Could Human Rights Be Within Reach?

For the next article in my “Hacking Diversity” series I wanted to highlight a non-tech oriented organization.  The World As It Could Be Human Rights Education Program is taking a unique approach to youth empowerment and education.  They use the creative arts to introduce youth to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), creating unique opportunities for diverse groups (students teachers, community members) to actively engage with issues of human rights and social justice.

While raising awareness about the UDHR the project also seeks to:

• Engage youth in ways that inspire learning, critical thinking and positive social interaction
• Encourage youth who are often marginalized due to learning or physical differences to enjoy participation in school-wide events
• Encourage the broader community to support and celebrate the accomplishments of youth
• Showcase the value of the creative arts to personal development and a vibrant culture
• Provide collaborative opportunities among non-profits, public schools and universities

The two main initiatives of the project currently are:

1. Distribution and continued development of a project-based high school curriculum that meets high school requirements for teaching the UDHR, and congruent teacher training institutes.
2. To provide a community led Rite of Passage program at the REACH Ashland Youth Center to initiate and celebrate youth as engaged members of a healthy community.  This program, called The World As It Could Be Is Within REACH, will provide a model that can be replicated in other communities.

I was able to interview Program Director, Sandy Sohcot in order to gain a deeper understanding of this project.

Question: Could you provide me with some background on the program? 

The World As It Could Be Human Rights Education Program, began as a project of the Rex Foundation in 2006.  It is as a series of initiatives that all use the creative arts as a mechanism for raising awareness about the UDHR.  The primary initiative is the development of a curriculum for high school students that teaches them about the Declaration and integrates the creative arts as a tool for increasing comprehension of the concepts and as a vehicle for the students to share their ideas.  The Declaration is supposed to be taught in high schools as a part of Social Studies standards but often is not, yet it is an important frame of reference for inspiring high school students to become more engaged in the community. We also provide resources on our website for teachers.  This past Fall we started a Rites of Passage program at the REACH Ashland Youth Center called, The World As It Could Be Is Within REACH.  It is a 9-month program with a class of 11 youth from the Center ranging in age from 13 to early 20s. The program was created by leaders within REACH that all represent different agencies within the county and essentially function as “elders” within that community who are helping to initiate young people as a part of the community.  We want the youth participating in the program to have a sense of what a healthy community is about, including an understanding of human rights, what their role is in creating a healthy community, and understand that they are vital members of a healthy community. On May 15 the students will put on their own culminating presentation and share what they have learned from the program with the community.  This presentation serves as both a way to celebrate their commitment and accomplishments and also inspire other young people to become involved themselves.

Question: What was the motivation for this project; why do you feel that this work is important?

When I first began working on this I just really wanted to bring to life the idea of the Human Rights framework because it can unite the various struggles for civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights, etc… While I was at the Rex Foundation I commissioned an original production created by youth called, “The World As It Could Be: A Declaration of Human Rights”. I wanted young people to have a voice in this effort and I wanted to showcase the work of organizations using the arts to work with youth.  In creating this piece we found that when the youth learned about the UDHR they got very excited.  They felt like it gave them something to fight for. Everyone, adults and youth, were surprised that they had not known much about this document and yet recognized it’s significance in really providing a framework that can guide constructive behaviors to stop conflicts and promote peace and positive solutions.  The use of the arts was vital in getting this message out.  It allowed them another way to really engage with the concepts in the document other than just reading it.

  

1200 kids at Balboa High School in San Francisco saw this production and were totally engaged and really interested. The young people putting on the presentation, which was in a way a Rite of Passage, really felt a huge sense of accomplishment at having this opportunity to be the teachers.  These different elements really propelled us to keep going, particularly because the arts are not being properly funded in the public schools.  It also seems vital that people really know about the UDHR, which was shepherded through the UN by Eleanor Roosevelt after WWII and was really created with the intention of providing a framework to help put an end to wars and oppressive behaviors; we don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

Question:  What do you feel is innovative about your approach (content, delivery, etc…), that distinguish this program from other youth programs that focus on social justice or leadership development?

Part of what makes it innovative is that the curriculum really encourages a lot of critical thinking and creativity in the expression of the UDHR concepts.  We do not see ourselves as taking the place of any other youth organizations that focus on social justice, in fact we feel that exposing young people to this document provides additional context for work in other areas.  A lot of the social justice movements are a vehicle for supporting the human rights of various groups.  It opens up a different perspective that helps to connect seemingly disparate efforts.  The use of this idea of a Rite of Passage is also helpful in that it allows the young people to take on a teaching role in sharing the ideas in this document.  They are given the opportunity to be leaders and teachers and so take on a different level of ownership over the ideas.

Could you say more about this idea of the Rite of Passage and how you are using it and connecting it to teaching the UDHR?

I gained knowledge about Rites of Passage from my own experience and more recently from work being done by Frederick Marx, a documentary filmmaker whose current work is on the importance of Rites of Passage for youth.  A Rite of Passage is basically a process by which young people gain a greater awareness of themselves in their community.  One particular Rite of Passage that I am familiar with is the Jewish Bar or Bat Mitzvah.  The idea in The World as it Could Be is to use the UDHR as a kind of “sacred text” that the young people learn and reflect upon.  The culminating presentation then serves as their Rite of

Passage in which they have to interpret and then share these principles with the community in a creative way.  This really helps them begin to think about how they can make use of these principles and implement them within their communities.  The culminating presentation also provides the community with an opportunity to really recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of the youth so that both the youth and the community are ultimately empowered by the process.

Question: Why does this program attract such a diverse body of young people and how do you nurture their diverse voices and perspectives?

What’s been really interesting is that there is just something about the UDHR that really resonates with high school students.  It is actually hard to describe it, when it first happened I didn’t anticipate the response that it would get from students.  The realization that these rights exist seems to compel the youth to ask, first of all, am I getting all of these rights? If not, what do I need to think about to work toward them?  It seems to compel constructive action.  It also provides a point of entry for young people who feel like they have been marginalized in some way.  A group of kids at Balboa High who have various physical and mental challenges and do not traditionally get a chance to participate in mainstream school activities were able to learn about the UDHR and get onstage and assert their right to be a part of the school community and to be seen as people.  There is just something about learning it. The youth are very impressed by the Articles, they see that they are represented in them.

Question: How does the commitment to diversity and equity shape or influence the work  (in the development of curriculum, identification of facilitators, delivery of content, ect… )?

It’s at the essence of it, human rights, by their definition, means that every human being, no matter what their skin color, religion, gender, nationality, no matter what characteristic you might say… every person is to be honored and experience all of the rights spelled out by the Universal Declaration.  The content in and of itself promotes that attitude.  Through the curriculum we seek to create ways for each participant to have a voice.  The intention is really for every single student to have an opportunity to participate and the arts helps to facilitate this because there are different ways that people can express themselves: through visual art, or movement, or a song, or spoken word...  There is no limit; each person’s spirit can be reflected. We also seek to have a diverse group of people act as facilitators.  We would also like to see some of the teachers that we have trained become facilitators. In addition, we try to train ourselves to be very cognizant of the emotional and charged nature of this work.  We seek to be mindful and prepared to really be able to help people hear and communicate about very personal issues related to human rights. We try to create a safe place for people to be able to contemplate and express their ideas about these issues so that they can be discussed in a way that can facilitate positive change.

In my article, “Hacking Diversity” I talked about the importance raising questions.  I assert that solutions begin as questions, therefore, the question that gets asked and who is asking influence the solution.  The most powerful thing about this project is that it motivates young people, whose voices are traditionally marginalized, to raise important questions about our world and their place in it.  They ask, what does it mean to have human rights-- the right to an education, the right to equal protection of the law, the right to work…?  What does it mean to assert and defend these rights?  More importantly, the culminating presentation carves out a literal and figurative space in which they are able to publicly give voice to these questions, thereby becoming an integral part of the solution.