Speak Truth to Power Human Rights Defenders Who Are Changing Our World
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SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS WHO ARE CHANGING OUR WORLD BASED ON THE BOOK BY KERRY KENNEDY • PHOTOGRAPHY BY EDDIE ADAMS CONTAINING THE PLAY “SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER: VOICES FROM BEYOND THE DARK” BY ARIEL DORFMAN • A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN THE ROBERT F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR JUSTICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS AND NEW YORK STATE UNITED TEACHERS “EVERYTHING WE SHUT OUR EYES TO, EVERYTHING WE RUN AWAY FROM, EVERYTHING WE DENY, DENIGRATE OR DESPISE, SERVES TO DEFEAT US IN THE END. WHAT SEEMS NASTY, PAINFUL, EVIL, CAN BECOME A SOURCE OF BEAUTY, JOY, AND STRENGTH, IF FACED WITH AN OPEN MIND.” RigobeRta Menchu “THE MOST POTENT WEAPON IN THE HANDS OF THE OPPRESSOR IS THE MIND OF THE OPPRESSED.” steve biko “PEACE, IN THE SENSE OF THE ABSENCE OF WAR, IS OF LITTLE VALUE TO SOMEONE WHO IS DYING OF HUNGER OR COLD. IT WILL NOT REMOVE THE PAIN OF TORTURE INFLICTED ON A PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE. PEACE CAN ONLY LAST WHERE HUMAN RIGHTS ARE RESPECTED, WHERE THE PEOPLE ARE FED, AND WHERE INDIVIDUALS AND NATIONS ARE FREE.” his holiness the dalai laMa “IF YOU ARE NEUTRAL IN SITUATIONS OF INJUSTICE, YOU HAVE CHOSEN THE SIDE OF THE OPPRESSOR. IF AN ELEPHANT HAS ITS FOOT ON THE TAIL OF A MOUSE AND YOU SAY THAT YOU ARE NEUTRAL, THE MOUSE WILL NOT APPRECIATE YOUR NEUTRALITY.” desmond tutu “I THINK TO MYSELF, ’WHAT AM I DOING?’ I DON’T GAIN ANYTHING FOR MYSELF AND I CAN’T SEEM TO DO ANYTHING TO LESSEN THE SUFFERING. AT THE SAME TIME, IF I TURN MY BACK AND WALK AWAY, THERE WOULD BE NO ONE TO ADDRESS THE ISSUE.” ka hsaw wa “IT IS FROM NUMBERLESS DIVERSE ACTS OF COURAGE AND BELIEF THAT HUMAN HISTORY IS SHAPED. EACH TIME A MAN STANDS UP FOR AN IDEAL, OR ACTS TO IMPROVE THE LOT OF OTHERS, OR STRIKES OUT AGAINST INJUSTICE, HE SENDS FORTH A TINY RIPPLE OF HOPE, AND CROSSING EACH OTHER FROM A MILLION DIFFERENT CENTERS OF ENERGY AND DARING, THOSE RIPPLES BUILD A CURRENT THAT CAN SWEEP DOWN THE MIGHTIEST WALLS OF OPPRESSION AND RESISTANCE.” robert f. kennedy SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS WHO ARE CHANGING OUR WORLD CONTENTS Speak Truth to Power | 5 ABOUT THIS CURRICULUM 6 VAN JONES, UNITED STATES 68 Police Brutality | Grades 9 – 12 THE PROJECT: SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER 6 ANONYMOUS, SUDAN 74 KERRY KENNEDY Political Freedom | Grades 6 – 12 The Robert F. Kennedy Center 7 LOUNE VIAUD, HAITI 80 RICHARD IANNUZZI Health Care, Potable Water | Grades 6 – 12 NYSUT 9 MUHAMMAD YUNUS, BANGLADESH 86 TIPS FOR TEACHERS 10 Right to Credit | Grades 6 – 8 CHRONOLOGY OF HUMAN RIGHTS 14 DESMOND TUTU, SOUTH AFRICA 94 Reconciliation | Grades 6 – 8 WHAT ARE HUMAN RIGHTS? 15 KEK GALABRU, CAMBODIA 100 ABBREVIATED VERSION OF THE 15 Political Participation | Grades 6 – 8 UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS LUCAS BENITEZ, UNITED STATES 106 UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS 16 Labor Rights | Grades 6 – 8 Simplified Version KA HSAW WA, BURMA 114 A SHORT HISTORY OF HUMAN RIGHTS 18 Bullying | Grades 6 – 9 BECOME A DEFENDER 21 WANGARI MAATHAI, KENYA 122 Environment | Grades 6 – 8 ABUBACAR SULTAN, MOZAMBIQUE 24 Children’s Rights | Grades 9 – 12 KAILASH SATYARTHI, INDIA 130 Child Labor | Grades 6 – 8 ELIE WIESEL, ROMANIA 30 Genocide | Grades 9 – 12 PLAY SCRIPT: SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER: 138 VOICES FROM BEYOND THE DARK MARINA PISKLAKOVA, RUSSIA 38 Domestic Violence | Grades 9 – 12 GLOSSARY OF TERMS 150 DALAI LAMA, TIBET 44 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 154 Free Expression, Worship | Grades 9 – 12 FEEDBACK 156 JULIANA DOGBADZI, GHANA 50 Slavery/Trafficking | Grades 9 – 12 HARRY WU, CHINA 56 Forced Labor | Grades 9 – 12 VACLAV HAVEL, CZECH REPUBLIC 62 Free Expression | Grades 9 – 12 6 | Speak Truth to Power THE PROJECT: SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER Speak Truth To Power, a project of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, is a multi-faceted global initiative that uses the experiences of courageous defenders from around the world to educate students and others about human rights, and urge them to take action. Issues range from slavery and environmental activism to religious self-determination and political participation. Speak Truth To Power began as a book written by Kerry Kennedy (since translated into 6 languages with more coming) and has been adapted into a dramatic production by Ariel Dorfman. The portraits of the human rights defenders by the late Pulitzer-Prize-winning photographer Eddie Adams featured in the book have been made into an exhibition that has toured over twenty cities in the United States after its initial launch at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. It is now displayed on four continents. The Speak Truth To Power human rights education curriculum has been disseminated to hundreds of thousands of students in the U.S., Europe and Africa. The international interest in the curriculum continues to grow and to offer new partnership opportunities with donors, governments and with teachers’ unions in the U.S. A model country for this educational initiative is Italy, where the 12-week course has been taught to over 250,000 students. The human rights education curriculum is also being taught in South Africa and Romania. Hosted by President Bill Clinton, the play, Speak Truth to Power: Voices from Beyond the Dark, premiered at the Kennedy Center in the year 2000 starring Sigourney Weaver, John Malkovich, Kevin Kline, Giancarlo Esposito, Julia Louis- Dreyfuss, Rita Moreno, Hector Elizondo, Alec Baldwin and Alfre Woodard, and with musical guests Hugh Masekela and Jackson Browne. A one hour video was broadcast on PBS as part of its Great Performances Series. The play has been produced across the United States and performed by major actors in Geneva, Madrid, Barcelona, Helsinki, Rome, Milan, Seoul, Florence, Mantua, Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Sydney. Notable was a performance in Doha, Qatar, transmitted live on Al Jazeera and read by ten of the most celebrated actors and singers of the Arabic world. It has also been performed by schoolchildren, college students, local heroes and even prisoners (in a major theatre in Bucharest, after rehearsals in the penitentiary). Future productions are planned for Paris, Istanbul, Zimbabwe, Cambodia, Hong Kong and Mexico. Speak Truth To Power encourages governments, NGOs, major foundations and individuals to support human rights, and brings much-needed attention to continuing abuses. But perhaps its most lasting effect will be to demonstrate the capacity of each individual to create change. Speak Truth to Power | 7 KERRY KENNEDY Mother of Cara, Mariah and Michaela, who have attended New York public schools, Kerry Kennedy is the author of the New York Times best-seller, Being Catholic Now: Prominent Americans talk about Change in the Church and the Quest for Meaning. Ms. Kennedy started working in the field of human rights in 1981 when she investigated abus- es committed by U.S. immigration officials against refugees from El Salvador. Since then, her life has been devoted to the pursuit of justice, to the promo- tion and protection of basic rights, and to the preser- vation of the rule of law. She established the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights in 1988. She has led over 40 human rights delegations across the globe. Ms. Kennedy is chair of the Amnesty Interna- tional USA Leadership Council and is the president of the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights. She is the author of Speak Truth to Power: Human Rights Defenders Who Are Changing Our World. Kerry Kennedy, Jane ©1998 Silk Open these pages to a world of courage and hope, where students learn about social justice principles, and how they, too, can make a difference. They will learn that human rights are grounded in international and domestic law. Beyond theory, students are provided with a tool kit for action, so they, too, can create change in the classroom, community, country and our shared world. Our aim is for every student who uses this material to abandon the role of bystander, and instead, join today’s heroes as a human rights defender. In a world where there is a common lament that there are no more heroes, too often cynicism and despair are perceived as evidence of the death of moral courage. That perception is wrong. People of great valor and heart, committed to noble purpose, with long records of personal sacrifice, walk among us in every country of the world. I spent two years traveling the globe to interview fifty- one individuals from nearly forty countries and five continents. In these pages and in the play by Ariel Dorfman, you will find people whose lives are filled with extraordinary feats of bravery. I’ve listened to them speak about the quality and nature of courage, and in their stories I found hope and inspiration, a vision of a better world. For many of these heroes, their understanding of the abrogation of human rights has been profoundly shaped by their personal experiences: of death threats, imprisonment, and in some cases, bodily harm. However, this is not, by any measure, a compilation of victims. Rather, courage, with its affirmation of possibility and change, is what defines them, singly and together. Each spoke to me with compelling eloquence of the causes to which they have devoted their lives, and for which they are willing to sacrifice them—from freedom of expression to the rule of law, from environmental defense to eradicating bonded labor, from access to capital to the right to due process, from women’s rights to religious liberty. As the Mandelas, Gandhis, and Maathais of their countries, these leaders hold in common an inspiring record of accomplishment and a profound capacity to ignite change.