Jillian eager to apply what she's learned

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to participate in Human Rights Weekend on a beautiful farm far from Rondebosch. Going into it, I had no idea what the weekend was going to be like. I was also a little nervous because I honestly had no idea what human rights were. I had a general idea, but human rights were not something I learned in school. Thinking about that now, human rights are such an important part of everyone’s lives. I’m amazed that schools do not teach us about our basic human rights. If we don’t know what our human rights are, how are we expected to defend them and stop them from being violated? This weekend was extremely necessary for me to understand what my human rights are and how to avoid being taken advantage with them.

This weekend was much better than I had expected. I was expecting to be sitting in a room all day getting lectured at about Human Rights, but it wasn’t like that at all. I was able to interact and learn from everyone, not just Vincent (the facilitator). In addition to the 17 of us, there were several other South African and international people there that I was able to meet and get to know. Meeting these people was probably my favorite part of the weekend. Immediately when I got to my room, which 11 other people were also staying in, we all sat in a big circle and started talking. I was able to get to know everyone throughout the whole weekend with the group activities we did. I was able to learn so much through these interactions and I now have a much better understanding of what human rights are. One of my favorite activities was the perpetrator, bystander, victim, and defender activity. In this activity, everyone had to write down a time when they personally violated someone’s human rights, when they saw someone’s rights being violated and didn’t try and stop it, when their human rights were being violated, and when they defended someone whose rights were being violated. I enjoyed this activity because I was able to reflect upon my personal experiences which opened my eyes to experiences I had where I didn’t even realize human rights were involved. This raised my awareness of human rights in everyday life and made it easier for me to recognize in the future so I can try and stop any violation I see. I also liked it because we were able to share our experiences with the group. I learned a lot about the people I was spending the weekend with and hearing their stories was heartbreaking but inspiring at the same time.

Overall, I found the weekend extremely informative and I learned a lot about other people’s stories and about myself as well. I developed a greater level of awareness for human rights and I’m excited to take what I’ve learned and apply it to my life. Human rights are so important to learn about and I’m thankful I was able to get a better understanding of them. One of my goals during this program was to become more informed and with Human Rights Weekend, I am definitely more informed than I was before.