Lesson 1

Key enquiry question:

What are human rights and what human rights do children have?

Opening question

Click on the Voki and listen to the question. Discuss the question with your Think Pair Share Partner. Each pair will then share their responses with the rest of the class and we will brainstorm a definition of human rights on the IWB.

Video: What are human rights?

Watch the video below. As you're watching, think about the following questions:

• Why do you think the people in the video find it hard to define human rights?
• How many human rights are there?
• Can you name five human rights?
• What is the name of the document that sets out our human rights?
• Who do human rights apply to?

After we've watched the video, we'll discuss the above questions as a class.

Your own definition of human rights

In your assigned groups, you're now going to research your own definition of human rights. The resources below will help you. When you've agreed on your definition, you're going to write it out and decorate it using the art supplies. Your posters will then be displayed around the school for everyone to see.

Useful resources:

• A definition of human rights from The Free Dictionary.
• This is a good website on human rights and children's rights in particular.
• Video by Amnesty International. Amnesty are an organisation that work to promote human rights.

Search the web (remembering what we have learnt about search terms!) and see what you can find.

The CRC and the UDHR

Click on the arrow above for instructions.

You will have 15 minutes to do your research and when you're finished each group will share what they found out with the other groups. With your talk partner, you'll compare and contrast the rights that appear in the CRC and the UDHR.

Group 1 and Group 2
You will research the CRC. I want you to focus in particular on the following questions during your research:

• Who designed the CRC?
• Who do the rights in the CRC apply to?
• Name five rights that are listed in the CRC.
• Why do you think it's important that children have their own set of rights?

The following resources should help you go about your research:

Rights for Every Child

CRC Poster

Here is a video from the Children's Rights Alliance





Group 3
You will research the UDHR. I want you to focus in particular on the following questions during your research:

• Who designed the UDHR?
• When was it published?
• Who do the rights in the UDHR apply to?
• Name 5 rights listed in the UDHR.
• What right do you think is most important and why?
• What are the benefits of the UDHR?

The following resources should help you go about your research:

A copy of the UDHR can be found here.

This website contains lots of information on human rights.

Here is a video explaining the articles of the UDHR: