Peer-to-Peer Activity: Linking the Dots
Overview
Faith leaders consider their responsibilities under the Rabat Plan of Action and the Beirut Declaration to combat discrimination and to promote tolerance.
Competencies
- Participants identify their roles as faith leaders and discuss what they can do to combat hatred in peaceful ways.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Discussion Questions
Resources
Facilitator Tips
Faith Quotes
Step-by-Step Instructions
INTRODUCTION
- Share the specific responsibilities of faith leaders, as addressed by the Rabat Plan of Action (paragraph 36) and re-emphasized in the Beirut Declaration (paragraph 19). These documents are also under the Resources tab.
DISCUSSION
- Invite participants to read the following three statements to the group:
- Religious leaders should refrain from using messages of intolerance or expressions which may incite violence, hostility or discrimination.
- Religious leaders also have a crucial role to play in speaking out firmly and promptly against intolerance, discriminatory stereotyping and instances of hate speech.
- Religious leaders should be clear that violence can never be tolerated as a response to incitement to hatred (e.g. violence cannot be justified by prior provocation).
- Participants discuss their leadership roles within their communities. The provided questions (under Discussion Questions tab) may guide their discussion.
- Participants may also share personal experiences of encountering hate speech and their reaction to it.
CONCLUSION
- Participants consider what they can do to speak out against hatred and promote tolerance in peaceful ways.
- They may choose to record their responses in their Faith for Rights notebooks, if provided.
Discussion Questions
These questions may guide participants as they discuss their leadership roles in their faith communities:
- How can faith-based communities extend equal treatment to those outside their communities?
- How can faith-based communities resist conflict in order to achieve dignity, democracy, and peace and security?
- How can faith-based leaders speak out in defense of others while still preserving their beliefs and religious expression?
- How should faith leaders address situations of “borderline” speech?
- How should faith leaders react when facing a situation of incitement to hatred?
- What obstacles may limit the role of faith leaders in countering hate speech?
- What risks are involved in facing these situations, and how could these risks be mitigated?
- How can faith leaders use “remedial speech” to promote tolerance?
Resources
- Rabat Plan of Action Document (A/HRC/22/17/Add.4, paragraph 36)
- Beirut Declaration (A/HRC/40/58, paragraph 19)
Facilitator Tips
- The #Faith4Rights modules are flexible and require adaptation by the facilitators before their use. Case studies related to peer-to-peer exercises in the 18 modules need to be selected by the facilitators from within the environment where the learning takes place. The #Faith4Rights toolkit is a prototype methodology that requires contextualization, based on the text of the 18 commitments, context, and additional supporting documents.
- Not all issues raised need to be resolved. This would be an impossible and even a counterproductive target. The aim is rather to enhance critical thinking and communication skills, admitting that some questions could receive many answers, depending on numerous factors.
- Tensions may occur during discussions related to “faith” and “rights.” Most of these tensions are due to human interpretations. Learning sessions are spaces for constructive dialogue in a dynamic process where tensions can be reduced with the help of clear methodologies, including pre-emptive situation analysis and evidence of positive results in areas of intersectionality between faith and rights.
- When preparing the sessions, facilitators need to factor in the profile, age, and backgrounds of participants. Focused attention on the learning objectives can transform tensions into constructive exploration of new ideas.
- Meaningful engagement requires democratically pre-established rules. Facilitators should dedicate time with participants to elaborate these rules together at the outset and act all along the training as their custodians.
- The time frames suggested in this #Faith4Rights toolkit are merely indicative. Facilitators may adapt them freely to suit the needs of their group of participants. The key balance is between respecting the overall time frame while not cutting short a positive exchange momentum.
- To ensure optimal and sustainable benefit, facilitators may create a “training notebook” for participants during their peer-to-peer learning sessions. It would contain a compilation of templates to help participants keep track of what they have learned throughout the program and eventually use this notebook as their personalized follow-up tool.
- When technically feasible, facilitators are also advised to project the module under discussion on screen in order to alternate between discussions thereon and showing the audio-visual materials listed in each module or any other items selected by the facilitator.
Faith Quotes
- “Now this is the command: Do to the doer to make him do.” (Ancient Egyptian Middle Kingdom)
- “Repay injury with justice and kindness with kindness.” (Confucius)
- “What is hateful to you, don’t do to your friend.” (Talmud, Shabat, 31,a)
- “Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.” (Buddha)
- “By self-control and by making dharma (right conduct) your main focus, treat others as you treat yourself.” (Mahābhārata)
- “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your kinsfolk. Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Leviticus 19:18)
- “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 7:12)
- “Ascribe not to any soul that which thou wouldst not have ascribed to thee, and say not that which thou doest not.” (Baha’u’llah)