Short description of the project:
This is the general description of the project written by a student who participated in it:
“The project represents a long and demanding journey, which owes its roots to the Bertolucci Scientific High School in Parma. Each year the school presents different volunteer projects to students of each class, various charitable activities which bring together for peace purposes a group of young people composed of new and former high school students, and in so doing, create a momen of union and solidarity.
This strong spirit of solidarity has inspired our class to commit itself to deepen its knowledge of the UN Declaration of Human Rights in honour of its 70th anniversary, starting with Article 19 on freedom of opinion and expression. This was made possible thanks to the school’s membership of the “rights and responsibilities” programme promoted by the National Coordination of Local Authorities for Peace and Human Rights, by the Human Rights Center of the University of Padua, by the National Network of Schools for Peace and from the Table of Peace in collaboration with the Directorate General for Students, Integration and participation at the Ministry of Higher Education and Research (Ministero dell’istruzione dell’università et della ricerca – MIUR), under the Memorandum of Understanding of 28 April 2016. These associations are committed to keeping alive the importance of ” education and training in human rights “. The invitation to celebrate the 70th anniversary and to remember the importance of the Declaration was extended to several schools.
Our first task was to understand Article 19 from a variety of angles, analysing it above all from a social point of view. This was the beginning of our learning process with regards to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We read it, studied it and above all understood it with the help of our teachers. Following this study, we investigated the topic of “denied human rights”, as we realised that the freedom we were investigating was not necessarily respected the global all over and sometimes not even close to home.
This analysis resulted in several presentations on various topics from freedom of opinion to censorship, from neo-colonialism to globalisation, from harassment and cyberbullying to cyber-harassment, from rights denied to the right to life.
Our work, however, had a clear objective: to be shared and made widespread. We were invited therefore to present our work to some of the classes over the two-year period as part of the peer teaching method, which consists of the exchange of ideas and notions between students. The school relies heavily on this style of teaching because it leads to two important advantages: the lessons become lighter and more pleasant because the students recognise themselves in their peer educators, creating a climate of mutual collaboration. The students also learn how to give presentations and to express themselves clearly.
Once we had learned the theory, we needed to put it into practice. We were looking for a conclusion to our project that could allow us to demonstrate what we had learned. As a result, we participated in the Perugia-Assisi peace march because we wanted to make our own contribution and make it known that in some countries of the global human rights are often still denied. It is much easier to violate a right than to respect it. We are frequently the first to take their value for granted as they are considered inviolable by our country. This is not always the case in other parts of the world. It is important to know what really happens, to be able to improve the situation. We must open our eyes to those who have become anaesthetised by our aman and secure daily life and remember that elsewhere others find it difficult to say what they think. With this in mind, we welcomed the idea of participating in the March, which was to be held from 5 to 7 October 2018, from Perugia to Assisi, and would also invite you to participate in similar great gestures of solidarity.
Finally, we would like to offer you a brief résumé of this journey by showing you two videos that show clearly what we produced.
The realisation of this long but important project has opened our eyes and thanks to this study we were able to become “active and aware citizens” interested in the events concerning all women and men and what is around them.”