Human Rights

At a glance

• Student introduction
• Focus question 1: What are human rights?
• Focus question 2: Where did human rights come from?
• Focus question 3: Where have Australians' human rights come from and how are they protected?
• Focus question 4: What is Australia's record on Indigenous people's rights?

Focus question 1: What are human rights?

Content	Activities (Assessment tasks are in bold italics.)	Preparation
Value placed on human rights	Ranking human rights: comparison with view from another culture
Definitions of human rights	Case analysis: categorising human rights	You may wish to show the film In the Name of the Father
Rights and corresponding responsibilities	Development of a set of responsibilities to correspond to given rights
Human rights in the news	Research task: Identification of human rights issues in the news, analysis of issues and types of rights involved	Ensure recent newspapers are available or students find them for homework

Teaching and learning activities

Focus question 2: Where did human rights come from?

Content	Activities (Assessment tasks are in bold italics.)	Preparation
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen	Analysis of how the Declaration addressed abuses in pre-revolutionary French society	Download and duplicate the complete Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen from Stories of Democracy CD ROM
1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights	Comparison of United Nations Declaration with Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen Creation of poster illustrating and explaining a human right	Download and duplicate the complete UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights from Stories of Democracy CD ROM
Culture and human rights	Comparison of Confucian 'relationships' with United Nations Declaration Development of a set of family relationships

Teaching and learning activities

Focus question 3: Where have Australians' human rights come from and how are they protected?

Content	Activities (Assessment tasks are in bold italics.)	Preparation
Rights established in Australian Constitution Acts of Parliament (including role of Ombudsman and Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission) and court rulings Other organisations protecting human rights	Case analyses	Have answers and actual case decisions from 'Notes' section of unit available for yourself
David Irving case and freedom of speech	Application of knowledge of human rights issues to a case study on freedom of speech	Have actual case decision from 'Notes' section available for yourself
Arguments for and against a Bill of Rights	Situation analysis, applying a draft Bill to determine strengths and weaknesses of a Bill of Rights Debate preparation and participation: Australia should have a Bill of Rights	Provide access to library for research for debate preparation

Teaching and learning activities

Focus question 4: What is Australia's record on Indigenous people's rights?

Content	Activities (Assessment tasks are in bold italics.)	Preparation
Indigenous Australians and citizenship under the Constitution Indigenous Australians and human rights	Use of sources to identify human rights denied to Aboriginal people in the past
Changes to laws and establishment of new laws to protect human rights of Indigenous people	Comprehension task: Racial Discrimination Act
Study of one right: its importance; how it is protected in Australia; example of abuse; justification for abuse; response of individuals, other countries and organisations to abuse	Investigation of a right Report of rights investigation	Provide access to library for research

Teaching and learning activities