Project examples

The following project examples provide suggestions as to how you can develop your own ideas around the theme of “Human rights in past and present”. These examples only give a short insight into possible project ideas that are, as a whole, more complex.

“Opinions (em)power diversity”

This project centres on Article 19 concerning the right to freedom of opinion and expression. The young participants could either examine the suppression of freedom of opinion during the period of National Socialism or Stalinism in their own countries, or whether this human right is being upheld today and when and why freedom of opinion comes up against limitations. This could involve focusing in their project work on the role of critical journalists and interviewing representatives from the media and human rights organizations. The results could be documented in a video which could be viewed in the internet and broadcast by regional television stations.

“The human product”

Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, that no one shall be held in slavery or servitude. Young people could either research the background to forced labour during the Second World War and the position of forced labourers or the present day phenomenon of illegal human trafficking, for instance between Central and Eastern Europe and Germany. The findings, impressions and results of the project could be dramatised as a series of scenes dealing with the difficult situation of the victims, and performed in a municipal theatre.

“The right to marry and found a family”

Using Articles 2 and 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a starting point, young people could examine the situation of openly homosexual people in their countries and question whether, in their own country, the principle of freedom and equality for all applies to sexual orientation. To this end, they can interview in their country those affected, asking, for instance, whether they are allowed to start a family and to adopt children, and organizations in their countries which are working for the rights of gays and lesbians. The young people could display their findings on posters which could be used as a travelling exhibition providing information about discrimination or current gay rights in their own countries.

Equal rights for “Gypsies”?

Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to freedom of movement within the borders of each state and the right to leave any country, regardless of race, colour, gender, language, religion, or political or other convictions. Taking the example of the Sinti and Roma, young people could look at the issue of the enforced resettlement of this section of the population after the Second World War. They can ask those historical witnesses who were affected by the enforced resettlement or actually experienced it, what influence this had on their respective family history. Afterwards, the young participants could compare the position of the Sinti and Roma in the countries represented within the project and meet with the associations or societies who represent them. The participants could then record their results in the form of a documentary photo exhibition or a play.

“Fortress Europe”?

Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to seek and enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. In a transborder project, the young people could analyse the asylum policies of their own country and question whether and why the right to asylum should be limited. To this end, the young people could interview representatives from NGOs and organizations in neighbouring countries to the project, which concern themselves with the subject of asylum. Young people could, for example, take a historical perspective and study the history of Jewish families who fled to other countries to avoid Nazi persecution, reflecting, in the process, on the different faces of anti-Semitism today. The participants could present their results on a multi-lingual homepage and link this to websites which support asylum seekers.

Human rights for people with disabilities.

There is nowhere in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights where the rights of disabled people are specifically treated. They were first included in the treaty of the United Nations on 13 December 2006. In a joint project, young people could examine the question of whether these rights are recognized in their home countries. They could ask people with disabilities and representatives of associations if their rights are being addressed. If project partnerships wanted to deal more with historical aspects of the subject, they could research the fate of disabled people during the Nazi era or communist dictatorships. The results could be presented in the form of a play, which could also be made into a video.

Human rights in schools?

The requirement that school is a place where human rights are recognised can be highlighted through the projects. Taking as a starting point the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: the right to education as stated in Article 26 and the right to be involved in choosing public representation as in Article 21, the young people could develop in a joint project a democratic school culture which is orientated towards children’s and human rights, where they negotiate democratic codes of conduct and action for their school, according to the UNO Convention on the Rights of the Child which took effect in 1990. At the end of the project, a school constitution could be produced, signed by the teachers and pupils of both partner countries. The project end product could be a video clip in which pupils and teachers introduce the rules they have negotiated.

“Thoughts are free”

The young participants could take as a starting point Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights where the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion is stated, and use it to examine in a joint project the way religious freedom is put into practice in their own countries. They could discuss, with their peers and representatives of religious societies where they live, the relationship between religions and images of the “enemy”, and the current challenges to peaceful co-existence. The participants could then produce a radio feature as a result, to be broadcast by their local radio stations.