Using This is My Home: A Minnesota Human Rights Education Experience as our main instrument, we have carried out successful training sessions and workshops over the past year in our six pilot cities: Minneapolis, St. Paul, St. Cloud, Rochester, Moorhead and Grand Rapids. Throughout the year, the human rights facilitation team developed and field-tested various training and professional development models, including one and three-hour sessions, full-day trainings, and 2-day and 4-day Multicultural Curriculum Writing Academy workshops.

In our pilot communities, we conducted a total of 12 workshops and reached 293 educators. Participants provided us with important feedback for our evaluation activities that continuously inform and reshape our human rights education efforts. We also presented more than 25 additional sessions, reaching over 1,300 Minnesota educators and community partners in the 2006-07 school year. The training designs varied from small group sessions to a school-wide staff development day.

Our latest training was our second Multicultural Curriculum Writing Academy in cooperation with Northwest Suburban Integration School District (NWSISD) which took place from June 25-28, 2007. Based on last year’s feedback, as well as a year of experience with various training models, we expanded the session from two to four days. This adjustment gave our 17 participants sufficient time to first explore the concepts of human rights and cultural competency education, and then use the This is My Home Curriculum Planning Tool to design 16 new curriculum units. The final edited units will be posted on the website in Fall 2007. In addition to curriculum writing, participants learned about new educational resources and acquired new skills. For example, they explored various ways to include an evaluation and assessment component to their lessons, and used online tools as one of the ways to survey their classrooms. The academy evaluation forms showed that participants were extremely satisfied with their academy experience. In their evaluations, all participants agreed that the academy enhanced their knowledge, increased their abilities and willingness to be engaged in human rights education, and provided a meaningful opportunity to meet with other educators and develop human rights curriculum units. Testimonials below are a snapshot of educators’ feelings as they were leaving the academy.

We are going to stay in touch with this amazing group of educators, and document their experiences as they begin to implement their curriculum units during the new school year.

“I now have the resources, ability and an increased passion to incorporate human rights activities and curriculum into my classroom throughout the school year”.

“The amount of resources offered the opportunity to touch on subjects from many different angles. The variety of information and resources will be a tremendous help as I go forward and begin to be more involved in a classroom teaching”.

“The information presented ties very well into positive interaction and building a classroom community”.

“It helped solidify something I had already been thinking about in very rough terms. By using human rights as a focus, it also adds validity”.

As a teenager, especially in modern American culture, I like to see instant gratification, follow- through, and people putting their money where their mouth is, so to speak. So for me, a hugely important part of the This is My Home curriculum is the action component. I wanted to explore how teachers translate the rote classroom education into carrying out the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In order to facilitate action, students must realize their importance as “the next generation” to fight human rights violations and work for a better world. I realize that this educational directive is heavy and grandiose, especially for younger students, but I still believe that it is possible to teach activism.

Recently, as a part of my internship, I attended the Multicultural Curriculum Writing Academy sponsored by Northwest Suburban Integration School District (NWSISD) and the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center. In this workshop, I attempted to learn from the professionals about how to teach activism. In interviews with teachers, I found that the most effective way to create change and engage students in the process was through service learning and locally practical applications of Human Rights. For example, Margaret Sausen, a teacher at Osseo Alternative Learning Center (ALC), used human rights ideals and legally- binding agreements related to racism, class, and poverty. Despite their “alternative” characterization, Sausen spoke at length about the enthusiasm among her students. The topic of racism and white privilege was what really incited outrage and action with the students. They were even able to apply what they learned about human rights and its local effects to a more global spectrum; the student leadership at Osseo ALC worked with the Invisible Children organization to fundraise for children in Uganda.

When I see examples of in-school activism and accessible, “user-friendly” human rights activities, it somewhat destroys my noble and maybe exaggerated ideas about activism. This destruction is positive though, because only through the micro can we access the macro. Change starts at the level of classroom discussions, making posters, fundraising, or student groups such as the “Socially Together, Naturally Diverse” group that teacher Denise Fennick coordinates at an Anoka middle school. For students, the key to a future of enacting human rights values lies within seemingly simple acts that promote communal understanding. While I believe that action and activism are integral parts of human rights education, I understand that the weight and responsibility one must convey to their students is not necessarily defined by actions like standing in front of a tank.

Enter the 2007 Human Rights Day Poster Contest! - http://www.humanrights.state.mn.us/events_07artcontest.html

The 2007 Human Rights Day Poster Contest is open to any Minnesota student between kindergarten and senior high. Winning artwork will be featured in a 2008 calendar! Contestants are asked to artistically interpret this quote by Marie Curie: “You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end each of us must work for his own improvement and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful” Entries must be sent by October 1, 2007. Click on the link above for entry form and contest rules: This is the second year the Human Rights Day Poster Contest is organized by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights and a group of local non-profit organizations, including the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center.

Conflict in East Africa and the Current Human Rights Situation - July 26, 2007, 5:00 - 8:00 P.M.

Free and open to the public. Location: Great Hall, Coffman Memorial Union, 300 Washington Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455

Description: Conference on the Human Rights Crisis on the Horn of Africa.

Conference Speakers include:

Keith Ellison, Member of the US house of Representatives
Opening Remarks

Birhanemeskel Abebe Segni, Former Legal Affairs Advisor Permanent Mission of Ethiopia to the United Nations
Nature of Ethiopia’s government and civil society structure in relation to human rights violations

Obang Metho, Anuak Justice Council Director of International Advocacy
Human rights violations in Ethiopia with a special focus on the Anuak Assessment of genocide and risks of further human rights violations committed against other ethnic groups in Horn of Africa

Abdi Samatar, Professor of Geography and Global Studies, University of Minnesota
Human rights situation in Somalia and Somali-Ethiopian foreign policy Assessment of risks of regional conflict

Barbara Frey, Law School and Institute for Global Studies, University of Minnesota
Comparison of human rights situation in the Horn of Africa with Sudan Attention of the U.S. international community and media Role of Diaspora community in holding government accountable U.S. foreign policy and role of U.S. in helping or harming the protection of human rights

Firehiwot Samuel, Chairman of the Ethiopian Government Inquiry Commission Results of Commission on Inquiry, Specific Human Rights Violations after 2005 Elections. Rule of UN and AU in Conflict Resolution in East Africa, with specific focus on Ethiopia and Somalia.

Dr. Negasso Gidada, Former Ethiopian President and Member of Ethiopian parliament
Prospect for peace and Democracy in Ethiopia and Compliance with National and International Human Rights Standards

For Further Information: 651-917-0430 or http://www.oromoamerican.org/events.htm Co-sponsors: Books for Africa, Oliqaa Foundation, Oromia Student Union, Oromo Community of Minnesota, Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, Plymouth Congregation, and the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center.