INTRODUCTION

• This active icebreaker allows participants to “take a stand” (literally”). The visual effect prompts participants to contemplate their perceptions about faith and rights throughout the session. 

ACTIVITY

• Participants stand up and position themselves along a continuum in the room.

The left side of the continuum represents “Religion is part of the problem.”

The right side represents “Religion is part of the solution.”

(The signs provided under the Resources tab can be used to designate each position.)

• Participants decide where to position themselves, on either end or somewhere in the middle.

• Once participants return to their seats, they might discuss where they chose to stand on the continuum and why. 

CONCLUSION

• This activity can be repeated at the end of the session (or at the conclusion of the Faith for Rights program) so participants can re-evaluate their perspectives about faith and rights.
• Other positions can be used in this activity. (Positioning signs are under the Resources tab):

1. 1. “Religion is more important” versus “Human Rights are more important”
   2. “Faith and Rights conflict with each other” versus “Faith and Rights are complementary to each other”

Although this activity is designed as an icebreaker, the group may choose to discuss when people of faith have been victims of discrimination and when people of faith might have been perpetrators through careless or insensitive speech or actions.  

Discussions might focus on situations in history rather than on current events in the participants’ communities as a way to “break” into this discussion in a more sensitive and less threatening way. 

Facilitator may print out Positioning Signs to post in the room.

• PDF: Module 0 Positioning Signs
• Freedom of Religion and Belief (FORB) Learning Platform, resources for Facilitators, including Icebreaker activities

• 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.

Preamble of the 18 Commitments on Faith for Rights:

We, faith-based and civil society actors working in the field of human rights and gathered in Beirut on 28-29 March 2017, express the deep conviction that our respective religions and beliefs share a common commitment to upholding the dignity and the equal worth of all human beings. Shared human values and equal dignity are therefore common roots of our cultures. Faith and rights should be mutually reinforcing spheres. Individual and communal expression of religions or beliefs thrive and flourish in environments where human rights, based on the equal worth of all individuals, are protected. Similarly, human rights can benefit from deeply rooted ethical and spiritual foundations provided by religions or beliefs. 

The present declaration on “Faith for Rights” reaches out to persons belonging to religions and beliefs in all regions of the world, with a view to enhancing cohesive, peaceful and respectful societies on the basis of a common action-oriented platform agreed by all concerned and open to all actors that share its objectives. We value that our declaration on Faith for Rights, like its founding precedent the Rabat Plan of Action, were both conceived and conducted under the auspices and with the support of the United Nations that represents all peoples of the world, and enriched by UN human rights mechanisms such as Special Rapporteurs and Treaty Body members.

The 2012 Rabat Plan of Action articulates three specific core responsibilities of religious leaders:
(a) Religious leaders should refrain from using messages of intolerance or expressions which may incite violence, hostility or discrimination; (b) Religious leaders also have a crucial role to play in speaking out firmly and promptly against intolerance, discriminatory stereotyping and instances of hate speech; and (c) 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).

In order to give concrete effect to the above three core responsibilities articulated by the Rabat Plan of Action, which has repeatedly been positively invoked by States, we formulate the following chart of
18 commitments on “Faith for Rights,” including corresponding follow-up actions.