Youth Challenge
Teaching human rights & responsibilities.
Unit 2: Disability Rights
Introduction
The resources for this unit comprise the text and activities in this resource booklet and the DVD But what about Doug's rights? The two items should be used together to deliver this unit to students. The DVD shows a potential real-life situation of disability discrimination at school. An account of the DVD action, a 'script', is included in this chapter as an alternative to the DVD, or as an additional resource for reference in discussions arising out of the study of this unit.
Apart from the specific issue of disability discrimination, the notion of the 'difference' between people is explored. Students will look at how people respond to difference through how they treat other people. In exploring these ideas, students are encouraged to think about them in the context of their understanding of the applications of human rights and responsibilities.
The activities provided will enable students to work through the steps of a potential real-life situation and develop their decision making and problem solving skills.
Additionally, with the changes to policies of inclusion and integration in Australian education institutions that have occurred in the last 20 years, issues of human rights in a context of disability discrimination may arise for students and teachers in their own daily dealings. The study of this unit gives students a greater understanding of how human rights are relevant to them in everyday life. Exploring these issues also broadens students' awareness of the shared responsibility we all have to uphold the principles of justice and dignity that are fundamental to our shared humanity.
Human rights can take on additional complexity in the ways they are observed. While all people can have their concerns and objectives acknowledged in terms of human rights, there are times when the acknowledgement of the rights of a particular individual or group has an effect that influences the access to human rights of others. Such competing human rights issues can be played out on a national or international stage, where governments or activists promote a particular line of rights recognition that may overlook or impede access to human rights of others within the national or international community, but they argue that the good of the many (or in some cases, the few!) is more important than that of the rest. So how do such competing values operate at an individual and local community level?
Rights are based in the values that societies live by. Value systems can vary in detail between one society and another but the fundamental ideas are very similar. Concepts of justice and human dignity are at the heart of these values. Rights may have been translated into law, or into coded practice of a given community group. In Australia, discrimination against people on the basis of race, sex, age or disability is against the law.
An understanding of the concepts of rights and responsibilities are essential to young people so that they can effectively participate in both their school environment and in the broader community.