ACTIVITY 8: INTERVIEWS WITH SENIORS
Interviews
Interviews provide direct learning and personalize issues and
history. Those interviewed might be family and community
members, activists, leaders or eye-witnesses to human rights events.
Such oral histories can contribute to documenting and
understanding human right issues in the home community.
Once upon a time...
Invite a few seniors from the community, or a few grandparents to come and talk to the members of the club about what they were taught as children and whether it served them bad or well in later life.
Were human rights different in their time? How so? What did it mean for them, personnaly?
What rights now guaranteed by the Convention on the Rights of the Child did they lack in their childhood?
Ask them how they would foster the full development of the
human personality, what they have learned about strengthening
respect for human rights and freedoms, how they would further understanding and mutual respect between
different human groups and nations and what makes for justice
and peace.
Invite a war crime victim or veteran from your community, to share his/her experiences about war crimes.
As most people today have never experienced war, "Remembrance" becomes a challenging concept to incorporate. How do you remember what you haven't known? Some have been fortunate to have had relatives; grandparents, aunts, uncles, great-grand parents, who shared their stories of war and peace. Some know immigrants who have sought new country as a new home, safe from their own war torn mother lands. But the vast majority of citizens, especially the youth, don’t have knowledge about war and war crimes history. But we can come to understand what those who have lived in times of war, armed conflict and peace stand for.
Relevant links about veterans, victims, genocides and wars:
