Students analyze four rights in the UDHR and decide whether they are universal and enjoyed by all in the world today.
About this Lesson
In the last lesson, students created working definitions for a right and then learned about the process by which representatives from nine countries, led by Eleanor Roosevelt, the chairperson of the UN Commission on Human Rights, drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which was approved by the United Nations General Assembly on 10th December 1948. In this lesson, students will read a UDHR infographic that summarises the Preamble and 30 Articles of the UDHR and then work with a group to focus on four rights to decide if they are or are not universal and enjoyed by individuals and groups in the world today. After sharing their findings with their peers, students will discuss the potential and limitations of a document like the UDHR that has no binding legal agreement, as well as consider what responsibility, if any, nations who signed the UDHR have to protect the rights of their own people, as well as the rights of individuals and groups in other nations whose rights may have been violated. Finally, they will turn their attention inward to consider the meaning of rights in their own lives and communities in a personal journal response.
Essential Question: What is a right? What rights should belong to every human being?
Guiding Question: Is there such a thing as universal human right? Are the rights in the UDHR universal?
Learning Objectives:
- Students will recognise that not every right included in the UDHR is realised by every individual and group in the world today.
- Students will assess the efficacy of the UDHR and the responsibility of the nations who signed the document to protect the rights of its people, as well as people in other nations whose rights may be violated.
What’s Included: This lesson is designed to fit into one 50-min class period and includes: 3 activities and 1 image.
A Note to Teachers: Before you teach this lesson, please review guidance to tailor this lesson to your students’ contexts and needs.
Activity One: Universal Rights Wraparound. Start by asking students to identify one right that they think every human on earth is entitled to. Have students share their ideas in a Wraparound format. Write their ideas on the board as they share, placing a check mark by those that get repeated. Then invite students to discuss what they notice (repeated rights, surprising rights, interesting rights).
Activity Two: Read and Analyze the UDHR Universal Human Rights.
- Now that students have shared some of the rights they think everyone is entitled to, let them know that they will be reading and discussing a summarized version of the Preamble and Articles 1–30 of the UDHR, which was signed on December 10, 1948.
- Pass out the read aloud (using the “popcorn” or “wraparound” variation) and the UDHR Infographic. Divide the class into small groups and ask them to analyze the infographic by responding to the following questions:
- What three UDHR rights do you think are the most important? What makes you say that?
- What UDHR right most surprises you?
- What right do you think is missing from the UDHR that should be included in a universal human rights document?
Activity Three: Assess the Universality of the UDHR:
- Tell students that they will now examine the UDHR to answer the question: Are these rights universal? That is to say, do you think these rights are enjoyed by every human being today?
- First, model the kind of discussion you would like groups to engage in by selecting one of the rights to discuss as a class, such as “No one has the right to hold you in slavery.” Ask the class if this right is universal and enjoyed by every human being today. If students mention human trafficking, for example, record it on the board, and ask them who should be in a country’s universe of obligation and what responsibility governments and individuals have to ensure that no one is denied basic human rights.
- Next, assign each group four or five rights from the UDHR to focus on in their discussion (it is fine for multiple groups to have the same set of rights). Instruct students to read the first right out loud and discuss whether this right is universal—whether it is enjoyed by every human being today. If students think of examples of individuals or groups who do not enjoy this right, they should record these in their notes and then discuss where these individuals or groups fall within a government’s, a nation’s, or the world’s universe of obligation.
- After groups have discussed their rights, ask each to present to the class the right that they found most interesting or challenging.
- Then discuss the following questions as a class or in groups:
- Why do you think some rights are only sometimes, or are never, enjoyed by some people? Does this suggest a problem with the rights included in the UDHR or a problem with the countries that don’t recognize them? Explain your reasoning.
- What responsibility do nations who signed the UDHR have to ensure that these rights are realized by every person in their country?
- What responsibility do nations who signed the UDHR have to the people in other countries if any of these rights are violated?
- What is the power or potential of a document like the UDHR? What are its limitations? Is there value in having an agreement whose goals may seem difficult or even impossible to achieve?
Activity Four: Reflect on Human Rights and Your Community: Use Project Zero’s The 3 Whys thinking routine to have students reflect in their journals on the UDHR’s preamble and 30 articles and draw connections to their own lives and the world around them.
