Discussions

Your Name and Title: Lamisa Mustafa, Student President

School or Organization Name: The Human Rights Forum of Newman Smith High School

Co-Presenter Name(s): Elizabeth Behnisch, Sponsor; Angela Hardy, Co-founder

Area of the World from Which You Will Present: Carrollton, Texas, USA

Language in Which You Will Present: English

Target Audience(s):

Students and teachers interested in building better global citizenship in their schools and in raising awareness about different human rights issues around the world.

Short Session Description (one line):

We want to help teachers and students around the world learn how they can create an organization dedicated to the advocacy of human rights in their schools and suggest some projects to help effect change.

Full Session Description (as long as you would like):

Vision statement: We are committed to inspiring a shared sense of humanity in our community by eradicating the epidemic of oppression; breaking down barriers of ignorance, apathy, stereotypes, and distance; and dispelling myths about culture to reveal hidden beauty.  Through the education of individual human rights we will inspire and equip our members, our school, and our community with the means to assist not only themselves but also to extend aid to those whose rights have been denied.

Mission statement: The Newman Smith Human Rights Forum is a group of upstanding students dedicated to improving the lives of all people by advocating for the principles of human rights, as defined by the United Nations General Assembly in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We meet twice a month to discuss global and local human rights issues and engage with our community by planning events, creating awareness campaigns, and organizing fundraising and volunteer opportunities. To achieve these aims, we build partnerships with nonprofit organizations and form coalitions with like-minded student organizations within and beyond our school community.

Through the Global Education Conference, we hope to encourage students and educators to create similar organizations on their campuses and to help them through the process of initiating, organizing and activating their own human rights programs.

We plan to present our past projects, conferences, and events that we have on our webpage. We will discuss the steps that need to be taken in order to successfully create similar projects, and present our idea for a future non-profit fundraiser that will take place in February of 2017.

Websites / URLs Associated with Your Session: http://humanrightsforum.weebly.com