A lesson on human rights

Human rights are morally justified, individual rights of freedom and autonomy, which every person is entitled to equally because of their human nature. They are often derived from natural rights and inviolable human dignity. Despite the human rights that were put on paper on December 10.12.1948, XNUMX, there is still a deep gap between regulation and the real situation. There is daily discrimination, racism, social exclusion and much more, and not only in “Third World countries”!

I am confronted with racism and exclusion even while driving the bus every day. It doesn't matter whether I sit next to someone or just cross the bus: I get angry looks and pejorative comments every time. Both of my parents come from Africa, but immigrated to Germany at a young age. I myself am a native German, but because of my dark skin color many people think that I speak no or only bad German and many of my teachers also have this prejudice.

Today I have an awareness workshop on human rights with my class. Despite the fact that I am the only student with a different background in my class, the students accept me for who I am, which is not the norm.

At exactly 9:45 a.m., the instructors enter my class and introduce themselves. We quickly find out that they themselves have a migrant background and come from countries where human rights are not as important as in Germany.
At first they talk in general about the topic of human rights, what they contain…, important laws and what we will discuss in more detail.

Immediately after the introduction of the lecture, you will come back to the topic of racism, exclusion and discrimination based on belief or sexuality, as it is one of the most common forms in which human rights are disregarded.
Almost none of my classmates are very familiar with this topic and through their naive way of thinking and lack of confrontation in everyday life they claim that these topics no longer exist permanently. But they are quickly taught otherwise. Many personal insights into the lives of people of foreign origin or of a different sexuality bring them closer to everyday racism and marginalization.
Despite my personal experience, I also learn a lot of new things and I find it very interesting and important that we discuss these topics in more detail.

At the end of the day the whole class learned many new things about human rights and also that one should stand up for people who are obviously oppressed or marginalized and not just look the other way.

Sophia Kuebler

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