LESSON PLANS FOR AGES 15-18 IN HUMAN RIGHTS AND REFUGEES:
The Right to Asylum
Context and Purpose
This sequence of lessons is designed as a case study on refugee rights within a larger unit of work on human rights. References to several such curriculum units are listed in the Resources column of Lesson 1 in the Unit Plan for ages 15-18. It is assumed that the students are familiar, through earlier lessons, with…
1) The concepts of:
legal rights and responsibilities
international law;
2) the principal international declarations and covenants concerning human rights:
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and
the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights;
3) a range of human rights violations, such as arbitrary arrest, detention without charge or trial, torture, disappearances, political killings by governments and opposition groups, in many countries around the world; and with
4) the work of some national and international organizations, including United Nations agencies, which defend human rights.
Within the context outlined above, the following lessons introduce students to the concept of asylum, its crucial importance in today’s world, and the role of UNHCR in providing international protection to refugees during their stay in host countries.
Background
Refugees have a fundamental right to asylum. This right - to seek and enjoy refuge from persecution - is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 14, and is a basic principle of international law. It is a widely respected practice of states and an international obligation.
What sets refugees apart from other people who may be in need of humanitarian aid is their need for international protection. Most people can look to their own government and state institutions to protect their rights and physical security, even if imperfectly- however, refugees cannot. In many cases, they are fleeing in terror from abuses perpetrated by the state. In other instances, they are escaping from oppression that the state is powerless to prevent, because it has lost control of territory or otherwise ceased to function in an effective way. By definition, refugees cannot benefit from the protection of their own government.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has therefore been entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring that refugees receive adequate protection from the governments of the countries where they have sought asylum. UNHCR also seeks to ensure that their other basic human rights are properly respected. Most fundamentally, refugees should not be forced back to a place where they may be persecuted. This is the principle known as non-refoulement (from the French refouler, to force back).
LESSON 1: Asylum
Preparation
Have ready a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, prepared on an overhead transparency.
Make copies of Chapter 2, "Asylum Under Threat", from The State of the World’s Refugees 1993: The Challenge of Protection.
Introduction
Ask the students to give their ideas on what is asylum. Some may describe an institution for mentally ill or handicapped people. Do not reject this idea, but use it to probe the deeper meaning of the notion - refuge, safety, protection from harmful treatment.
Development
Distribute a copy of the following paragraph, taken from The State of the World’s Refugees: The Challenge of Protection (Geneva, UNHCR, 1993), page 6:
The process of becoming a refugee is not instantaneous. It proceeds through the often slow growth of root causes to the sometimes quite sudden flash of an immediate catalyst that generates actual flight. Asylum follows when another state grants those in flight access to its territory and extends protection to them. Finally, for the more fortunate, a permanent resolution of their status is sought and found, and they cease to be refugees.
Ask the students: What does the underlined sentence suggest that the right to asylum might mean?
The right to seek asylum is found in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 14, which states that:
Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Homework
Hand out copies of Chapter 2, "Asylum Under Threat", from The State of the World’s Refugees 1993: The Challenge of Protection, and ask the students to read it for homework and to write answers to the following questions:
Comprehension and discussion questions
The number of asylum seekers has increased dramatically in the last decade. What are the underlying causes of this phenomenon? Give some examples of the countries which recent asylum seekers have come from, and to countries which they have gone. What are the two distinct patterns of asylum seekers? Give reasons why countries which have previously granted asylum are now either making it more difficult for asylum seekers to stay, or worse, are turning back potential asylum seekers before they even reach their borders.
LESSONS 2-3: Asylum under Threat
Procedure
In class, go through the students’ answers to the homework questions, ensuring that they clearly understand the threats to the institution of asylum.
Make available copies of recent articles from the UNHCR publication Refugees. They give practical illustrations of the issues which are referred to in the questions above.
Divide the students into five groups. Ask each group to read one article. The group should appoint one spokesperson to report back to the whole class what they have learned about the threats to asylum from the article.
LESSON 4: Refugees’ Experiences in Countries of Asylum: "What’s in a name"?
Preparation
A copy of the UNHCR publicity poster entitled What’s the Difference? is needed for this lesson.
Link to previous lessons
For revision, ask the class these questions:
Why do people sometimes need asylum?
Where have these people sought asylum?
What are the two main kinds of asylum seekers?
What can stop asylum seekers from successfully finding asylum?
Introduction
Allow the students some time to study the poster entitled What’s the Difference? Ask for suggestions from the class for the possible motives behind this poster, while reminding them that this poster has been produced by UNHCR.
Development
When watching news reports and documentaries about the refugee flows which have occurred in the last decade, students may wonder how they can contribute to efforts to solve these tragedies. Perhaps students may sense that they are powerless to help, but this is not the case.
As mentioned in the reading material used in the previous lessons, refugees have sometimes been successful in finding asylum in countries in the industrialized world. Having found asylum, the refugees may be safe from the persecution that they suffered in their own home countries, but they face the problem of not being thoroughly accepted in their new country.
Ask the students: What problems does the poster suggest might be faced by refugees in their host countries? Ask them to reflect upon the experiences of some of the refugees referred to in the articles which they read during the last lesson.
You may also find it useful to refer to the following definitions during the discussion:
Prejudice is a negative attitude or opinion about a person or group which is not necessarily based on knowledge of that person or group.
A stereotype is an oversimplified, generalized attitude about a group of people. Stereotypes are often, but not always, negative. They may be based on prejudice; they may also be derived from contact with one member of a group, if an impression of that person is assumed to be true for all who belong to that group.
Racism describes attitudes, actions, or institutional practices based on the assumption that certain people have the right to have power over others solely because of their skin colour or ethnic origins. Racism has been described as ‘prejudice plus power’.
Stereotyping harms all members of the world community. Individuals who belong to groups which are commonly stereotyped are often denied education, employment opportunities and housing. They may be the targets of ridicule, harassment, and violence. The images harm the stereotypers as well because their biases rob them of the chance to share the knowledge and experience of other cultures. For a real attitudinal change to occur, students need to address the roots of prejudice, become aware of their own stereotypical beliefs and understand where these come from. They need to work to eliminate stereotypes that they hold, develop skills for dealing with bias in the community at large, and make a personal commitment to equality and justice.
Source: Susan Fountain, Education for Development (London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1995), p. 83
Referring to the poster What’s the Difference?, ask the students how they have regarded refugees in past. Do they sense any change within themselves, concerning their attitudes towards refugees, since starting this unit of work? What changes are there? The teacher needs to guide this discussion with sensitivity, while encouraging the students to be frank, but be assertive if students rudely challenge each other over differing viewpoints.
Finally, if there is time, perhaps the teacher could ask the students why this lesson is titled "What’s in a name?" and where they imagine the phrase came from.
LESSON 5: THE RIGHT TO ASYLUM
Preparation
Make copies of the Student Worksheet "The Right to Asylum".
Procedure
Distribute the worksheet. Divide the students into groups of three to discuss the five cases in the worksheet. Pretending to be UNHCR Protection Officers, the students must decide whether the individuals in the following cases are eligible for refugee status. Students will base their decision on international law, specifically the 1951 Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. Article 1, sections A (2) and F, of the Convention are reproduced in the worksheet. In addition, Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been included. Give the students at least 20 minutes to reach their decisions.
During the report-back session, ask the students to explain their decisions on the five cases.
You might conclude by stressing the necessity for international law to be upheld, even in the most stressful circumstances.
Back to Lesson Plans
|
