Do You Know Your Rights?

I can't help but thinking that we were all part of a huge social experiment this past weekend at our human rights retreat. We were brought together with South Africans and Foreign Nationals to learn about human rights. This unique setting got me thinking about how our experience would be different because we all had such different backgrounds.  I can't explain how I was feeling. It was a mix between excitement and confusion. I was also feeling pretty skeptical. It was this surreal sort of environment. We arrived at an olive farm called Goedgedacht Farm about an hour away from the city and away from the comforts of our home to a quiet area where there were no distractions. We were assigned roommates and after a bit of settling in it was time for dinner. Soon after a huge dinner we started our programming. We were not given any information about what we would experience; we knew it was a beautiful venue and we would participate in a workshop unlike what many of us had ever experienced. We knew this weekend changed people's lives.

After only a short while of introductions and establishing expectations we jumped into the "work". We found ourselves divided in five country groups which were decided randomly. I was assigned to the DRC. Our only instruction was to pick a president and return to our seats. We were arbitrarily picking our "leader" with no real rationale for who it was. I found it interesting that in my group we just picked the person who wanted to be president but in other groups they had elections. I'm always interested in group dynamics so that was something I decided to keep an eye out for throughout the weekend. Soon after that the Kofi Annan of our group was announced. This role was assigned to the youngest person in the room and it came with a large amount of responsibility. I was thinking how crazy it was that five leaders were picked at random then this person was picked so intentionally based on only on factor.  It was From that point on I felt like this was going to be an interesting experience but I wanted more structure. With no more information, we were dismissed for the night and I was curious.

We spent Saturday learning from each other and also working in our country groups. There was a videographer who was recording this whole process. It made me feel like later on the facilitators were going to watch what was happening and smirk. I was pretty skeptical of this entire exercise with the country groups.  We were presented with the following situation:

The Earth has been destroyed and there are no more resources to live. One country, the DRC, has moved to a new planet and is thriving. The Ivory Coast has followed suit. When Madagascar hears of this they ask for permission and they too head to the new planet. Unfortunately due to a mishap in their travels they land on the opposite side of the mountain range where the sol is unfertile and their resources are limited. Rwanda comes next not requesting permission of any of the countries who are already settled and they end up on the arid side too. Everyone is living peacefully and then Burundi asks permission to come to the planet. As country groups we were instructed to choose if they can come and where, fertile or arid land, they would live. We also had to construct a list of rights for each country on the new planet and name the planet.

We divided into group and immediately began contemplating and discussing this scenario. It didn't take long to realize that reaching a solution would not be easy and furthermore there was no "right" answer to this predicament.  Every group said that they would have equal rights for all based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but my group struggled to come to a basic decision regarding whether or not Burindi should be allowed in the planet at all. This was shocking to me that some people would not want them on the planet but I was reminded that we all come from such drastically different life situations that I probably couldn't imagine what they have experienced that would make them say that. I was humbled but also I had a lot of questions in my mind. As we discussed I realized two important things. Firstly, I learned that sometimes being idealistic is not always realistic. With that I had to reevaluate my stance on a lot of the ideas we discussed because many things were brought up that I didn't think about. If I had it my way I would have just allowed them to come in and expected everyone to live peacefully. Of course I know that using present day as an example my way would never work but in theory it was easy. I was met with suggestions of attack and depletion of resources which made me reconsider. The other thing that I learned is that assumed power or advantage can manifest in someone's mind quickly. I found myself getting caught up playing this role that I was assigned. I was quick to get defensive and assume that my group was correct. What made this easier I think is that we had the benefit of being in a group so I was able to hide behind that and not take ownership for my role. When our group presented I was arguing for things I didn’t really believe in at all. Throughout our discussion I had given up a part of myself for the group and I didn't argue for things that I valued. Although it was only a game, I did feel some sense of disappointment in myself for acting so harsh and entitled.

Later that afternoon we were given one last task. As a group we had to present the history, socio-economic status, population, and human rights violations that existed in our country.  Then having presented this information we were expected to make an argument for why our group deserved one billion dollars and how we would allocate it. This was at first daunting and a bit frustrating because we had no resources to do our research. I felt like I would be making even more assumptions and I was overwhelmed by this assignment. I learned that what was so unique about this exercise is that some people do not have access or even easy access to resources for research on a daily basis. One thing that I have become so accustomed to is something that I am privileged to have not owed.  This helped me to place the exercise in perspective. This was not a school project and grades were not being awarded we were just learning. Although our interpretations of cultural dress felt a bit disrespectful at times and I did feel like I was doing an injustice to the DRC but there was a bigger issue for me than not having the right facts. We were supposed to make an argument regarding why we deserved to win one billion dollars from the World Bank. The challenge for me was that I couldn’t feel comfortable winning the money knowing that another country has its own struggles too and they didn't get the money. It felt to me like we were fighting about whose terrible situation was worse in the "judges" minds. It felt again pretty arbitrary. As much as I kept giving myself a reality check I couldn't help but get sucked up in this activity. It was learning and participating just because we could and the atmosphere was encouraging and welcoming to all levels of experience with human rights. I let my guard down and tried to leave my critical mind at the door and participate fully because I think that helped me to learn more.

We also had a workshop on refugees and asylum seekers. I learned through a frustrating exercise how difficult it would be to try to get asylum in a new country. We had to fill out a worksheet in a language we couldn’t even identify. I realized this is how it would be for someone seeking asylum and after a while I gave up on the exercise. In a real life situation giving up would not be the answer but in this make believe exercise it worked out.  I also learned the difference between political rights, civil rights, and socio-economic rights which was a distinction I had never even considered. Learning about the rights of refugees was helpful because it informed me of all the human rights that people have but aren't necessarily getting. That made me upset and during the wrap up I was puzzled with the question about what can I do and especially what can my generation do to right the wrongs we are seeing in our world?

These activities were really important in teaching me the ultimate lesson for this weekend which I feel is that human rights are wrapped up in so many other things that there is no simple solution. Every suggestion has its pros and cons and therefore while we scrutinize those who propose a solution I'm learning that I probably couldn't come up with a better one. It's tightly raveled in emotion and history which is why it's such a huge issue in our time. For me this weekend became less about being right or wrong and more about how people interacted and how these hypothetical situations become real very quickly.  I am appreciative for the opportunity to learn with and from my peers from Uconn and South Africa. Although I was faced with many different feelings regarding the training I know that in the end I learned a lot and I am not sure that these lessons would have made such a large impact on me if it was presented in any typical format. This was experiential learning at its finest and I am fortunate to have been able to participate in such a great community exercise.  I cannot say yet if participating in this workshop changed my life but I know that it gave me so much to think about and for my wandering mind there's thankfully another list of thoughts to tackle now!