1. 1.To understand what is meant by the term ‘human rights’. 2.To understand why we have human rights.

2. What rights do you have at school? What rights do you have in your community? What rights do you have as a Spanish citizen?

3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTlr SYbCbHE – watch this clip…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTlr SYbCbHE At the same time tick the Human Rights you see pictured from the list of 30 Human Rights on the Declaration of Human Rights 1948 (young people’s version). NOTE: The words on the film may be slightly different to words on the UNHCR list, so stay alert and listen carefully.

4. Human rights are the rights that all humans are entitled to. This means they believe that all people should be given these rights in equal measure, and so they have agreed to uphold the rights in their countries, although the codes do not automatically become part of the law of each country. The rights are set out in conventions (or codes) and countries that sign up to the conventions are then bound by international law.

5. But before we move on to discuss human rights in more detail lets find out why we have them and where they come from.

6. During the Second World War many millions of people across the world died or suffered greatly. To try and prevent something like this from ever happening again, 51 countries came together in 1945 to form the United Nations (UN). The aim of the UN was to promote peace and security for people around the world. In 1948 the United Nations agreed on a list of 30 basic rights and freedoms which every man, woman and child could expect.

7. The rights of the declaration are for everyone, regardless of race, religion or ability. What sort of rights do you think might be contained in the declaration? The UN called this set of rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

9. In Britain, people’s human rights are protected by law under the Human Rights Act of 1998. This means that if somebody feels their rights have been broken in some way, for example by the police or local council, they can take their case to court. There is also a special court called the European Court of Human Rights, where people can go to complain if their human rights have been violated and the case has not been resolved in a British court.

11. Today we have looked at the history of human rights and the reasons why we have these rights. Give a page the title: ‘human rights’ and to down two reasons why we have human rights. Why do you think human rights are so important? Human rights in action (9 min clip but could watch first two- three examples of human rights and stop): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPclu_IL23Q Human rights in action (9 min clip but could watch first two- three examples of human rights and stop): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPclu_IL23Q