[hr-education-na] Article 26: Amnesty International's Human Rights Education Update (December 2004)

ARTICLE 26
Amnesty International USA
Human Rights Education Program
November 2004
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Dear Educator Activists,

This will be the last issue of Article 26 in 2004.  As we head into the
holiday season, I would like to share a few thoughts with you.

2004 has been a crazy, up and down year for the HRE program and in the
end...many valuable lessons have been learned, many new relationship
begun, many old relationships affirmed and we have found a renewed energy
and commitment to the work that we do.

From chapter 1 of the revised and updated (and amazing, fantastic, cool)
ABC: Teaching Human Rights, we find a beautiful articulation for what
drives us:

"...Human rights and fundamental freedoms allow us to develop fully and
use our human qualities, our intelligence, our talents and our conscience
and to satisfy our spiritual and other needs.  They are based on
humankind's increasing demand for a life in which the inherent dignity and
worth of each human being are accorded respect and protection.  Their
denial is not only an individual and personal tragedy but also creates
conditions of social and political unrest, sowing the seeds of violence
and conflict within and between societies and nations."

The forces working to achieve human rights for all, to achieve a true and
clear understanding of what human rights are, to help make sure that human
rights are real and relevant to everyone...those forces are many.  I think
that we often get lost in the defeats, lost in the struggle - that is fair
enough as there is plenty to make us feel defeated.  But as we close out
this year, I want to take a moment to celebrate and express our thanks
because the truth is, we have a lot on that end as well.


-- The HRE program extends a huge thank you to all of the volunteer
leaders, interns and office volunteers who help move our work along, who
help add a diversity of voice and perspective to our work, who hold us
accountable, who make this work such a pleasure.

-- We are also indebted to so many of our colleagues who are always there
to provide a reality check, give us sound feedback and inspire us.

-- The creation of the School for Human Rights in Brooklyn, NY offers so
much promise and with the amazing staff working to make the promise real,
I know we will have much more to celebrate in the years to come.

-- The end of the UN Decade for Human Rights Education and the beginning
of the World Programme for HRE - keeping the vision, hope and promise
alive.

-- The dynamic exchanges on the HREA listservs - a huge thank you to the
HREA staff.

-- The HRE conferences, trainings, and meetings - inspiring educator
activists all over the world.

-- The 100s of requests for resources, trainings, advise and consulting,
here in the US - thankfully, there is a great and strong interest out
there.

-- All of the classroom teachers bringing human rights into their
classrooms despite a climate that tells them not to.

There is so much to be thankful for and I hope that we all continue to
build on what is positive and what is powerful - human rights - in order
to change the negative course that too many people and places have taken.

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ACTIONS

Two actions for this issue:

1) The Global Write-a-thon:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/ctt.asp?u=305607&l=10990

2) The personal action that you can take, everyday.

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin?  In small places,
close to home-so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of
the world.  Yet they are the world of the individual person...Such are the
places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal
opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination.  Unless these rights
have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere.  Without concerted
citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for
progress in the larger world." -- Eleanor Roosevelt 1958

So here is to education, to action, to looking not in vain for progress
but with clarity of vision and purpose.

Wishing you all the best - good health, happiness and peace,

Karen



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