My Human Rights Organisation

Instruction

Become familiar with the concept

• The facilitator asks the participants to identify ways to create positive change in society. If someone answers “NGOs”, ask them to explain what such an organisation is.
• While brainstorming, the facilitator notes various characteristics of a Non-Governmental organisation (NGO) on the board:
  • Non-state/voluntary/independent of the authorities’ standpoints.
  • Usually independent of party politics.
  • Often has support members.
  • Receives support and funding from various societal actors (members, companies, the state, the general public, fund-raising campaigns and so on)
  • The facilitator informs that there are many independent organisations working on human rights. Which type of tasks can they have? The facilitator can mention these if they are not mentioned by the participants:
    • Monitoring and reporting on the human rights situation abroad and at home.
    • They often work with a problem area or an issue, such as children’s rights, the rights of refugees, freedom of speech and so on.
    • They often work on the grassroots level.
    • They run projects focusing on vulnerable groups (the poor, substance abusers, prostitutes, the oppressed, refugees, the elderly, people with disability and so on).
    • They provide legal aid to vulnerable groups.
    • They run information campaigns and information activities.
    • They try to influence or lobby the political authorities and much more.
    • They often have international networks.
• The facilitator asks the participants:

1. Do you have personal experiences of NGOs? Is anyone here a member of such an organisation?
2. In which ways do the organisations contribute to building and strengthening democracy?

Group work

• The facilitator divides into groups of three to five participants. The groups receive two tasks (30-45 minutes):

1. Consider the society around you: Are there human rights challenges? Examples might be the right to good health, schooling, freedom of speech, discrimination and so on. The facilitator notes down the proposals.
2. The facilitator follows up with the group task: Envision that you are starting an organisation to work on solving one of the above-mentioned causes. You must do the following:
   • Give your organisation a name.
   • Describe what the organisation is working for. What are the challenges the organisation is trying to solve or do something about?
   • Make an action plan proposing how the organisation will go about solving the challenge.

• The groups present their organisation. The participants may choose the format for their presentation.

Tips to the facilitator

• The participants can make a slogan to promote their cause and write the slogan on a poster to hang in the classroom.
• The groups can be given the task to investigate in-depth a human rights organisation in their country or abroad by answering these questions:
  • What is the goal of the organisation?
  • How does it work?
  • Who are its members?
  • How does the organisation fund itself?
  • Is there an organisation which is active in your community? Why was it established? What has it achieved?

Debriefing

NGOs carry out important tasks in a society, thus they are an important supplement to the state. The organisations often function as a corrective to the authorities and can criticise their policies. It is important that somebody is watching to keep the authorities in check. NGOs make it possible for “the person on the street” to make a contribution to and work for human rights.

Human rights organisations are often heard and can have an influence in democratic countries but can come under much pressure in un-democratic regimes.