Paradise island

• Flipchart paper for each group and marker pens in different colours.
• A table for each group to work at or enough floor space to comfortably work together.
• Sticky tack/tape to stick up the drawings on the walls after they have been presented (and space on the walls to do so).
• Guiding questions (see below) written up and displayed on a flipchart/PowerPoint.
• Handouts of a simplified version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) for each participant.
• Prepare a presentation on the basics of human rights using PowerPoint or another medium. Create your own presentation or adapt the ready-made presentation and PowerPoint (slides 7-28) on ‘Human needs – human rights – human responsibilities’ from Session 1 of the Local Changemakers Course.

The presentation (script and PowerPoint) is available in several languages.

Divide the participants into groups (no more than four groups, with a maximum of eight per group).

Explain the following:

Imagine that you are part of a large group of people washed up on a deserted island after your ship sank. All communications with the outside world have been lost and there seems to be no hope of rescue. You need to build a new society. Point to the guiding questions (displayed on a flipchart or PowerPoint) and ask:

• What things do you need and want to live a healthy and happy life?
• What things are important for your survival and growth as a group of human beings living together?

CREATIVE GROUPWORK (20 MIN)

Ask the groups to draw their islands on a flipchart sheet, drawing and writing down all the things they think of in answer to the two questions. In your group, agree on a name for your island and choose one person to present their island to the whole group.

TIP! Participants usually enjoy the creative process! Give them a 5-minute warning to finish up their drawings. Save plenty of time for the later parts of the exercise!

PRESENTATIONS (15 MIN – allow 3 MIN per group)

Ask each group to present their island, giving each group a round of applause after their presentation.

PLENARY DISCUSSION (10 MIN)

Lead the discussion with the following questions:

• How did it feel to design your dream society?
• What do you think when you see the other island societies? What similarities and differences do you see?
• Would you like to add something to your island society that you didn’t think of when you drew it? Why didn’t you think of this? Why is it important? (Some tips might be e.g., a legal system and police service, a system of governance, work, leisure, communications, infrastructure etc.)
• How do you think people from other countries would draw their imaginary island? Do you think people around the world need the same things?
• Is there a difference between what we really need (basic needs) and what we want – things that are nice to have but not necessary?

KNOWLEDGE INPUT (5-10 MIN)

Continue with a short presentation of the basics of human rights. Points to include are, for example, that they are based on people’s inherent dignity, worth and equality and that they are universal, inalienable, interdependent/interconnected, and a brief background to their historical development.

TIP! Why not adapt the ready-made presentation and PowerPoint in Session 1 of the Local Changemakers Course?

GROUP DISCUSSION (20 MIN)

Give each participant a copy of a simplified version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
Ask the groups to revisit their islands, comparing the articles of the declaration with what they drew/wrote. Next to each thing they drew/wrote on the island, ask them to write the number of the article that most closely links to that thing.

After about 10 minutes (or before if the groups seem to have completed the task) ask the groups to:

• Choose eight rights identified on their drawing which they think are most important.
• Discuss which rights from the declaration were missed out of their drawing and why.

PRESENTATIONS (15 MIN)

Ask each group to present their island again, listing the rights they think are most important and sharing their reflections on why some rights didn’t come up in their drawing, (3 min per group).

On a flipchart, make a ‘master list’ of the rights the groups list as being most important. Some rights will be mentioned several times. Write them on the master list once and tick them each time they are repeated.

Give each group a round of applause after they present their island and put the islands up on display on the wall.

PLENARY DISCUSSION (10 MIN)

Lead the discussion with help of the following questions:

• Do human rights correspond with basic human needs? In what ways?
• What do you think about the rights you didn’t think of when you drew your island? Do you agree that we need them? Are they important for everyone?
• What do you think of the master list?
• Was it difficult to choose the most important rights?
• Did your idea of what is important change during the exercise?
• What would life be like without the other ‘less important’ rights?

Conclude the discussion by making the following points:

• Thank you for creating these beautiful and inspiring island societies! They demonstrate that human rights are closely related to our human needs and to the kind of society we want to live in.
• We can also clearly see that human rights are based on human dignity. By virtue of being born, we have human rights (inalienable). They are relevant for us all in every corner of the world (universal).
• We have also explored the idea that one human right is difficult to separate from another – they are interlinked with each other – and we need a range of rights to live a dignified life (indivisibility and interdependence).