“Speak Truth to Power” human rights curriculum launched in New York

The Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights, the organization created in 1968 to continue Robert F. Kennedy’s work for civil and human rights, and New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) launched on Friday December 10th – International Human Rights Day — a new edition of the human rights curriculum for New York state students, with a special webcast featuring a human rights defender whose work has dramatically improved working conditions for migrant tomato pickers.

The curriculum, which includes 17 teacher-developed lesson plans for students in grades 6-12, is based on Kerry Kennedy’s book, Speak Truth to Power: Human Rights Defenders Who are Changing the World.  The webcast was designed to build on students’ enthusiasm to become human rights defenders by stopping child labor and fighting other human rights abuses around the globe.

The web event originated from the classroom of teacher Diane Gonzalez at the Chestnut Ridge Middle School, in Spring Valley.  Students in Gonzalez’ classroom were linked to classrooms across the state, where more than 1,000 additional students also viewed the webcast.  Kerry Kennedy, daughter of former U.S. Sen. Robert Kennedy, U.S. attorney general and presidential candidate, spoke to students about human rights as part of the presentation.

The webcast also featured Lucas Benitez, a founder of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, which helped organize migrant tomato pickers and, on Nov. 16, signed an agreement that ended a 17-year fight to win better wages and working conditions for migrants.

John Heffernan, Speak Truth To Power director for the Robert F. Kennedy Center, told us: “The newly revised teacher-developed English version of the Speak Truth To Power educational curriclum provides students with a toolkit for action  grounded in concepts of international humanitarian and human rights law and filled with material aimed at creating change by refusing to be a bystander in the classroom, communty, country and our shared world.  The New York model follows in the footsteps of the Speak Truth To Power human rights curriclum now being taught to hundreds of thousansd of students around the world in Italy, Romania and  South Africa.”

Students also viewed and studied The Dark Side of Chocolate, a new documentary that shows the use of child labor in the cocoa industry, and hear from director U Roberto Romano.

In addition to hearing from Kennedy, students had the opportunity to speak about the actions they have taken in their own communities to fight human rights abuses, and question Benitez, Romano and others about finding the courage to ‘speak truth to power.’

The event is part of NYSUT’s Child Labor Challenge, a series of events aimed at highlighting the illegal use of child labor in chocolate production in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. The three-part “challenge” asked students to participate in ‘reverse trick or treating,’ by distributing Fair-Trade chocolate and a flier on the issue on Halloween; to sign a petition pressuring Hershey to stop using child labor and forced labor in West Africa; and to view – or screen for others – The Dark Side of Chocolate.

To view the complete webcast of the event, click here.
To view pictures of the event, click here