Every Human has a Right: Learning about Human Rights

Why do human rights matter to you? Asked the facilitator!

‘Right to be heard, the right I feel is not being executed by the society’

‘Right to choose their dress codes! Pants for boys and skirts for girls is a gender stereotype...’

‘During the lockdown, the freedom of speech and expression were taken away from people when they started raising their voices against the wrong...’

‘Right to equality...students have to face discrimination in the classrooms’

‘Opening of universities...it is the right of students to study.’

‘People don’t know about human rights, and they often have to often to face violation--- right of migrant workers...’

Right to live with dignity! An equal space in the society for transgenders.’

This week at the YnD Fellowship, Ms. Rajakumari Michaelsamy, a Human Rights Educator, was invited to facilitate a session with the YnD fellows. The purpose of the session was to help fellows understand human rights, learn to value them, and take responsibility for respecting, defending, and promoting them for themselves and others. The session asked the question – Why do human rights matter to you? After listening to how fellows view human rights, the facilitator, through a short video, spoke about human rights and their history in detail. She further explained the principles of human rights and the types of rights available to every citizen.

Fellows reflected upon their rights, how can they enable spaces and promote human rights within their colleges, homes, and workspaces. The fellows were moved into groups in which they discussed the issues of land struggles and caste discrimination. Some of the fellows shared that it was the first time that they learned about these issues. They also discussed the right to live, the right to seek opportunities in a just manner, the right to choose what they want and how they identify as.

Human right is an important aspect of the society module. It aims at educating fellows of their rights and ways in which they can practice the values of tolerance, respect, active citizenship, and equality.