Empowering Global Citizens

drawn. The teacher asks each students to imagine that he or she is that
individual and asks what each needs to function on a day—to—day basis.
While most students may say basic things such as food or water, the teach—
er should push the boundaries of their thinking further by asking lead—
ing questions about security and safety, rules and norms, and health—care

services.

The teacher then shows them pictures of children from across the world.
He or she should show a good mix of children from different parts of the
world, of different ethnicities and races, and from different socioeconomic
backgrounds. The teacher asks the students to define what these children
in particular might need and to make comparisons between what they said
they needed and what they said those other children needed. The purpose of
this is for children to be able to see the universality of needs.

The teacher then proceeds to introduce students to the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights (UDHR), a global value framework granted to all human
beings in the world.

Activity 5.5.2

What’s the UDHR?

In this activity, the teacher shares a copy of a child—friendly version of the
UDHR, and the children read it together in class. The class is once again
split into groups, and those groups are given name cards belonging to a ficti—
tious nation or to a certain society. The teacher then informs the students
that they will be given particular situations and that they have to decide
what they would do in those situations using the texts they’ve been provided
with.

The teacher introduces “violations”—that is, actions that would violate the
UDHR and that may not be used to solve the situations they students have

been given: