Explain to participants that up until this point, we wanted them to think in terms of personal or individual rights, but that now we want them to think more broadly about what people need in order to become full and equal participants in society - in order to fulfill their full human potential. Tell participants that these needs do not have to relate only to the conditions stated on the flip chart, but can also come from participants' own experiences. Write these needs on a flip chart. To become familiar with the basic history and principles of human rights. Ask the group what they think of when they think of human rights.
Record responses on a flip chart.
Then refer participants to the handout on human rights and ask them to take a moment to read it. Ask the group to add any other points to the flip chart, based on the reading of the handout, and then to compare this flip chart with the list of needs they created in the previous exercise. Make the point that this is what human rights is all about - enabling people to fulfill their full human potential. Explain that the UDHR has attained the status of international customary law. Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.