“I am a human rights peer educator: What about you?”: reflections from the Study Session on HRE
From the 6th to the 13th of March, 2011 more than 30 students from 15 European countries participated in the OBESSU Study Session “Human Rights Education with and by school students: empowering school students to be peer educators in HRE”which took place at the European Youth Centre of the Council of Europe in Budapest, Hungary. The one week event’s main goal was to empower students to raise awareness of Human Rights in their environments through peer education. Because it’s not only important what you teach, but how you teach it.
Every day, Human Rights are violated all over the world. Right now, as I write these words, Libyan uprisers are risking their lives for a future Libya in which basic freedoms are respected. However, the claim for Human Rights is not just a necessity in far away dictatorial regimes. No, Human Rights are violated here, in Europe, in many subtle and not-so subtle ways, beginning with the social discrimination of ethnic, migrant, religious, sexual and other minorities and the continued legal inequalities that need to be changed within our very own borders. Even in the case in which our rights are recognized and realized, we should never believe this situation to be finite. Our Human Rights are always vulnerable.
During one week in Budapest, participants held an active discussion on how to promote Human Rights awareness through peer education while answering questions such as why we need to get students caring about Human Rights and which are the most effective means of doing so. School student activists, many of whom are representatives in their respective School Councils, brought on the table diverse and enriching topics, experiences and methods. They did so guided by experts, like Annette Schneider, advisor from the Human Rights Education Youth Programme of the Council of Europe, and speakers, like Romanian activist Vlad Atanasiu, from CROS (Resource Centre for Student Organizations), who inspired the participants to believe in the power of communication and peer networking. The Hungarian section of Amnesty International drew upon the recent law passed by the parliament in Budapest this past December, a law that reinforces the Government’s control over the press, to open a dialog amongst the participants on the risks of denying people their freedom of expression.
When Human Rights are violated, sometimes we hear about it in the media but in many other occasions we never hear about it at all. And even in the cases in which we do hear about those violations, how can we, as individuals, react? Setting off and becoming a full-time Human Rights activist is a work of immeasurable value, yes, but we can contribute in many other less spectacular but equally important ways, such as raising awareness. It’s about getting our circles of influence debating about these matters; allowing for diverse opinions but always guiding the conversations in the right direction: human dignity. Through conversations we can form a criterion about these topics, a standard that can guide our life-long perspective on Human Rights violations and injustices in our communities and in the rest of the world.
Yet, raising awareness on Human Rights was not the only issue tackled at the OBESSU Study Session, since the transcendental question was how exactly to go about achieving that common goal. The answer to that question in this case was undeniably Peer Education. Empowering the participants to be effective and enthusiastic peer educators became one of the most fundamental objectives of the week. Peer Education takes place when we acquire knowledge from someone we consider an equal. It’s not about granting less value to a teacher’s function in the classroom, since professional adults can be (and should be) great role models who inspire their students. However, alternative forms of teaching are not only possible but even advisable since diversity in learning methods only makes for more learning and better outcomes. When we receive information from a peer we listen differently than when we receive it from a superior. We listen to our peers with more ease and perhaps with less fear of saying something that we think may sound silly. When we respond to something we stimulate our brains more than when we just listen to it. We can relax, we can laugh and we can talk-back. When it comes to Human Rights, we start discussing, debating, and even arguing. We start to feel, we start to care and then we really start to learn. And that is the whole point of Human Rights Education! Getting students to care about Human Rights.
At the OBESSU Study Session the participants left with the necessary fuel to follow-up in their organisations, classrooms and other environments through their acquired skills and strengthened motivation. Passion is the fuel necessary to make the vehicle of Human Rights Education run, an endless power that can grow within ourselves, be passed on to anybody willing to learn and most definitely contribute to protecting, claiming and developing the rights and freedoms that we all equally possess but not all equally enjoy.
To have an inside about what participants discussed during the Study Session, watch the video produced by Alan (CANAE) and Nora (AKS).
This article was written by Alan White Martinez from CANAE
