Established in the First Amendment to the US Constitution, religious liberty -- the right of individuals to worship or not -- is a defining American value. Often referred to as the "first freedom," this constitutionally guaranteed right is the foundation for the separation of church and state, the separation that protects us from undue religious influence in government and undue government intervention in religion and private decision making. First Freedom First is a partnership of two organizations: The Interfaith Alliance Foundation and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. For additional information: www.firstfreedomfirst.org/about
The Alliance is a nonpartisan advocacy organization founded in 1994 to challenge the radical religious right. It promotes the positive role of religion in public life by encouraging civic participation, facilitating community activism, and challenging religious political extremism. The grassroots base includes 75 local groups across the country as well as an extensive online action network. Its members work to ensure that America is a nation where religious belief and practice are free and voluntary and that the government does not favor or discriminate against citizens based on their religious belief or non-belief. For additional information: www.interfaithalliance.org
There are likely few adults in this country who have not heard of American's United which for over 60 years has sought to preserve the constitutional principle of church-state separation as the only way to ensure religious freedom for all Americans. Americans United does not take positions on theological questions and does not oppose any group because of its religious beliefs. It works to defend the free exercise of all religions as protected by the Constitution and opposes any effort to use government power to force anyone to support, take part in or fund religion. AU opposes efforts by the Religious Right to impose its theological views on the public by governmental action. The Religious Right's attempt to force all Americans to accept its religious doctrines as law is one of the greatest threats to religious freedom today. For additional information: www.au.org
Check the Internet for the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” combined with “teaching resources”, “teaching materials”, or “lesson plans” and you will find a wide array of information that can be used in a variety of teaching situations for all age levels. For a copy of the Declaration: www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
Below are four resources from the “Online Human Rights Internet Guide” www.uwm.edu/Dept/CIS/humanrights/hred.html
The Center is a clearinghouse for resources. Users can search a database of human rights documents, order resources, and connect with other human rights educators via a global human rights e-mail listserv. The resources include more than 50 curricula, guides, videos, documents, and other educational aids. The Center also publishes innovative materials through its own Human Rights Education Series.
This site provides an interactive version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Each article of the UDHR is introduced with both the official text and a plain language version, an exploration of key issues, definitions, suggestions for activities and discussion questions. The site also provides human rights stories of teachers and students from around the world. It also will link you to a Factsheet with a variety of data, e.g., some 250 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 are currently working, according to the International Labor Office (ILO). Of this total, approximately 120 million children are working full-time. Some 61% of child workers (153 million) are found in Asia; 32% in Africa and 7% in Latin America.
[Also called the “People’s Movement for Human Rights Learning”] www.pdhre.org/ This site provides information about various programs related to human rights education worldwide. It will link you with resources on “Sharing Methodology & Learning Materials” that includes education training manuals and a video series.
HREA is a clearinghouse of resources that features an Electronic Resource Centre for Human Rights Education which serves as an on-line repository of resources.
A member of The Humanist Community in Silicon Valley, California has shared several resources for educating both children and adults in this important area. The links to these materials developed by the American Civil Liberties Union are: http://aclu.tv/ -- and -- http://aclu.tv/episodes/
The teachers' guide is at: http://aclu.tv/sites/aclu2.
The Freedom Files TV series draws true stories to highlight civil liberties issues and inspire people to take action. The ½ hour documentaries feature firsthand accounts of people who have taken on "the powers that be", often at great risk to themselves, in order to preserve their precious constitutional rights. The Season 1 episodes include: religious freedom; voting rights; gay and lesbian rights; women's rights; youth speak (young people whose rights were violated and who fought back); drug wars (which often has diverted resources from fighting other crimes, fostered racial profiling and led to the imprisonment of millions); beyond the Patriot Act (how a law and other government overreactions to 9/11 restrict basic constitutional freedoms); the Supreme Court ((the story of a teenage girl from Oklahoma who stood up for something she believed in only to find herself in the highest court in the country); dissent (issues of freedom of speech); and racial profiling. [The religious liberty DVD also has been used by the Humanist Community for a presentation to adults on the separation of church and state. The AHA chapter also has distributed DVDs to both public and high school libraries.]
The Freedom Files Season Two Teacher's Guide presents resources to help teachers and students delve more deeply into the issues raised in the videos. It includes pre-viewing activities, discussion questions, student handouts, reading and writing assignments, group projects, resources and a glossary.
