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Segment 1: Human Rights Education Associates. Our guest on this edition of The Doug Noll Show is Dr. Felisa Tibbitts, Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy and founder of Human Rights Education Associates (HREA), an internationally recognized organization dedicated to human rights education. When Felisa was still a graduate student the Berlin Wall came down, and she decided to go study the implications of this event in Europe. Dr. Tibbitts found herself hired by a Dutch Helsinki human rights group and ended up devoting herself to the work of human rights for the next 20 years. She has worked in human rights education in over 20 countries, including Croatia, Gaza, Romania, Ukraine and the United States.

Segment 2: Universal Declaration for Human Rights. The Universal Declaration for Human Rights (UDHR) was written by the United Nations and passed in 1948. It is not a well-known declaration. The verbiage “human rights” didn’t come into our vernacular until after WWII. The UDHR is a beautiful document that includes civil and political rights as well as social, economic and cultural rights. Felisa says on one hand the human rights system includes legally binding treaties, but on the other hand it’s also a value system. The heart of human rights is simply human dignity. What does it mean to enjoy your human dignity? And what are the conditions that help to bring that about?

Segment 3: Sovereignty and Natural Law. Regarding sovereignty, Dr. Tibbitts says the questions we need to ask ourselves are: Under what conditions do we justify humanitarian intervention? And how long is the sovereignty going to last? If you think about human rights as a manifestation of social change, we’re not restricted exclusively to having to change laws. Yes, governments are responsible for ensuring the human rights of all those on their territory, but if you think more broadly about social change, those processes are not defined by government involvement. So to what degree does the Western Euro-centric view of human rights have to impose values and beliefs on a culture that does not want to accept them? The philosophy of human rights is that we possess human rights even if they are not reflected in the laws or the practices of our country. This is called Natural Law and it comes from the West.  

Segment 4: It’s a Vision. The United Nations, in promoting human rights, decreed that all human rights are universal, interrelated and indivisible. Dr. Tibbitts reminds us that every culture has values that are at least partially reflected in the human rights framework. Societies do this naturally. Ultimately, in order for you and I to feel that the specific language of human rights rings true for us, we’ve got to break it down. We need to look at it, critique it, internalize it. Human rights is a vision. It’s a utopia and an engine for social change. It requires patience, persistence and introspection.

To listen to the entire interview:

Segment 1

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Segment 4

Segment 1: Youth for Human Rights International.  http://www.youthforhumanrights.org/

Our guest on this edition of The Doug Noll Show is Tim Bowles, Director of International Development for Youth for Human Rights International. Tim practiced constitutional and civil rights law for over 30 years and helped establish valuable protections for free religious practice in American that continue to benefit individuals from all faiths and walks of life. After three decades of litigation work in the American courts, Tim traveled to Ghana, West Africa as a volunteer for Youth for Human Rights International (YFHRI), a U.S. based nonprofit dedicated to human rights education worldwide. In Africa Tim helped teach young people their human rights as embodied in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations. He also met people who shared his vision of bringing increased awareness to the subject of human rights.

Segment 2: Human Rights Education in West Africa.

The YFHRI organization is centered around human rights education and raising the awareness and responsibility levels of youth throughout the world. They conduct international summits around the globe. Tim believes we need to not only teach the existence of human rights, but also make it a reality. His passion is leadership training: planting the seeds that will enable the younger generation. Our young people need to know it is their responsibility to be more confident, more courageous, more creative and more effective than their parents’ generation.

So how do kids in West Africa respond when tasked with spreading human rights principals? Tim has found that kids are wide open to ideas. They’ve seen enough killing --- they have personal experience with murder, rape and other tragedies. The youth that Tim worked with generally had three complaints: a lack of power structure; the NGOs did not go into the side streets and look for opportunities; and they wanted to teach their peers about human rights but did not have the training or support to do so.

Segment 3: Youth Coalition Teams.

After some initial trial and error, YFHRI decided to engage wide groups of young people and mix up the youth in the schools. They organized them into “coalition teams” and everyone had a leadership role and a sub-product or result to work toward. Each team’s task was to create a human rights campaign on a selected issue that created support for human rights education within the student population, civil society, urban leadership, educators and the broader society around them. The teams chose their own issues and were given training and support by YFHRI. They came together at the end of the cycle and shared their phenomenal campaign ideas and results.

Segment 4: The Foundation for All Learning.

Unfortunately, we are not exposed to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in primary, middle school or high school. Tim believes it’s fundamental and that we need to bring this subject to the attention of policy makers. This should be a subject in of itself. It’s the foundation for all learning. It gives learning a context and a purpose, and many professions stem from human right education.

To listen to the complete interview:

Segment 1

Segment 2

Segment 3

Segment 4