As a human rights major, I spend a
lot of time learning about what human rights are and why they were developed
and how they’re justified and why they’re considered indivisible, interdependent,
and interrelated. I usually don’t enjoy discussing the theoretical aspect of
human rights because it can be depressing to think about the reasons each
person has these rights and why these rights are necessary to lead a dignified
life, and then to have to acknowledge that most people won’t see these rights
realized during their lifetime. I know that a lot of people who don’t have
academic backgrounds in human rights were really hoping to get formal academic
definitions and explanations from the Human Rights Training Weekend, but I was
(perhaps selfishly) more than happy to get away from everything formal and
academic. When they’re divorced from reality, human rights can seem like little
more than a religion and human rights education can feel like preaching. We try
to tell people that they have dignity and therefore they have human rights, but
in many cases the rights can’t actually be realized do to environmental and
socioeconomic constraints, and therefore these rights only exist so far as
their holders believe that they do.
One of my favorite activities from
the weekend was a discussion about which groups are least likely to be able to
claim certain rights in different countries around Africa as well as the United
States. Not only did it give a good explanation of intersectionality, but it
was also an entry point to discussions about vulnerable groups in different
cultural and political contexts. There are some similarities across the board:
women are more vulnerable than men, immigrants are more vulnerable than
citizens, lgbt people are more vulnerable than heterosexual people, homeless
people are more vulnerable than those with homes and steady incomes. However,
it was interesting to see which groups are vulnerable in the United States but
not in many African countries, such as Muslims.
We also partook in a contest in
which we had to represent the history and current human rights struggles of an
African country, and while it wasn’t the most traditionally-academically
focused activity, it was a lot of fun and gave us the opportunity to learn
about countries from the people who have actually lived there. No, I’m not an
expert on Zimbabwe just because I spent a day putting together a skit about
Zimbabwe, but now I do know a little bit more about the country’s history,
political leader, and economy. The same goes for Malawi and Botswana, two
countries which I previously knew nothing about but now know more than nothing
thanks to the skits from my peers.
This weekend also opened up some
great conversations about cultural relativism, as frequently happens when we’re
exposed to ideas that were formed in a different cultural context than ours. I
still believe that any form of genital mutilation that compromises the health
of the mutilated individual is wrong, and I definitely don’t believe that
anyone should deny lgbt people the right to marry. However, I need to accept
the fact that if I live outside of New England, I will encounter a lot of
people who hold views that I fundamentally disagree with, and if I want to interact
with these people in a positive way, I’ll need to recognize that they can be
good people even if they hold views that I can’t reconcile my own with.
The best part of this weekend was
the opportunity to talk to young people from outside of our group of UConn
students. At my internship, the only other young person I see on a regular
basis is another UConn student, and while he’s great, I didn’t come all the way
to South Africa to spend all my time with UConn students. One of my biggest
fears about this weekend was actually meeting new people, ironically, and now
my biggest regret is that I didn’t talk to more people I didn’t know. Many of
the conversations I did have affirmed my skepticism for human rights, but in a
good way. I learned that many African leaders see the U.N.’s list of human
rights as a western construct (which it is) and don’t want western values
forced on them or their people. It’s given me the idea that human rights
realization may take compromise, which isn’t something I ever would have
learned in a classroom in Connecticut that drills the interdependency and
indivisibility of all rights.
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