Drawing the Line on Rights

Overview

These activities help students make the link between the factors that substantially affect quality of life and people's entitlements to basic human rights. Using food as a demonstration example, students indicate on a continuum the extent to which the food needs of young people are met in previously read stories. After exploring the direct and indirect consequences of the absence of adequate food, students identify the minimum level of food to which all persons are entitled. Students justify their drawing of the line for this basic human right in light of the impact on a person's quality of life. Following a similar procedure, students identify the point at which people are deemed to have rights to other factors affecting the quality of their lives. Students create and justify rights statements describing the level of basic entitlement for assigned quality of life factors. These statements are compiled as a student-developed Charter of Young People's Rights.