The Human Rights Education (HRE) Write for Rights (W4R) toolkit was created to support participation with your students in the 2018 campaign. By learning about the lives of others and writing persuasive letters to help end human rights violations and achieve justice, you and your students contribute to the international human rights movement and see for yourselves how words can make a difference in the world.
The toolkit was primarily designed for use in a school setting: both inside the classroom as well as in clubs or school-wide events. It was created for students aged 13 and above. Activities in the toolkit can also be adapted for use in other, non-formal education contexts such as youth groups and community settings. We encourage you to try!
Structure of the Toolkit
This toolkit is divided into 11 sections. The first five introduce the HRE W4R Toolkit (section 1), the W4R campaign (section 2), the 2018 W4R campaign
(section 3), who are Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) (section 4) and What are human rights (section 5). The toolkit also contains optional learning activities that teachers can use to prepare students to take part in the campaign in the W4R section and the introduction to human rights sections.
The subsequent sections present the key human rights associated with some of the people profiled in the 2018 W4R (sections 6-11). Each year, W4R illustrates the importance of specific rights such as the right to
life, the right to a fair trial, Indigenous peoples’ land rights and non-discrimination. In 2018, W4R highlights WHRDs from around the world who are facing risks and retaliation for standing up against injustice
and defending the human rights of others in their communities.
In these sections you will find a choice of activities to accompany each right: a warm-up, a longer activity (that can sometimes be shortened) and guidance on taking action for WHRDs profiled in this year’s campaign. Each lesson is associated with at least one of the WHRDs and concludes with a call to action for one of them.
The Annex contains all handouts of the WHRDs profiled in the W4R Toolkit and a simplified version of the UDHR which can be used for some of the
activities.