Competencies

INTRODUCTION

• Facilitator can separate participants into small groups or do this exercise with the entire group. (See Facilitator Tips tab.)
• Facilitator provides each group or participant a link to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Facilitator may also project the Slides. (See Resources tab.)

ACTIVITY & DISCUSSION 

• While reviewing the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, participants identify human rights that are not fully respected or may raise difficulties for women or girls as a result of perceptions and practices in their own religious communities. 

• Participants come back together as a group to share their findings and the reasons why they chose specific rights or issues. 

• Participants may discuss the interdependence of human rights and gender equality.

• Participants can extend the discussion by considering what responsibilities they may have as faith actors to empower women and girls in their communities. (Facilitator may use questions under the Discussion Questions tab to guide the discussion.) 

Optional Additional Activity

• Facilitator presents cases that have been recently at the center of public attention or controversy in the country or province where the Faith for Rights session(s) takes place.
• Facilitator can refer to Excerpts of the discussions concerning “Faith for Rights” (also under Resources tab). The Excerpts include summary records of reports by Botswana, Costa Rica, Fiji, Niger, and Nigeria.

CONCLUSION

• Facilitator may share a final example showing that gender discrimination has never been limited to one or some regions, but extends to the whole world. 
• Facilitator may invite participants to record new insights from this session. (They may use their Faith for Rights notebooks, if provided.)

• Why might women and girls experience discrimination in faith communities?
• What are the origins of this phenomena?
• Is gender discrimination a conscious attitude?
• What is the responsibility of male religious leaders in this regard?
• Would the situation differ if there were female religious leaders?
• What issues might be resolved if women served as religious leaders?
• Is the media a source of gender prejudice?
• What negative stereotypes about women prevail in your cultural environment?
• Have you ever addressed such stereotypes within your functions as a faith actor? How, or otherwise why not?

Additional Example Questions

• Are the origins of gender biases theological, economic, or cultural? 
• How do you conceive the dynamics of causality in light of personal experiences?
• What is the impact of the way we raise our children on gender discrimination?
• Are there any religious grounds for differentiating the way parents raise boys and girls?
• How is a gender bias or stereotype created? How can it be removed?
• What is the specific role of faith actors in responding to gender biases?

• Editable PowerPoint file: Universal Declaration of Human Rights Presentation
• PDF: Universal Declaration of Human Rights Presentation
• Website: Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Excerpts of the discussions concerning “Faith for Rights” by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)

Participants should use this activity to identify issues related to human rights and gender equality and not try to find solutions to these issues.

Tips for Small Group Activity

• The facilitator can divide participants into small groups of two to four depending on the size of the group.
• If this activity is held in-person, the facilitator can invite participants to sit together.
• If participants are meeting together virtually, the facilitator can assign break-out rooms. 

Additional Tips for All Peer-to-Peer 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.

• “A man should respect his wife more than he respects himself and love her as much as he loves himself.” (Talmud, Yebamot, 62,b)
• “Never will I allow to be lost the work of any one among you, whether male or female; for you are of one another.” (Qu’ran 3, 195)
• “O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another.” (Qu’ran 49:13)
• “In the image of God He created him male and female. He created them.” (Genesis 1:27)
• “The best among you is he who is best to his wife.” (Hadith)
• “It is a woman who is a friend and partner for life. It is woman who keeps the race going. How may we think low of her of whom are born the greatest. From a woman a woman is born: none may exist without a woman.” (Guru Granth Sahib, p. 473)
• “The world of humanity is possessed of two wings – the male and the female. So long as these two wings are not equivalent in strength the bird will not fly. Until womankind reaches the same degree as man, until she enjoys the same arena of activity, extraordinary attainment for humanity will not be realized.” (‘Abdu’l-Baha)
• “A comprehensive, holistic and effective approach to capacity-building should aim to engage influential leaders, such as traditional and religious leaders […]” (Joint general recommendation No. 31 of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women/general comment No. 18 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on harmful practices) ​