International Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims

               Last Thursday, 24th March, was the day to remember the victims of human rights violations and their fight for truth, justice and dignity. This post is a summary of four articles. The first was published at http://www.un.org/en/events/righttotruthday/. The second was published at http://www.un.org/en/events/righttotruthday/background.shtml.  The third was published at https://humanrights.ca/blog/right-truth-concerning-gross-human-rights-violations. The fourth was published at http://acnudh.org/en/pillay-fight-impunity-by-protecting-the-right-to-the-truth-about-gross-human-rights-violations/

              In December 2010, the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly proclaimed 24th March as the International Day for the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims. The purpose of the day is to: 1) Honour the memory of victims of gross and sistematic human rights violations and promote the importance of the right to truth and justice. 2) Pay tribute to those who have devoted their lives to, and lost their lives in the struggle to promote and protect human rights for all. 3) Recognize, in particular, the important work and values of Archbishop Oscar Romero, of El Salvador, who was assassinated on 24th March 1980, after denouncing violations of the human rights and defending the principles of protecting lives, promoting human dignity and opposition to all forms of violence. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, "On this day, I urge states to adopt measures to promote truth, justice and reparations for victims, which is crucial to ensuring that gross human rights violations are not repeated. Let us all do more to protect human rights and human dignity."

              In a study conducted in 2006 the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights concluded that the right to the truth about gross human rights violations of human rights law is an inalienable and autonomous right, linked to the duty and obligations of the state to protect and guarantee human rights, to conduct effective investigations and to guarantee effective remedy and reparations. The study affirms that the right to the truth implies knowing the full and complete truth as to the events that transpired, their specific circumstances in which the violations took place, as well as the reasons for them. In a 2009 report on the Right to the Truth Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights identified best practices for the effective implementation of this right, in particular practices relating to archives and records concerning gross violations of human rights, and programmes on the protection of witnesses and other persons involved in trials connected with such violations.

               Monsignor Romero was murdered for refusing to be silent in the face of violence, abuse and injustice. He started his career as a priest during the 1960s and 1970s in El Salvador, a conservative society where few enjoyed great wealth at the expense of the impoverished majority. . After witnessing numerous human rights violations and atrocities, Monsignor Romero quickly became a vocal defender of the poor and the oppressed in his country, As a result, he saw himself involved in several conflicts with the Salvadoran government and with the Catholic Church. Nevertheless, he continued to speak out against U.S. military support for the Salvadoran government and he also attempted to stop increasing human rights violations by asking soldiers to disobey orders. Monsignor's courage and determination for speaking truth and for demanding justice and peace for his fellow citizens led to his assassination. On March 24th 1980, he was fatally shot while celebrating mass in a small chapel in San Salvador. On the 30th anniversary of his death, the Salvadoran government offered an official state apology for his assassination and it recognized that those involved acted with the collaboration and participation of state agents. UN member states recognize that victim of an atrocity have the right to know the truth about the abuses they suffered. Thus, any person victim of an atrocity has the right to know who is responsible, any family has the right to know the fate of their disappeared members and every society where atrocities have occurred has the right to know its history without lies or denial. In many countries archival records and eyewitness accounts have informed truth commissions, courts of law, memorials and searches for the disappeared, all of which can serve to uncover the truth about what happened. As a human rights museum, we will help to promote human rights by preserving and sharing stories which have been recorded.

             Victims of gross violations of human rights and their families have the inalienable right to know the truth about past events concerning the perpetration of heinous crimes against them. They have the right to know about the circunstances and reasons that led, through massive or systematic violations to the perpetrations of those crimes. They have the right to know who the perpetrators are and the fate and whereabouts of the victims. In recognition of the right of all these victims, the UN has declared the Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims. A people's knowledge of the history of its oppression is part of its heritage. Knowing the truth allows victims and relatives to gain a sense of closure, some restoration of dignity and receive acknowledgement of their suffering. The truth is a tool to combat impunity. It is a tool for justice. And it is vital step in preventing a recurrence of the events that led to the violations. In marking this day, we also pay tribute to the brave women and men who have taken, and continue to take, great risk to ensure that the truth is told about human rights violations in their countries. These human rights defenders often fear reprisals but nevertheless discharge what they perceive as their duty with great courage. Many have been arrested or face worrying and alarming incitement to violence due to their cooperation with international human rights mechanisms. On this day, I call on all states to take all appropriate measures to give effect to the right to the truth, the right to justice and the right to reparations. These three indispensable rights are at the core of the fight against impunity and the restoration of the dignity of victims. Let this international day be a reminder of the existence and the importance of the right to the truth. Let it also be a reminder of the need to protect those who dedicate their lives to telling it.

Famous Quotes Part II

          This post is a collection of quotes, we can learn something with them, from many websites such as: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/ethics.html. The part I was published in June of 2012. You can see the first part in this link http://www.thepeopleteacher.blogspot.com.br/2012/06/vol-teac-xxiii-famous-quotes.html

" The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings."

                                       Albert Schweitzer

"Transparency and compliance with the law are factors of further development."

                                    Christian Von Wolff

"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people, they are the only sure reliance for the preservation of liberty."                               
Thomas Jefferson

"The highest measure of democracy is neither the 'extent of freedom' nor the 'extent of equality', but rather the measure of participation."              
A.D.Benoist

"The important task of literature is to free man, not to censor him, and that is why puritanism was a destrutive force which oppressed people and their literature: it created hypocrisy and fear.          

                                                        Anais Nin

"Generalized intelligence and mental alertness are the most powerful enemies of dictatorship and at the same time the basic conditions of effective democracy."                  
Aldous Huxley

"The illiterate of the future will not be the person who can not read. It will be the person who does not know how to learn."                    Alvin Toffler

"Arguing that you do not care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you do not care about free speech because you have nothing to say."

                                              Edward Snowden

"Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation."                  
 John F. Kennedy

"Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear."                          Mahatma Gandhi

"Transparency is for governments and big companies, privacy is for individuals."

                                       Julian Assange

"What I am thinking about more these days is the importance of transparency, and the Jefferson's saying that he would rather have a free press without a government than a government without a free press."                    
Esther Dyson

"Music, because of its specific and far-reaching metaphorical powers, can name the unnamable and communicate the unknowable."
Leonard Bernstein

Educating for Critical Thinking

                This post is a summary of five articles. The first was published in October of 2015 at http://www.idahoednews.org/voices/students/reading-develops-critical-thinking-skills/. The second was published at http://researchnetwork.pearson.com/wp-content/uploads/DigitalAge-CriticalThinkScience-v2.pdf. The third was published at https://globaldigitalcitizen.org/the-importance-of-teaching-critical-thinking. The fourth was published at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1885902/. The fifth was published in 2014 at http://lifehacker.com/how-to-train-your-mind-to-think-critically-and-form-you-1516998286

              When was the last time you read a book? The chances you did not read one during the last year have radically increased. For adults it is roughly one in four, 24% according to the Pew Research Center. For teens, it is about the same, 22% of 13-years-olds and 27% of 17-years-olds versus 8% and 9%, respectively, three decades ago according to the National Center for Education statistics. That is especially unfortunate considering literature can help young adults develop important critical-thinking skills. For instance, U.S. News and World Report recently listed book clubs among five useful tools for developing critical-thinking skills before college. "Students who read for understanding find it far easier to think critically than those who rush to finish," writes the story's author, Megan Moll, a professional science and math. "Analyzing a book requires you to delve deeper and ponder complex questions." My own experience with literature bears this out. In his novels "Jurassic Park" and "Lost World,"  Michael Crichton did not just take me on an entertaining roller-coaster ride. My favorite author reignited my childhood passion for prehistoric animals, sparked my intense in science, and continually fuels my own creativity. His novels underscore the importance of critical thinking. Jurassic Park gave me a perspective on how humans interact with the biological world and what we can do to alter things, especially with genetic engineering. Sponsored by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, Letters About Literature encourages students in grades 4-12 to write a letter to an author, living or dead, whose book affected them personally. Meanwhile, if you or your students have not found a book that is personally affected them, I urge you to resolve that. The benefits of literature are legion. Reading improves vocabulary, organizational skills, and the ability to read, comprehend and analyze text. Plus it can provide people with historical perspective, encourage sympathy for other human beings and promote appreciation for diversity and understanding of other cultures. Moreover, literature can help students develop critical-thinking skills.

                In today's world, students need to learn critical thinking skills in the classroom so that they can use them outside of the classroom. Though many definitions of critical thinking skills exist, most have in common the active, intellectual processes of conceptualizing, evaluating, reasoning and problem solving. There is widespread agreement that critical thinking skills are becoming essential for all. Educational technology offers teachers more and more opportunities to engage, improve and assess students's critical thinking skills within a discipline-specific course. The power of technology to move students away from passively listening to lectures to actively engaging, and grappling with, material is tremendous. The crucial next step is to effectively integrate technology with instruction to improve learning outcomes.

                 There are several reasons that critical thinking is not being focused on, and the need to have better scores on assessment is just one of them. Issues such as how to define critical thinking, how to teach and whether critical thinking should be taught or learned through social interaction plague educators who think about enhancing the critical thinking of their students. This major intellectual and practical skill seems to be a skill that the majority of students and the workforce are not only lacking in function, but also in understanding what the concept is. Critical Thinking is where students are taught how to learn, as well as how to analyze information. The educator's role as facilitator also encoudages a peer review process, even in the youngest of children, and helps students to learn appropriate responses to conflicting evaluations and opinions. Activities such as writing essays and utilizing questions that adhere to Bloom's Taxonomy higher order thinking are examples of ways to engage students in critical thinking in the classroom. The development of critical thinking skills is not only applicable to core subjects such as reading, math, language, science and social studies, but also in music education by examining musical environment, comparing and contrasting different era or pieces of music, and self-evaluation of performamce. Having students track patterns in information forces them to look at the information as a process instead of simply information to be memorized and helps them develop skills of recognition and prediction. 

                 Increasingly, stakeholders express concern that college graduates can not adequately solve problems and think critically. As a set of cognitive abilities, critical thinking provide students with tangible academic, personal and professional benefits that may ultimately addresss these concerns. As a instructional method, writing has long been perceived as a way to improve critical thinking. Writing is a vehicle for improving student learning, but too often is used as a means to regurgitate content knowledge and derive prescribed outcomes. Writing improves thinking because it requires an individual to make his or her ideas explicit and to evaluate and choose among tools necessary for effective discourse. Building on existing research and on the basis, we conclude that writing positively influences critical thinking performance. Further study of writing in education will be necessary verify these results and discover the breadth and depth of how writing affects critical thinking.

               Critical thinking may sound like an obnoxious buzzword, but it is actually a useful skill. Critical thinking just means absorbing information and using that to form your own opinion. This does not always come naturally to us, but it is something you can train yourself to do better. Train youself to pay attention to the right details. We've exposed to so much information and so many different opinions that it is really easy to get lost in the details. Start by listening to your gut. If something doest not sound true, that is your first warning sign. From there, you can start looking for holes in an argument. Here are just a few ways to do that. Think about who benefits from a statement. Question the source. Look for obvious statements. Watch for qualifying phrases. Know and confront your own biases. Confront your biases to see the world from another point of view. Take other pople's perspective along with their advice to defeat your own bias. Practice any way you can. Improve your powers of observations by taking field notes like a scientist.

Educating for Human Rights

  This post is a summary of three articles. The first was published in 2010 at  https://rm.coe.int/CoERMPublicCommonSearchServices/DisplayDCTMContent?documentId=09000016803034e5. The second was published at https://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/edumat/hreduseries/hereandnow/Part-2/HRE-intro.htm. The third was published at http://www.anthrobase.com/Txt/P/Pedersen_A-S_01/01_Bilag_01.htm

                 Education plays an essential role in the promotion of the core values of Europe: democracy, human rights and the rule of law, as well as in the prevention of human rights violations. More generally, education is increasingly seen as a defence against the rise of violence, racism, extremism, xenophobia, discrimination and intolerance. This growing awareness is reflected in the adoption of the Council of Europe Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights education (EDC/HRE) by the Organisations's 47 member states in the framework of recommendation. It will be an important reference point for all those dealing with citizenship and human rights education. A)"Education for democratic citizenship" means education, training, awareness-raising, information, practices which aim, by equipping learners with knowledge and developing their attitudes and behaviour, to empower them to exercise and defend their democratic rights and responsibilities in society and to play an active part in democratic life, with a view to the promotion and protection of democracy and the rule of law. B)"Human Rights education" means education, training, awareness raising, information, practices and activities which aim, by equipping learners with knowledge and developing their attitudes to empower them to contribute to the building and defence of a universal culture of human rights, with a view to the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. C) "Informal education" means the lifelong process whereby every individual acquires attitudes, values, skills and knowledge from the educational influences and resources in his or her own environment and from daily experience (family, peer group, library, media, work, etc.) Education for democratic citizenship and human rights are closely related and mutually supportive. All means of education, whether formal or informal, have a part to play on this learning process and are valuable in promoting its principles and achieving its objectives. One of the fundamental goals of all education for EDC/HRE is not just equipping learners with knowledge, but also empowering them with the readiness to take action in the defence of human rights and democracy. Given the international nature of human rights values and obligations and the common principles underpinning democracy, it is important for states to pursue and encourage international co-operation and exhange of good practice. States should include EDC/HRE in the curricula for formal education. States should provide teachers with the necessary training in EDC/HRE. This should ensure that they have a thorough knowledge of the disciplines's objectives and principles. States should foster the role of NGOs in EDC/HRE especially in non-formal education. They should recognise these organisations as a valued part of the educational system, provide them with the support they need and make full use of the expertise they can contribute to all forms of education. States should also promote and publicise EDC/HRE.

               Education in human rights is itself a fundamental human right and also a responsibility: the preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) exhorts "every individual and every organ of society to strive by teaching to promote respect for these rights and freedoms." The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights declares that a government "may not stand in the way of people learning about their rights." Although news report refer to human rights every day, "human rights literacy" is not widespread. Students of law and international relations or political science may study human rights in a university setting, but most people receive no education about human rights. Even human rights activists usually acquire their knowledge and skills by self-teaching and direct experience. When people say, "I've got my rights," they usually think of those civil and political rights, which includes freedom of assembly, freedom of worship, and the right to a fair trial. Few, however, realize that social, economic and cultural rights such as health care, housing or a living wage, are also human rights guaranteed in the UDHR. People who do not know their rights are more vulnerable to having them abused and often lack the conceptual framework to effectively advocate for them. Growing consensus around the world recognizes education for and about human rights as essential. It can contribute to the building of free, just and peaceful societies. Human rights education is also increasingly recognized as an effective strategy to prevent human rights abuses. Human rights education also provides a basis for conflict resolution and the promotion of social order. As a value system based in respect and the equality and dignity of all people, human rights can create a framework for analyzing and resolving such differences. Human rights education also teaches the skills of negociation, mediation and consensus building. Human rights education teaches both about human rights and for human rights. Its goal is to help people understand human rights, value human rights, and take responsibility for respecting, defending, and promotion human rights. An important outcome of human rights education is empowerment, a process through which people increase their control of their own lives and the decisions that affect them. Education about human rights provides people with information. It includes learning about the inherent dignity of all people and their right to be treated with respect. About human rights principles, such as the universality, indivisibility, and interdependence of human rights. About how human rights promote participation in decision making and the peaceful resolution of conflicts. About the history and continuing development of human rights. About international law, like UDHR. About using human rights law to protect human rights and to call violators to account for their actions. Education for human rights helps people feel the importance of human rights, internalize human rights values and integrate them into the way they live. These human rights values and attitudes includes. The strengthening respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. Empathizing with those whose rights are violated and feeling a sense of solidarity with them. Recognizing that the enjoyment of human rights by all citizens is a precondition to a just and humane society. Education for human rights also gives people a sense of responsibility for respecting and defending human rights and empowers them through skills to take appropriate action. These skills for actions include: recognizing that human rights may be promoted and defended on an individual, collective and institutional level. Developing critical understanding of life situations. Realizing that injust situations can be improved. Analizing factors that cause human rights violations. Knowing about and being able to use global, national and local human rights instruments and mechanisms for the promotion of human rights. Strategizing appropriate responses to injustice. 

                 Human rights education is a never-ending process which must be part of life-long learning opportunities for all citizens in all countries, regardless of age and level of education. The ultimate goal is to form attitudes and provide knowledge which lead to good practices of human rights for all. The development of communities where people are enabled and empowered to contribute to the joint efforts of creating a viable society for all, depend on an environment which allow their skills, experiences and opinions to be taken into account. This is true for so-called developed countries as well as for those ravaged by war and conflict and needing to be rebuilt. The United Nations is placing great importance on the education, advancement and monitoring of human rights. Principles of Human Rights Education: Ideally, human rights should be taught at all levels, with methods appropriate to the age levels. Human rights should inherent in all subject, but could be given a special focus as relevant in history and civic education. Special booklets for human rights education can be profuced as supplements, for example to the history textbooks. especially in establishing a new subject. The emphasis of the new subject should be on practice rather on theoretical knowledge.