Students in Ghana share their understanding and knowledge on human rights to mark Human Rights Day

The United Nations Information Centre in Ghana marked the 2021 Human Rights Day with an outreach event engaging some 100 students and staff of the Ghana Christian International High School, in Dodowa, Accra. During the session, selected students from the Junior and Senior High classes shared their understanding and knowledge on human rights through their own artworks that were displayed during the event.

In a presentation on the 30 Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Ms. Cynthia Prah, National Information Officer at the UN Information Centre, Accra, elaborated on each of the articles and answered many questions from the students to enhance their knowledge of their rights as human beings and to empower them to respect, support and protect the rights of others.

Daniel Nortey explained his artwork which depicts five human faces representing the diversity of the human race.  He said, even though the faces are different, they represent one form, which is humanity, and for which reason everyone deserves to be treated equally.

Other artworks by the students depicting different inscriptions and communicating different messages, revealed that "one's right ends at where another person’s right begins" and "there's no right without resources". According to Mercy Atta Motte, a Year 8 student, “people may have the right to something, but lack of resources may impede such rights” and therefore it behooves upon us to recognise this fact and work towards ensuring the availability of resources if we are to enjoy our rights.

Engaging the students further, Araba Hammond, one of the students sharing her thoughts and lessons said, “rights come with responsibility”.  She therefore admonished her colleagues to play their roles as citizens to be able to enjoy such rights.

Ms. Jesse Agbozo of Year 13 expressed appreciation to the United Nations Information Center, Accra, for choosing their school to observe Human Rights Day and to educate them on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She added that lessons learned will help them to not only talk about human rights but also to fight for the rights of others. She added that it is important that people are educated on their rights to be empowered

In a final submission, Ms. Cynthia Prah admonished the students to speak to issues by either writing pieces of articles or stories for publication in the local media and on social media platforms and to advocate against the infringement of people's rights. She also advised that there's the need for people to speak up about their challenges to the right people and authorities to prevent abuse of any form.

An exhibition of human rights posters and the students’ artwork was mounted for two days.