Youth discuss human rights

There are rights you know but also rights you don’t know. Participants in a Lenasia workshop sponsored by the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation learned about both kinds at the weekend.
YOUTHS in Lenasia got a chance to learn about basic human rights at a meeting organised by the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation.

Ahmed Kathrada FoundationThe meeting, held at the Jiswa Centre in Extension 3 on 31 March, follows a similar workshop held at Museum Africa on Human Rights Day, 21 March.

During the sessions, participants reflected on each human right and briefly discussed what those rights mean to them and what they understand by it.

Interactive sessions between the audience and facilitators were held on “rights you know” and “rights you don’t know”.

Emphasis was placed on certain rights that had specific meaning to the youth. Some of the rights brought to light during these discussions included equality; freedom of religion, belief and opinion; freedom of expression; and housing.

The group stressed the importance for people to be granted the same opportunities and for everyone, including police officers, to be held accountable for their actions. They felt safety and security rights shouldn’t be violated and that every citizen should be treated fairly.

Following the discussions on human rights, a Rwandan genocide survivor, Bonaventure Kageruka, reflected on the turbulent times he faced in his country. A documentary entitled Men in Hell was screened, based on the Rwandan genocide and the horrific results of stereotyping.

Kageruka in 1994 was a young law student in Kigali when his mother, two sisters and two brothers were killed because they were Tutsis.

survived the Rwandan genocideBonaventure Kageruka survived the Rwandan genocideHe currently works with the South African Holocaust and Genocide Foundation by telling his story as often as possible in a bid to bring to light the consequences that can result from not adhering to and respecting other people’s human rights.

He was accompanied by Tali Nates, whose father was one of the Polish Jews that survived the Holocaust during World War 2. Nates has dedicated her life to warning people against committing human rights abuses.

About six million Jews were killed by the Nazis, and between 800 000 and one million people lost their lives during the Rwandan genocide.

According to a statement made on behalf of the foundation: “This programme also aims to gather up youths, to entice them in the kind of frame work that the foundation does, to educate them about their history, also making them aware of issues taking place in the world and to interest them in becoming possible members of a Youth Leadership programme that will be launched in April.”

The Ahmed Kathrada Foundation is a non-governmental and non-profit institution established to enforce its core values of deepening non-racialism.