots of country express serious alarms about the Italian case to the human Rights Council of the United Nation.
Another case, where in Italy the human rights are not safeguarded, is the decision of the “Ministro dell’Interno”. Some policemen were processed for the actions during the G8 in Genova in 2001. Although the were sentenced for the violence on the unarmed demonstrators that were locked up in a school, the25 policemen that were responsible of the crime are nowadays still in service and the “Ministro” doesn’t want to suspend them. How can we hope the in a future the human rights will be safeguarded in Italy, if the authorities, people who have to give examples, are the first people who don’t respect the law?
In my opinion I always respect people indistinctly from the sex, race, religion, political decisions and so on. I did it in the past and a will do it in the future and I hope the other people like me would be an example for all the the rich people (of all kind).
There are so many human rights in the world, but not all are guaranteed in all the country. For example in some countries there isn’t freedom; there are slaves, the women can’t go to school because they have to look forward the children that that had from men that they don’t want at their side.
Every people in the world should have the human rights because everybody have to be free, to say what they wan to say, to express the feeling and to live how the want. But, unfortunately not every one has this important things.
I think that in Italy there are all the human rights, but not all are respected of all the people. Because we always hear about kids who are working in the factory illegally, about people who are teased for their nationality, religion or sexual tendency.
Now-a-day we have to take care about these rights we should have to be equal and not criticized for who we are.
You can ask all the people around the world “what are human rights?” but it would be difficult for many to answer this question. Maybe because everyone thinks differently, but human rights ought to be the same for everybody. Sure enough, the first human right is “we are all born free and equal”. This means that we all share the same human nature and each of us has a natural right to be free and not slaves. Outside our skin may be of a different colour, so may our eyes and hair, some people are tall whereas some others are short, some speak Italian, some others speak English, or Spanish, or other languages. Some are extroverted, whereas some others are the opposite, but we all share the same human nature.
I live in Italy and I consider myself lucky because in my country human rights are sufficiently respected and this is very important. But I have heard on television and I have read in the newspapers that in other countries it is not like in Italy. Children and women are ill-treated, there is child labour, people die because they don’t have food and drink… these are very bad situations.
If I watch the poster created by Simone Verza I understand that in some countries people are not allowed to express their opinions and to defend themselves. In my opinion, he thinks that some people can’t benefit from the 19th right “everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and import information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”, and I agree with him.
One of the most important human rights, to my mind, is the 6th, “everyone has the right to recognition as a person before the law everywhere”, because it means that all people must have the possibility to be assertive.
Unfortunately, human rights are not laws currently, but I hope that in the future they will become such.
Remember that Simone Verza denounces the infringement of Article 19 in Italy.
Looking at the first image of this post, the words that catch my attention are surely the bigger ones like EVERYONE, RIGHT, FREEDOM, then also others such as RELIGION, INTERNATIONAL, ONE, RESPECT, but the most important for me are EQUAL and COMMUNITY. Although thousands years of history and the evolution of thought, we do not live in an egalitarian and fair society. The first question that comes into my mind is WHY. Why all people are not respected in the same way? Why not all children have the right to learn? Why in 21 centuries still exists discrimination? Well, I want to start speaking about our country, Italy, in which many things do not work, starting from the rights, which are not “privilege” of all. In my opinion we live in a society where the privileges are not protected, at least not completely. Although there is still discrimination against foreigners and homosexuals, we do not have the problem of education for example. All children have the right and are obliged to go to school, from six to sixteen years old. So compared to other countries, these problems do not pertaining to us and that’s why sometimes we neglect them. From images and video of this post, I learned many things, because as much as we can be aware, this is a large and controversial issue. The videos are very interesting, from all points of view. I think all of them have explained in a complete way this difficult theme. In the second video, the sentence “we are all born free” makes me think a lot. First of all because I think that freedom is the primary thing we must have to feel a part of the world. We can’t live without freedom, I think it would be like living without breathing, it’s simply impossible. So in summary, I firmly believe that the first right necessary for a person is freedom, then come the other ones, like freedom of expression, to make our own choices without being judged and discriminated and so on.
The human rights began to be used in 1948 but casually the Europe went worse than it was before.
Was established the Declaration of Human Rights to seek a solution against wars.
In the world exist 30 rights even if some aren’t respected: the 4° article “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slaver trade shall be prohibited in all their forms” is an example of the right isn’t safeguarded.
This isn’t safeguarded not only in Italy but also in other countries where unfortunately the kids are out of school but begin to work under exploitation since childhood. In addition to the exploitation of children, there is also the problem of censorship. The censorship is the control of the communication or forms of freedom such as freedom of thought , of speech , of expression , by an authority .
This didn’t happen only between two people but you can see it on the news and in the newspapers when commentators or journalists announce the news because they do not express everything they want or that respondents shall report.
When you talk about human rights, the respect of human rights, the thing that you think are the Islamic countries. In this countries human rights aren’t all respected for example equal, religion and education. Women and men haven’t equal rights for everything. Many women can’t go to school and get an education, can’t go out alone from home and must have their face convered. Beyond this, also the religion it’s a foundamental problem; there have been and there are religious wars and many people are killed because they have a different religion.
Not only in islam human rights aren’t respected, but also in USA. The rights to life and discrimination in USA aren’t respected; the eighth amendament cruel or unusual, however in many state of USA it’s in forse the death penality. Then ,are now frequent and numerous incidents of racism and discrimination against black people.
In Italy fortunately human rights are almoust all respected. Fredoom of speech aren’t protected as now should be. All the news of the mass media go from a subjective filter and maybe not suits the news are true.
The words that struck me more, are the most flashy ones, like: RIGHT, FREEDOM, EVERYONE, HUMAN, and EQUAL.
I think that the word “LAW” could link perfectly with all these words, because we’re human and we’re equal only if we have the same rights, but the rights depend on laws.
Not everyone has the same freedom, because the laws are different from country to country.
The word “RIGHT” is the biggest one, because it is the most important.
All around the world, there are people who are not allowed to do some things that in our country we take for granted.
This is a big problem because there are a lot of imbalance and sometimes this is so dangerous because it can causes wars.
I think we should start to judge less the people.
I think that in our country all the most important rights are guaranteed, there is no slavery, the women have the same rights as men, the girls are allowed to go to school as boys do and then, there is no death penalty or other types of physical torments.
I feel safe in this country and I’m not afraid to express my opinions, because I know that nobody will never kill me if I express my feelings.
This, unfortunately, is different in others countries; in some parts of the world, children cannot go to school; they’re forced to work since they’re just little babies.
In some countries women are treated like objects and there is no freedom of speech.
In the image of “THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS” I can see a little sentence: ”we’re all born free and equal.” I was so surprised to see it. Are we really free and equal at the same way? I’m sure we’re not like we should be.
Another problem is enhanced because of corruption.
Sometimes we read things that are filtered by people who paid a lot to edit things on behalf of them. This is so incredible and disquieting. What are they hiding? Why are they hiding some things?
Sometimes there were people who wanted to show to the world how things were really going but they were immediately killed.
So this is the problem: NOBODY HAS COURAGE.
Everybody is afraid, so we continue to depend on someone just to save our lives, but we don’t understand that in this way our country will be increasingly damaged.
Here in Italy we believe to be totally free, but the State manipulates us and it makes us believe what he wants.
Precisely for this reason we’re in a low place for the potential of our country regarding the right of the freedom of the press. This is strongly affected by the mafias.
Thanks. Mind you though, that it is not true that Nobody has courage. Think of what Malala did. She was just fourteen and now at the age of 16 she is a Nobel Prize recipient and she keeps fighting for the right of young girs to go to school in her region in Pakistan. There are lots of people who are courageous enough to risk their lives and the lives of their beloved to be themselves, to speak out.
The universal declaration of human rights was written in 1948, after the second world war, thanks also to the constitution of ONU. But the human rights were born in 2000 a.c when Cyrius the greatest made the Cyrius cylinder and with time were modified, until now.
The human rights are very important because we must have the same rights and make a better world, if everyone respect it, will be a better, but unfortunately not all are respected.
I think that some rights are not guaranteed, for example the right number 4, because still today there are slavery, and many people suffer every type of torture. And also the article number 16, because in Italy and in others countries the gay marriage is not approved yet.
Another right that is not guaranteed that affect all, is the right of speech, people can not express themselves and write that they want, because the government does not to know the truth, speech and expression, and so we do not know the truth of everything, unfortunately I think we are the pawns of the state, this is a right that is denied us every day, is alarming because we are at the 54th place in the world, but many people do not know it.
The first word I noticed,was EQUALITY.
This word is fundamental if we talk about human rights because it lies at the bottom of it.
Still nowadays we have to fight for our rights.
In some countries (like in third world countries) human rights aren’t respected.
Few weeks ago I saw at school a documentary called “The dark side of chocolate” ,produced by a danish journalist who investigated the use of child labor and trafficked children in chocolate production.
The trafficked children are forced to work for global companies like Nestlè and others…. and they’re underpaid.
The fact is that this traffic of children should be illegal!
One of these children was interviewed by the film-producer and he said that if he didn’t work,companies would never pay him and his parents would get angry with him.
The article number 4 of the human rights says that no one shall be held in a state of slavery.
Slavery and slave trade will be prohibited under any form.
Unfortunately even if the producer showed to the whole world the truth,this atrocity still continues to live.
Looking at Simone Verza’s poster I immediately tought about Death penality,which is a method used by the state to kill the prisoner.
In 2013 778 people were executed worldwide.
80 % of them were in Iran,Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
In China the number of executions is a state secret but everybody knows that there are more executions than the rest of the world put together.
USA appears in the list of the “5 biggest executioners” and is the only country in the Americas to carry out executions.
According to the last datas about Death penality,41 % of executions takes place in Texas.
In my opinion every human has the right to live and things which are against human rights,violate the right to life.
The first video contains all what I think (more or less).
I agree also with the spanish girl in the last video.
Every person has his/her opinions about human rights.
It’s obvious that If you ask someone off guard what the human rights are,he/she will answer the first thing is on his/her mind,which is not what you were looking for.
As a human being I think that nobody is different. We are all equal. It doesn’t matter if my skin has a different colour than yours. We’re all “composed” of the same matter.
In conclusion I’d like to share an Aristotle quote.
“The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law.”
Thank you Chiara. I am proud you are one of my students this year. You can contribute a lot with your thoughts and with your knowledge of the English language. 🙂
I have read the Declaration of human rights and I think ,they have been touched all points of life that affect us and the world around us.
Often in Italy these rights are violated.
We are all born with equal dignity and rights but because of bureaucracy, economic difficulties, for rudeness sometimes growing these rights are trampled.
The spirit of brotherhood in Italy you can see when volunteers help families in difficulty to earthquakes, floods and other disasters or when we look at the national team, then we are all united!
But you realize you have a neighbor in big trouble until after a tragedy.
Today in Italy we live with people of different nationalities and often we see situations in which they are both violated .
In Italy people are not subjected to torture but you can still observe the brutal torture of animals just for cosmetic purposes.
Do not speak about Italian justice that often takes years to judge and give the right punishment.
Often the family is not sufficiently protected by the laws of this State and certainly the women and children are the ones most needed of protection.
Often families with economic difficulties haven’t the house and can not afford care, food, clothing.
Every person has the right to work but in Italy there are many people do not have it.
Therefore they can not afford a paid holiday.
The guarantee of these rights should be guaranteed by a strong state that at least enforces our Constitution.
Human Rights are rights that protect us and must be respected. But we already know that this does not happen in every country. And if we think of a country where the Human Rights are not respected immediately we think about the poor countries, but I think that not only in these countries the rights are not respected for example even in Italy there is not a beautiful situation as it may seem, because even here some rights are not respected like the Article 1 that speak about the brotherhood. I don’t think in our country still exist brotherhood, or maybe it never existed. Because if there was brotherhood there wouldn’t be all these problems with the race, with the color of a person, or with the nation and the social origins we should help each other instead of attack one another. We should be united and we know very well that it does not happen. In my opinion even the Article 3 is not respected, it said that everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. And continuously when we read a newspaper we read about a murder or when we turn on the television we see a women that has been killed. There are people that continuously deprive life without have the right to do it and for many of them there is not punishment. Is this right? In my opinion even the Article 16 is not respected. It speak about the freedom to marry whomever you want and this many times it is not possible like in the homosexual marriage, because the majority of the people and especially the church here in Italy does not want homosexuals to marry for two reasons: the church does not accept it because she thinks that a marriage is composed by male and female ,and the status does not recognize it.
I think even that the Article 18 is not respected because sometimes the right to express your thought is denied or better is not “heard” as Simone Verza denounces in his post. You are not heard above all when you are not an important people like a politician man or a men with lots of money. In my opinion the Article 25 is not respected because in Italy there is lots of family that have economic difficulties so they do not have a house, do not have the money to bring up their children and although many people know about these situations and could help them, many times they don’t do absolutely nothing.
So I think that Human Rights in Italy are not completely respected like surely in other countries but I want to believe that one day all the people could be respected like human beings and not according to the color of the skin or to the national origins.
Thank you for your observations.
“ASHES”
I see around me
only ashes.
Ashes, like me.
I fight,
I’m fire and flames.
I lose,
I’m smoke and ashes.
Shouting to the world
the life I want,
far from here.
Fire to my throat
and I swear
there are days when
I happily choke on my ashes.
I am no one
in this world.
No one.
But who knows if
up there
the stars will burn so much
to become ashes.
Ashes, like me.
MONOLOGUE PIERPAOLO MITTICA EXHIBITION
I am a hook. I was born in Mumbai as a hook for an expensive wardrobe. I’m six years old, but my owner, a old rich director, threw me into the trash to make room for a more modern wardrobe.
Now I belong to an Indian boy named Raju. He is a dumpside boy, and he found me two years ago. Now I help him pick the trash. Every morning Raju gets up at dawn, and we go together to sift through the rubbish and to pile it up. It’s a very large dumpside, because in Mumbai trash is abundant.
There are many useful things for the survival of Raju and his family, like clothes, baskets, blankets, bowls and many other things that the rich people from Mumbai throw away. I remember that a few months ago, I found some coins. The surface was rough and the metal was very cold. Raju was excited! The trash in the dumpside usually is wet and I find it troublesome. One day, Raju and I found a pair of shoes. They were huge, but to protect his feet, Raju wore them. But after a few days, he gave them to his brother, because they were a hindrance to his work. I’m enough for him to live on, and at that moment I felt proud of myself. Legs of Raju and I are approximately of the same thickness. After years of work, I’m all scratched and filthy. One day Raju took me inside a shower and cleaned me. I’ve never felt so good.
I don’t miss at all my previous life, because it’s nice to know that a child as responsible as Raju relies on me to do his work, necessary for his survival. I’m indispensable to him. I’m proud of my work, even if it is to sift through the rubbish, and I’m grateful to Raju for choosing me among many other hooks.
Beautiful!
I think that human rights, one way or another, are always violated, I mean that they are never respected all together in the same place at the same time, which would be ideal.
Italy is a democratic and developed country so we take our rights for granted, but we don’t remember about human rights, in fact some of them are not respected here.
For example ‘all adults have the right to marriage and to raise a family’ is not respected because homosexual people can’t marry in Italy and even if they celebrate the wedding abroad it is not recognized here in Italy, nor they can have children. But even single mothers couldn’t adopt children since a new law accepted it a few months ago.
I think that ‘you have the right to social security and are entitled to economic, social and cultural help from your government ‘ and ‘workers rights: every adult has the right to a job, a fair wage and to join a trade union’ are linked, because now in Italy there is the crisis and the government is not helping the citizens, instead is cutting the budgets of hospitals and schools.
Obviously we Italians are lucky because just few of the human rights are not respected while in others parts of the world kids are obliged to work, there are slaves, women can’t drive or wear trousers, people are obliged to follow a religion in which they don’t believe in, they can’t vote or have and education.