Part 4: Taking Action for Human Rights

Liberty does not consist in mere declarations of the
rights of man. It consists in the translation of those
declarations into definite action.

-Woodrow Wilson
Address
July 4, 1914



Contents

Introduction: Human Rights Education and Community Action

Ten Tips for Taking Action

Service Learning for Human Rights: Ideas for Talking

Examples of Human Rights Service Learning Projects

Action Activity 1: Creating a Human Rights Community

Action Activity 2: Stories of Students Who Took Action

Action Activity 3: Getting to Know the Activists Among Us

Action Activity 4: Strategizing for Action

Action Activity 5: The Power of the Pen

Action Activity 6: The Power of Petitions

 


Where, after all, do universal rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the worlds of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. 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 concerned citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.

-Eleanor Roosevelt,
The Great Question, 1958

copyright information

 

  Human Rights Fundamentals The Right to Know Your Rights Activities Taking Action for Human Rights Appendices