Human Rights Education

I obtained a Master’s Degree in Human Rights from the University of Malta. During my studies, I particularly enjoyed working with people from other countries, cultures and beliefs. It is a very interesting way to learn human rights because we could compare our different understandings of them and sometimes put our point of view in question. I would advice teachers to invite people from different backgrounds and cultures to discuss human rights because it widens people’s outlook.

I also appreciated to be “active” when learning something and I always learned more when the teacher was using interactive methods. For example, one professor gave a lesson on cultural diversity versus universalism in human rights. To do so, she gave us all stickers, asked us to write down on them what these words meant to us, and to stick them on two boards. I am sure that this exercise was extremely efficient to make us think about the subject and to learn from each other.

We also had a course on the rights of people with disabilities, and the course was given by people who themselves had disabilities. That was really moving to hear directly from them what it means to have special rights, and what their needs and difficulties are.

The thorny issues in the class concerned religion and politics. As some people had a strong religious faith it was tricky to speak about subjects that contest religions, such as homosexuality, death penalty, and so on. Concerning politics, some people did not like to hear criticism against their own country. Some students were from countries at war against each other, and sometimes that made the debate very passionate. Maybe it would be more productive to speak about difficult issues in smaller groups.

Finally, I believe that seeing something by ourselves and being in the field is a wonderful lesson. For instance, we visited a refugee camp, and that gave a whole different understanding of the situation.

Concerning material, the book we were advised to use for treaties is “Black Stone”.