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The Human Rights march: Chronology

Founding of the United Nations (UN)
Birth of the Arab League
1946
Founding of the International Monetary Fund and the International
Bank for Reconstruction and Development (now the World Bank)
Inauguration of the United Nations Commission for Human Rights
1948
The United Nations General Assembly approves the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights
The Organization of American States (OAS) is born
American Declaration of Rights and Duties of Man
1949
European Council is born
Wars of national liberation and insurrections arise in Asia and Africa.
1950 - Some countries obtain their independence

United States: movements for civil rights and politics against racial
segregation
1950
European Convention on Human Rights
1954
European Commission of Human Rights
1955
Bandung Conference, at which 29 African and Asian states condemn
imperialism, racial discrimination, nuclear armament and put forth
the demand for a peaceful cooperation for development
1957
European Economic Community (EEC) and EURATOM
1959
The birth of the European Court for Human Rights
Creation of the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights
Wars for national liberation in countries still under imperial rule
continue. The fight gradually leads to independence and selfdetermination in many countries
Feminist movements demand equality of rights and opportunities
1960
First session of the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights
1963
The foundation of the Organization for United Africa
1965
UN Convention for the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination
1966
International Pact on Civil and Political Rights approved by the UN
General Assembly
International Pact on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights approved
by the UN General Assembly
1968
Teheran, first world conference on Human Rights
1969
American Convention on Human Rights approved
1973
International Convention for the Elimination and Punishment for the
Criminals of Apartheid approved by the UN General Assembly
1976
Amnesty International wins the Nobel Peace Prize
1979
UN Convention for the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination
against women (CEDAW)
Inter American Court for Human Rights begins work
1981
The African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights is approved
1983
Arab Organization for Human Rights is founded
1984
UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment
1985
UN Committee for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights instituted
1986
UN Declaration of Development Rights is approved
1988
The African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights is instituted
1945

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Adoption of the Additional Protocol to the American Convention on

Human Rights (San Salvador Protocol)
1989
UN Convention on Infant Rights
The Berlin Wall fell
Tiananmen Square Massacre
1990
the General Assembly adopts the International Convention on the
Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of
Their Families
1990 Ethnic cleansing and war in former Yugoslavia, genocide in Rwanda,
....
conflicts in other African countries (Congo, Angola, Sierra Leone,
Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea) and in some areas of the former
USSR
1993
World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights installed
1993- International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia and for
1994
Rwanda established
1994
World Conference on the Population and Development in Cairo
The end of racial segregation in South Africa
Inter American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and
Eradication of Violence Against Women (Convention Belem do Par)
1998
The Statutes of the Permanent International Criminal Court for war
crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity is approved
1999
NATO Conflict- Republic of Yugoslavia in Kosovo; war in Cecenia e
in East Timor
Optional Protocol to CEDAW that grants individual recourse is
approved
2000
Two Optional Protocols against the use of child soldiers and the
sexual exploitation and prostitution of minors are approved
Special Criminal Court for Sierra Leone is instituted
2001
Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and
Related Intolerance, Durban
Terror attacks of September 11th in New York and Washington
2002
The Statutes of the Permanent International Criminal Court for war
crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity take effect
2003
February 15th: According to CNN 110 million in over 600 cities
worldwide participate in the World Peace March
2004
The Optional Protocols of the African Commission on Human and
Peoples Rights for the Constitution of an African Court of Human
Rights takes effect
2006
The new UN Human Rights Council substitutes the Commission on
Human Rights
2006
UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People
2007
General Assembly adopts landmark text calling for moratorium on
death penalty
2008
the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities comes into force

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UN CALENDARIO DI DATE SIGNIFICATIVE PER I DIRITTI UMANI

February 12 - Soldier Children International Day
Every year on February 12 is celebrated the Soldier Children International Day to
remind us that there are still between 300.000 and 500.000 soldier boys and girls around
the world. Most of soldier children is aged between 15 and 18 years, though many of them
are recruited at the age of 10 or earlier. According to a research lead by the the Quaker
United Nations Office and by Rdda Barnen (the Save the Childrens Swedish office),
there are more than 300.000 minor soldier children currently engaged in conflicts all
around the world.
March 8 - International Womens Day
On October 31 the UN Security Council within its 4213th session, with the Resolution
1324 (2000) declared March 8 International Womens Day: a day devoted to celebrate
the social, political and economical conquests of women, still subjects of discriminations
and violence in many Countries of the world.
March 21 - International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is commemorated
each year on March 21. On this day in 1960, the police shot into a pacific manifestation
that was held at Sharpeville (South Africa) to protest apartheid. After having established
the International Day in 1966, the General Assembly encouraged the international
community to double its efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination.
Lets remember the sacrifices of Sharpeville and the suffering and victories of the many
people in the world involved in the fight against racism and lets respond today to the call
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to reaffirm the faith in the fundamental rights
of the human being, in the dignity and the worth of the human person and in the equality of
the rights of men and women.
Message of the Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, March 21, 2005
June 12 - World Day Against Child Labor
On June 12 is celebrated the World Day Against Child Labor. Even today it represents
one of the most heavy example of exploitation suffered by children and youngsters all
around the world. Though the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child has
been signed in 1989 and plenty of national laws have been adopted, the problem is still
present.

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August 30 - World Day of the Disappeared (Desaparecidos)

Every August 30th commemorates the World Day of the Disappeared. It began with the
Latin-American non-governmental organization FEDEFAM (Federacin Latinoamericana
de Asociaciones de Familiares de Detenidos-Desaparecidos) and actually is celebrated all
over the world.
The forced disappearance is a plague that hits the entire planet, with cases in at least 30
countries of the world. The United Nations Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary
Disappearances has about 45,998 unresolved cases of missing persons in its archives.
This day is the occasion in which thousands of people united together all over the world to
avenge once again truth and justice for their missing loved ones.

September 8 - International Literacy Day

The International Literacy Day is celebrated every year on September 8. According to
the artt. 28 and 29 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the right of
the child to education is recognised as inviolable right of the child. Education, together with
a wider awareness raising will let all children abuses and exploitations come to evidence.
There are many and powerful factors responsible for those crimes: crime, poverty, social
desegregation, avidity, traditions and beliefs and the negation and growth of both drugs
and minor prostitution.

September 21 - International Day of Peace

27 years ago (1981) the UN General Assembly declared September 21 International Day
of Peace, with the aim of establishing a global ceasefire and non-violence day. Since then
the United Nations continue celebrating this day every year. The goal of the day is to let
the whole humankind move toward a shared objective: peace in the world.

October 10 - World Day against the Death Penalty

The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty (WCADP), a coalition composed by
more of 60 partners among international organisations active in the field of human rights
defence, associations of lawyers, social partners and local authorities, declared October
10 World Day against the Death Penalty. In this day, every year, are organized widest
raising awareness actions and initiatives against the death penalty in the world.
Last 17 December 2007 the UN General Assembly adopted the landmark text calling for
moratorium on death penalty. The final step is still to come: the complete abolition of death
penalty

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October 17 - The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

When we talk about the eradication of poverty we are referring to the hope that all Human
Rights may have not only the basic resources available to them, but also the opportunities
necessary to live a dignified life with rights and freedoms.
All the people that live in a situation of extreme poverty have the right to enjoy all their
Human Rights which are indivisible, interdependent and universal. The exercising of such
rights is essential for the elimination of extreme poverty, considering that the denial of any
one of these rights negatively affects all the other rights of the person.
The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty has been observed, since 1993,
on the 17th of October every year since its declaration by the General Assembly of the
United Nations in 1992, with the purpose of promoting a greater awareness of the need to
eradicate human poverty and misery in all countries, in particular in the developing
countries a need that became a priority in development.
November 20 - World Day on the Rights of the Child
In 1956, the General Assembly of the United Nations recommended that in all countries a
World Day on the Rights of the Child should be instituted to consecrate the fraternity
between all kids of the entire world and to promote activities that would promote the well
being of children and adolescents of the entire world.
November 20th commemorates the day in which the General Assembly approved the
Declaration on the Rights of the Child in 1959 and the Convention on the Rights of the
Child in 1989.

November 25 - International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

On December 17, 1999 the United Nations General Assembly declared November 25 the
International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and invited
governments, international organizations and non-governmental organizations to realize
activities directed to the sensitivity of the public opinion on the problem of violence against
women on that day.
Since 1981, fighters in favor of the rights of women in the entire world dedicate the 25th of
November as a day against violence. This date was chosen to commemorate the 1960
brutal assassination of the Mirabal sisters, Patria, Minerva and Mara Teresa, political
activists against the dictatorial regime of Rafael L. Trujillo in the Dominican Republic.
The Mirabal sisters dared to challenge the tyranny and were imprisoned, together with
their husbands. The three sisters are represented by the symbol of the butterfly, because
this was the name of the pseudonym used by Minerva for her secret activities against
Trujillo.
Pedro Mir, the national poet, wrote a poem dedicated to the heroines that constituted an
example of dignity and patriotic fighting that surpasses the limits of the Dominican
Republic flying towards Latin America and the whole world. Here you can find the following
portion of his poem Amen of Butterflies (Amn de Mariposas):

Human Rights Education

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Carola Carazzone

December 3 - International Day of Disabled People

In 1992, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed
December 3rd International Day of Disabled People.
The annual observance of this day hopes to
increase the awareness and the sensitivity to the
different abilities of all human beings and to encourage the
realization of concrete actions at all levels, of, with and for
people with disabilities.

December 10 - World Day for Human Rights

In 1950 the General Assembly invited all the Member
States and interested organizations to dedicate
December 10 of each year as World Day
for Human Rights.
This date commemorates the approval
by the United Nations General Assembly
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.

4. Musical Proposal
In this section we propose a series of songs that can be helpful for working with topics
related to Human Rights.
Educational Objectives

To give to the educator a tool that, through the musical texts and biographies of the
singers, can stimulate a reflection on Human Rights. Such reflections are aimed
at dealing with ethical values, in the broadest possible way, that are found in
interpersonal relationships, such as respect, personal development or
independence, communication, love, etc;
To promote discussion and an analytical spirit;
To make students aware of the place that, in relation to specific themes,
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different cultural practices and different points of view have;

To stimulate the values of tolerance, respect and solidarity.

WORKSHEET
--Listen to the proposed song.
--Stimulate a discussion starting with the following questions:

What did you feel listening to the song?

What do you think the author wants to say?
What feelings did he suggests to you?
Do you know of a similar situation?
Do you agree with the content of the song? With what it expresses or denounces?

--Take into consideration the following possibilities:

Investigate and look for more information on the life of the performer.
Analyze the historical moment and the social circumstances to which it refers.
Look for songs with characteristics similar to the one listened to, keeping in mind
the circumstances in which this kind of songs are written and spread.
Look in newspapers for articles that might be related to the topics in the songs.

Particulars
Imagine
Performer: J.
Lennon
Year: 1971
LP: Imagine
301 Guerre fa
(301 wars ago)
Performer:
Pierangelo Bertoli
Year: 2002
LP: 301 guerre f

Values Spoken
of

Basic information

Solidarity,
peace,
creating a better
world

Imagine practically became the hymn of the

70s generations and is perhaps the most
famous John Lennon (assassinated Dec 8,
1980) song: "...imagine all the people living in
peace.."

Peace, solidarity

A song to reflect on the rules of a lonely world

where the words that link us together too often
separate us and create huge distances, leaving
us alone in the immensity.

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Sunday Bloody
Sunday
Performer: U2
Year: 1983
LP: WAR
Clandestino
Performer: Manu
Chao
Year: 1998
LP: Clandestino
Me voy a convertir
en un ave
(I will change
myself into a bird)
Performer: Man
Year: 2003
LP: Sueos
lquidos
Together
Performer: Bob
Sinclair
Year: 2007
LP: Barclay
Il mio nome mai
pi (my name is
never more)
Performer: Manu
Chao
Year: 1998
LP: Clandestino
Libero Giovane
(Free young)
Performer: Agnese
Ginocchio
Year: 1998
LP: Clandestino
Get up Stand up
Performer: Bob
Marley & The
Wailers
Year: 1973
LP: Burnin

Carola Carazzone

Human Rights
violations

Protest song against the Bloody Sunday that

took place in Northern Ireland in 1972, when
the British Army opened fire on a march to
demand Human Rights in Northern Ireland. 26
people died, including 6 children.

Illegal immigration

The album Clandestino is categorized as

intercultural music for its mixing of styles,
sounds, rhythm, different languages and world
cultures. The song talks about Human Rights,
ecology, poverty and illegal immigration.

Torture, Human
Rights violations

A song about torture that denounces abuses of

authority and that was inspired by the play
Peter and the Captain by Mario Benedetti.
In 1995, the group founded Black Forest, an
NGO committed to the protection of the
environment in Latin America by denouncing
some growing ecological problems that are
affecting the region.

Solidarity, Peace,
sharing

A song singing solidarity and brotherhood. If

we open up our hearths and our minds we
wont be alone, we wont be a single part of the
world going alone with its rule, well become
the world itself.

Absurdity of
preventive war as
an instrument of
defence

In a world where the war is become more and

more the easier solution, where handle a gun
is a kind of love act, there is still someone
who say stop! Stop to the instrumentalization
by the lords war, to death, to distruction.

Freedom, Love

This song is intended to represent an hymn to

the Eternal Young. Free from every king of
slavery.. An anthem to Faith, Happiness,
Freedom, Love and Peace.

Fight for Human

Rights

The song talks of the calling to arms of the

African people so that they will fight for their
rights. The song goes beyond all religions and
political references because it is particularly
saturated with the Rasta creed (the group of
rules and values that guide the behavior of this
movement).

interdependence and indivisibility of Human Rights

Particulars

Values spoken
of

Basic Information

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Dnde jugarn
los nios?
(Where Will
Children Play?)
Performer: Man
Year: 1992
LP: Dnde
jugarn los nios?

Destruction of the
Environment

The Ghost of Tom

Joad
Performer: Bruce
Springsteen
Year: 1995
LP: The Ghost of
Tom Joad

Uncertainty of
work,
mistreatment of
immigrants and
the miserable

Mxico insurgente
Performer: Ismael
Serrano
Year: 1997
LP: Atrapados en
azul
Ska de la tierra
Performer: Bebe
Year: 2004
LP: Pafuera
Telaraas
Color Esperanza
Performer: Diego
Torres
Year: 2002
LP: Un mundo
diferente

The right of selfdetermination

The right of the

environment

Peace, building a
better world

Carola Carazzone

The environmental activism of the group

Man is found in all of its albums. In 1995,
Man founded the Foundation Black Forest
that promotes environmental rights and the
need for global change to take care of the
environment. Man, which means good
energy in Polynesian, also actively
promotes rights of women and Human
Rights in general.
The pain of the frontier, the threat of death
that weighs down on whoever is searching
for hope. The twisting and turning walk of
immigrants through borders. The Ghost of
Tom Joad is inspired by John Steinbecks
book "The Grapes of Wrath" that tells of
the uncertainty of work and the
mistreatment of immigrants. This work
inspired a cinema classic with the same
title, directed by John Ford.
A song that invites us to unite with those
who are fighting for the claim of the Earth
(Chiapas), for freedom and against misery.
Better than dying of hunger is fighting with
dignity and every bullet serves to defend
peace.
The song refers to environmental problems
that plague the earth and tries to identify
with the feelings that this could arouse.

A song that invites one to actions to

construct a better world Better to try than
to stop trying.

the rights of children and adolescents

Particulars
Breva e Taiwan
Performer: I Luf
Year: 2005
LP: Bala e fa Bal

Values spoken
of
Exploitation of
child labor,
immigration

Basic Information
A song to reflect: neglected childhoods,
childs grown up too faster, far from the
school and from their dreams. The lords of
Money rules with their rules: they are the
only people playing
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Terre rubate
(stolen lands)
Performer:
Agnese
Ginocchio
Year: 2005

Exploitation of
child labor

Teach me again
Performer: ElisaT. Turner
Year: 2006
LP: Teach me
again
Si Peter Pan
viniera
(If Peter Pan
would arrive)
Performer:
Ismael Serrano
Year: 2002
LP: La traicin de
Wendy
Infancia Robada
(Stolen
childhood)
Performer:
Alpuritano
Year: 1998
LP: Gritando en
vano
Falta de Amor
(Lack of love)
Performer: Man
Year: 1992
LP: Falta de
Amor
La historia de
Juan
(the Story of
Juan)
Performer:
Juanes
Year: 2002
LP: Un da normal

Rights of children
and adolescents

Carola Carazzone

A song to remember June 12, World Day

Against Child Labor.
A song dedicated to Rights of neglected
and abused childhood (remembering the
little Iqbal Masih). A song against the
exploitation of child labor , against the
soldier children..
This is the soundtrack from the film All the
Invisible Children, a project of UNICEF
dedicated to childrens rights

Rights of children
and adolescents

An idea to change this world is to let

children be children; that they are not
forced to work or make things that are not
appropriate for their age. That they would
not be denied their right to a childhood.

Rights of children
and adolescents,
exploitation

Words that reflect the situation of millions

of children and adolescents in the world,
forced to lose prematurely their childhood
and their right to enjoy it. In order to
survive they are forced to do the worst
forms of work and be humiliated.

Rights of children
and adolescents,
exploitation

It describes the situation in which millions

of children and adolescents in Latin
America
live:
abandoned,
without
reference points, forced to live on the
street.

Rights of children
and adolescents,
abandonment

The story of a mistreated child, abandoned

by his father, forced to live on the street.

Active and responsible citizenship and child and youth participation

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Particulars
Que canten los
nios
(May the children
sing)
Performer: Jos
Luis Perales
Year: 1994
LP: Con el paso del
tiempo

Carola Carazzone

Values spoken
of
A
childs
and
adolescents right
to
participation
and expression

Nios del 2000

(Children of 2000)
Performer:
Alejandro F. Lerner
Year: 2006
LP: Canciones
para gente nia

A
childs
and
adolescents right
to
participation
and expression

We are the world

Performer: M.
Jackson y L. Richie
Year: 1985
LP: We are the
world

To educate about
peace and
participation

New day
Performer: Bono &
Wycleaf Jean
Year: 1999
LP: New day

The right to
participation and
education of
peace

Basic Information
It is indispensable for children and
adolescents to be heard and taken into
consideration because their opinion is as
important as those of the adults. This song
is a hymn to life, justice, peace and an
exhortation to favor the rights of children
and adolescents.
The author wrote the song in homage to
the work done by the organization SOS
Aldeas Infantiles.
To be a child is not a question of age but
spirit. In a world where injustices, food and
work shortages and the urgent need of
schooling exist, above all else, hope is
needed so that the children themselves
would have the possibility to create a better
world. This song was presented during the
concert I have a dream, organized by
United Latin American Artists in favor of the
child, held in Panama October 7th, 2000.
This is the song written by Michael Jackson
and Lionel Richie for Africa.
For this event, the most important
musicians of the moment came together
with the name USA for Africa (United
Support Artists For Africa). Twenty years
later, in 2004 there was a concert in Rome
entitled We are the Future, a new version
of We are the World, in which a song with
the same title was recorded in order to
support the children affected by armed
conflicts, poverty and violence.
Martin Luther King just had a dream. Take
hold of this dream and apply it to your life.
This song is an invitation directed toward all
the children and adolescents of the world to act
in order to change everything that until now
does not work.

The defenders of Human Rights:

Particulars
Pride (In the name of
love)
Performer: U2

Values spoken of
Defenders of Human
Rights; violations of
Human Rights

11

Basic Information
Song dedicated to Martin Luther King.
Bono, the singer, received death threats
from a neo-Nazi group for this song. The

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Year: 1984
LP: The unforgettable
fire

threats were clear: if he sang Pride they

would kill him in the middle of the concert.
In this way they'd take the life of
someone they believed to be a friend of
blacks.
Song dedicated to Aung San Su Kyi,
Nobel Peace Prize winner that lives in
house arrest simply because she is a
member of the opposition party of the
Myanmar government.

Walk on
Performer: U2
Year:
LP: All that you cant
leave behind

Defenders of Human
Rights; violations of
Human Rights

Freedom Now
Performer: Tracy
Chapman
Year: 1989
LP: Crossroads
Cuando los ngeles
lloran
(When angels cry)
Performer: Man
Year: 1995
LP: Cuando los
ngeles lloran

Defenders of Human
Rights; violations of
Human Rights

Tracy Chapman wrote this song to show

her support for Nelson Mandela and all
the prisoners of conscience.

Defenders of Human
Rights; violations of
Human Rights

This song is dedicated to Chico Mndez

(1944-1988), a Brazilian natural rubber
collector, union representative and
ecologist. Chico Mndez opposed the
uncontrolled exploitation of the wild
resources of the Amazon - he was
assassinated for his defense of the
environment and for the rights of natural
rubber collectors.

Carta a Rigoberta
Mench
Performer: Celtas
Cortos
Year: 1993
LP: Tranquilo Majete

Defenders of Human
Rights; violations of
Human Rights

Song dedicated to Rigoberta Mench,

who received the 1992 Nobel Peace
Prize for her commitment to defending
and promoting the rights and values of
the indigenous population of America. In
1993, the International Year of the
Worlds Indigenous People, the United
Nations nominated her Good Will
Ambassador.

racial discrimination
Particulars
Te guste o no
(Whether you
like it or not)
Performer: Juan
Manuel Serrat
Year: 1994
LP: Nadie es
perfecto

Values spoken
of
Discrimination,
intercultural
differences.

Basic Information
This song is an inventory of common
situations and problems between people of
different cultures, beginning with those that
can bring them closer together. The
performer lists those shared existential
parts that culturally translate in different
manners. The key to reading his text is a
proposal of active tolerance. Suggestion:
point out spots where comparisons are
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Hurricane
Performer: Bob
Dylan
Year: 1976
LP: Desire

Social injustice,
racism, political
prisoners.

Mestizaje
(Miscegenation)
Performer: SKAP
Year: 2000
LP: Planeta
Eskoria
Tumbando y
dando
(Falling and
hitting)
Performer:
Orishas
Year: 2005
LP: El Kilo

Discrimination,
intercultural
differences.

Discrimination,
intercultural
differences.

Carola Carazzone

made: color, language, etc - what is

missing? What could be added?
This is based on the true story of the boxer
Rubin Carter, who spent 19 years in prison
wrongly accused of homicide. His story
provoked the protest of personalities such
as Muhammad Ali and Bob Dylan, who
dedicated this song to him. Today, Rubin
Carter directs the Association for the
Defense of the Wrongly Accused.
This song proclaims the necessity to break
away from everything that brings racism
through cohabitation and reciprocal
respect.

The position of the group concerning

racism is clear: if racism attacks you, hit it,
if it appears in front of you, step on it,
squish is, asphyxiate it. It describes the
discriminatory treatment of migrant people
and proclaims the equality of human
beings and the fight for global integration.

gender discrimination and violence

Particulars
Malo
Performer:
Bebe
Year: 2004
LP: Pafuera
telaraas

Mara se bebe
las calles
Performer:
Pasin Vega
Year: 2003
LP: Banderas de
nadie

Values spoken
of
Mistreatment
against women

Mistreatment
against women

Basic Information
This song describes, with force and
sentiment, the mistreatment that many
women suffer at the hands of men. The
text expresses anger and pain when faced
with the violent reality in many domestic
environments that is often lived in silence.
The name of the album has a meaning:
clear out the cobwebs push away the
things that bother you.
This song speaks about mistreatment and
the difficulty to distance oneself from it -- in
many cases, the woman continues to live
with the hope that her companion will
change and in this way succeed in getting
out of the situation. But, one can start over
-- life always gives us another chance.
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Behind the wall
Performer:
Tracy Chapman
Year: 1988
LP: Behind the
wall
Ay Dolores
Performer:
Reincidentes
Year: 2001
LP: Los
queremos vivos
Mujer
Performer:

Carola Carazzone

Mistreatment
against women

This song reminds us of the unjustifiably

high number of women mistreated by their
partners and the frustration of feeling
powerless to confront it or stop it.

Mistreatment
against women

Violence against women, in many cases,

brings the loss of self-esteem, selfappreciation and makes the woman a
victim of the whims and violence of her
companion.

Mistreatment
against women

This composition reclaims the fight for the

advancement and the respect of the
equality of rights between men and
women, which must originate from men
themselves: We need to move ahead with
force and all must fight for the mother, and
reclaim the advancement of women.
Together the war will be won.

Orishas

Year: 2002
LP: Emigrante

Promotion of the Rights of Disabled People

Particulars
Solo pienso en ti
(I Think Only of You)
Performer: Vctor
Manuel San Jos
Year: 1978
LP: Soy un corazn
tendido al sol
Un Giudice (A judge)
Performer: Fabrizio
De Andr
Year: 1971
LP: Non al denaro,
non allamore, n al
cielo

Diversi da chi
(different from
whom)
Performer: Ladri di
carrozzelle

Values spoken
of
Discrimination,
denying of rights

Basic Information
This is a beautiful and sweet song of
love between a girl and a boy with
mental problems, both considered a
punishment to their parents and so
put into an institute.

Discrimination,
denying of rights

This is the story of a person that

suffers from dwarfism, that studies
law to vindicate himself of the
unhappiness
created
by
the
treatment of scorn and discrimination
due to his condition. After years of
hard study, he finds himself finally
with the power to judge and condemn
the people that have spent their lives
making fun of him.
This is the diffusion of a new and
unusual idea on the diversely abled
through music. Almost all the
musicians of this group have some
form of disability. The song talks of

Promotion of the
rights of people
with disabilities

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Year: 1996
LP: Diversi da chi

the beauty of life seen from a

different perspective through a
marvelous message of life.

5. Movie Proposal
In this section we propose a series of films that can be helpful in dealing with the relative
themes of Human Rights. Movie watching, together with an introduction and a further
discussion-elaboration, can be a dynamic and emotional tool when dealing with this topic.

Educational Objectives

To understand the political, economic and social context of the setting of the film;
To analyze those feelings, motivations and moral principles that move the main
characters and the plot;
To consider the message relayed by the film: both those positive (hope, faith in
peace, justice, liberty, tolerance, respect) and negative (hate, violence, lack of
respect, attacks on a persons dignity).
WORKSHEET

--Watch the film.

--Stimulate a discussion starting with the following questions:

What did you feel watching this film?

What do you think the author wants to say?
What feelings did he suggests to you?
Do you know of a similar situation?
Do you agree with the content of the film? With what it expresses or denounces?

Take into consideration the following possibilities:

Investigate and look for more information on the context in which the events
happened.
Analyze the historical moment and the social circumstances to which it refers.
Look for films with characteristics similar to the one watched, keeping in mind the
circumstances in which this kind of films are written and spread.
Look in newspapers for articles that might be related to the topics in the film.

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interdependence and indivisibility of Human Rights

Particulars
Blood Diamond
Director: Edward Zwick
Year: 2007

Description

Babel
Director: Alejandro Gonzles Irritu
Year: 2006

In Morocco, a shepherd buys a powerful rifle for his sons to protect his herd of goats against
jackals attack. The younger decides to test the weapon's range of 3 km and shots an
American woman in bus. Her husband is trying the reconciliation of their lives through
vacation in Morocco. Due to the incident, in San Diego their Mexican maid travels to Mexico
with their children for the marriage of her son. Meanwhile in Tokyo, the police tries to contact
the former owner of the rifle, and his daughter that is feeling rejected misunderstand the
reason of the investigation.

The Navigators
Director: Ken Loach
Year: 2001

In South Yorkshire, a small group of railway maintenance men discover that because of
privatization, their lives will never be the same. When the trusty British Rail sign is replaced
by one reading East Midland Infrastructure, it is clear that there will be the inevitable winners
and losers as downsizing and efficiency become the new buzzwords. A cheery camaraderie
is soon replaced by uncertainty and turmoil when their depot manager fills them in on the
details of the new arrangement. Privatization means that the customer now comes first,
something that is instilled into the men in new training sessions. But there areinconsistencies
and shortsightedness to the new ways. Men used to working together now find themselves
belonging to different, competing companies. Some even have to tender for their old jobs.
Others decide to take the redundancy packages offered by the firm. As always, corners are
cut in the interest of lowering costs, leading to a series of misadventures.

Private
Director: Saverio Costanzo
Year: 2004

A Palestinian family with five children lives outside town, near Israeli settlements. Samia, the
wife, wants to leave; so does one teen son. Mohammad, the patriarch, is adamant that he is
staying. Two of his adolescent children want to fight. His is the passive aggression of nonviolent witness. Israeli soldiers burst into the home, taking over the second floor. At night, the
family is locked in the living room. We see the effects of the occupation on the children and

In 1999, in Sierra Leone, the fisherman Solomon Vandy dreams on the day that his young
son Dia Vandy will become a doctor. His dreams are shattered when the rebels invade his
village and kidnap him to work in the diamond mines. Solomon finds a huge pink diamond
and while hiding it, the commandant of the rebels sees, but the rebels are attacked and
Salomon is arrested by the government army. While in jail, the wounded commandant tell
the prisoners that Salomon found the stone, and the mercenary smuggler Danny Archer
from Zimbabwe releases Salomon and proposes to exchange the diamond by his missing
family. Using the idealistic American journalist Maddy Bowen, Danny locates the wife and
daughters of Salomon in a refugee camp, but is informed that his son has been recruited by
the rebels. Salomon and Danny consolidate a partnership, with Salomon looking for and
finding his son, and Danny looking for the diamond and finding redemption

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on the marriage. Through the eyes of Miriam, the older daughter, we watch the soldiers from
her hiding place. Jamal, the eldest son, sets a trap with a grenade. Characters call upon
Allah. Chaos and death are close

Carlas song
Director: Ken Loach
Year: 1996

1987, love in time of war. A bus driver George Lennox meets Carla, a Nicaraguan exile living
a precarious, profoundly sad life in Glasgow. Her back is scarred, her boyfriend missing, her
family dispersed; she's suicidal. George takes her to Nicaragua to find out what has
happened to them and to help her face her past. Once home, Carla's nightmarish memories
take over, and Carla and George are thrown into the thick of the US war against the
Sandinistas. A mystery develops over where Carla's boyfriend is, and the key to his
whereabouts may be Carla's friend Bradley, a bitter American aid worker. She finds her
family, the Contras attack, and she and the Scot face their choices

Garaje Olimpo
Director: Marco Bechis
Year: 1999

Buenos Aires, during the military dictatorship. Mara lives with her mother in a large, run
down house. Some rooms are rented out and in one of these lives Flix, a timid young man
that seems to not have a past or a family. He says he works as a security guard in a garage.
Mara works in a poor neighborhood, teaching reading and writing and is also an activist in a
small organization that opposed the ferocious dictatorship. One morning, a squad of soldiers
arrests her and takes her inside the Olympic Garage, just one of the many places of torture
the general public is ignorant of and indifferent to used by the military in the heart of Buenos
Aires. Tiger, charge by the center, entrusts the interrogation to one of his best men. This
man is Flix, the housemate of Mara. A film about the desaparecidos in Argentina.

The Shawshank Redemption

Director: Frank Darabont
Year: 1994

In 1946, a banker convicted of murdering his wife and lover, is sent to Shawshank prison.
The friendship with a prisoner condemned to life imprisonment helped him survive until the
end.

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Sweet Sixteen
Director: Ken Loach
Year: 2002

In the shipyard town of Greenock, Liam is a typical teenager, in some ways, causing
trouble and absorbing everything which goes on around him like a sponge. He has already
has his fair share of troubles however, his mother is unjustly in prison, with a drug dealing
boyfriend awaiting her release. Liam dreams of taking his mother away from all the
problems in their life and starting afresh in a caravan park in the quiet village of West
Kilbride. This means Liam must find a way to get money quick to fund the caravan, which
leads him into all sorts of problems with the law, and makes him all sorts of new enemies,
who are looking for any way to punish him.

My name is Joe
Director: Ken Loach
Year: 1998

The film stars Peter Mullan as Joe Kavanagh, an unemployed recovering alcoholic in
Glasgow who meets and falls in love with a health visitor. David McKay plays his troubled
friend Liam. The film's title is a reference to the ritualized greeting performed in Alcoholics
Anonymous meetings, as portrayed in the film's opening scene.

Mississippi Burning
Director: Alan Parker
Year: 1988
Yuniol
Director: Alfonso Rodrguez
Year: 2007
In the name of the father
Director: Jim Sheridan
Year: 1993

Based on a true story, it tells of the disappearance of three young activists during a
summer of 1964 march for Human Rights in Mississippi. The found bodies expose an
irrefutable connection between the force and the Ku Klux Klan.
Thanks to a scholarship Juan Prez Garca, also known as Yuniol, has the opportunity to
study in the same university of Juan Alberto Ros, nicknamed Yunior. One was born in a
golden cradle and the other in a poor neighborhood. A distinctive friendship at the heart of
a story with an interesting social message.
Protest film based on a true story. In the violent days in which terrorists of the IRA were
attacking central London with bombs, an Irish hippy finds himself in the wrong place at the
wrong time. Unjustly condemned along with various friends and family members to life
imprisonment, his case was the worse error in judgment in the history of British justice.

The Lost City

Director: Andy Garcia
Year: 2005

In Havana, Cuba in the late 1950's, a wealthy family, one of whose sons is a prominent
nightclub owner, is caught in the violent transition from the oppressive regime of Batista to
the Marxist government of Fidel Castro. Castro's regime ultimately leads the nightclub
owner to flee to New York.

The Syrian Bride

Director: Eran Riklis
Year: 2004

In Majdal Shams, the largest Druze village in Golan Heights on the Israeli-Syrian border,
the Druze bride Mona is engaged to get married with Tallel, a television comedian that
works in the Revolution Studios in Damascus, Syria. They have never met each other
because of the occupation of the area by Israel since 1967; when Mona moves to Syria,
she will lose her undefined nationality and will never be allowed to return home. Mona's
father Hammed is a political activist pro-Syria that is on probation by the Israeli
government. His older son Hatten married a Russian woman eight years ago and was
banished from Majdal Shams by the religious leaders and his father. His brother Marwan is
a wolf trader that lives in Italy. His sister Amal has two teenager daughters and has the
intention to join the university, but her marriage with Amin is in crisis. When the family
gathers for Mona's wedding, an insane bureaucracy jeopardizes the ceremony.

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The Pursuit of Happyness

Director: Gabriele Cuccino
Year: 2006

In 1981, Chris Gardner was a struggling salesman in little needed medical bone density
scanners while his wife toiled in double shifts to support the family including their young
son, Christopher. In the face of this difficult life, Chris has the desperate inspiration to try
for a stockbroker internship where one in twenty has a chance of a lucrative full time
career. Even when his wife leaves him because of this choice, Chris clings to this dream
with his son even when the odds become more daunting by the day. Together, father and
son struggle through homelessness, jail time, tax seizure and the overall punishing despair
in a quest that would make Gardner a respected millionaire.

Sicko
Director: Micheal Moore
Year: 2007

Documentary look at health care in the United States as provided by profit-oriented health
maintenance organizations (HMOs) compared to free, universal care in Canada, the U.K.,
and France. Moore contrasts U.S. media reports on Canadian care with the experiences of
Canadians in hospitals and clinics there. He interviews patients and doctors in the U.K.
about cost, quality, and salaries. He examines why Nixon promoted HMOs in 1971, and
why the Clintons' reform effort failed in the 1990s. He talks to U.S. ex-pats in Paris about
French services, and he takes three 9/11 clean-up volunteers, who developed respiratory
problems, to Cuba for care. He asks of Americans, "Who are we.

No mans land
Director: Danis Tanovic
Year: 2001

After various skirmishes, two wounded soldiers, one Bosnian and one Serb, confront each
other in a trench in the no man's land between their lines. They wait for dark, trading insults
and even finding some common ground; sometimes one has the gun, sometimes the other,
sometimes both. Things get complicated when another wounded Bosnian comes to, but
can't move because a bouncing mine is beneath him. The two men cooperate to wave
white flags, their lines call the UN (whose high command tries not to help), an English
reporter shows up, a French sergeant shows courage, and the three men in no man's land
may or may not find a way to all get along.

The life of David Gale

Director: Alan Parker
Year: 2003

A University of Texas professor of philosophy and capital punishment abolitionist, David

Gale (Kevin Spacey), finds himself on Death Row convicted of murder. Days before his
execution, skeptical journalist Bitsey Bloom (Kate Winslet) is sent to conduct David Gale's
final interview. Unaware that she would not be investigating Dr. Gale, Bitsey and her
sympathetic intern leave to Texas for what is to become a story of a lifetime.

Mi Piace Lavorare mobbing I Like to

Work (Mobbing)
Director: Francesca Comencini
Year: 2004
Philadephia
Director: Jonathan Demme
Anno: 1993

A woman comes across the difficulties of modern work: to force her to resign from her job,
her firm tries all the humiliation techniques known as "mobbing". The film is based upon
real cases reported by Italian unions.
Andrew Beckett, a gay lawyer infected with AIDS, is fired from his conservative law firm in
fear that they might contract AIDS from him. After Andrew is fired, in a last attempt for
peace, he sues his former law firm with the help of a homophobic lawyer, Joe Miller. During
the court battle, Miller sees that Beckett is no different than anyone else on the gritty
streets of the city of brotherly love, sheds his homophobia and helps Beckett with his case

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before AIDS overcomes him.

Bloody Sunday
Director: Paul Greengrass
Year: 2002

Documentary-style drama showing the events that lead up to the tragic incident on January
30, 1972 in the Northern Ireland town of Derry when a protest march led by civil rights
activist Ivan Cooper was fired upon by British troops, killing 13 protesters and wounding 14
more.

The City of God

A film that speaks of the disorders of the underdeveloped. It is the story of the growth, from
the 50s to today, of the City of God, a Brazilian ghetto in the hand of gangs, drug
traffickers and a dramatic and violent reality.

The Motorcycle Diaries

Director: Walter Salles
Year: 2004

In 1952, two young Argentineans, Ernesto Guevara and Alberto Granado, begin a road trip
to discover the true Latin America. Slowly they begin to get in touch with a South America
different from what they know. By the time they arrive at a leper colony in the heart of the
Amazon forest, the two have already begun to discuss the value of such progress and they
would define certain economic systems.

When the Wind Blows

Director: Jimmy T. Murakami
Year: 1986

Jim and Hilda Bloggs is a retired couple that lives in a remote rural zone of Great Britain,
just a little bit before that beginning of a nuclear war. Deeply patriotic, they have the
greatest faith in their government and they have informed themselves on what they need to
do in case of an enemy attack. Jim has read every official informative bulletin on the atomic
bomb and begins to build a refuge that will protect them in case of a nuclear explosion.

The Constant Gardener

Director: Fernando Meirelles
Year: 2005

British diplomat Justin Quayle meets the impulsive activist Tessa, marries her quickly at
her behest and takes her on diplomatic mission in Kenya. When Tessa is brutally
murdered, Justin decides to investigate her death against the strong wish of his superiors
to let the matter quietly disappear. He discovers a powerful mystery involving the members
of the British High Commission and the not-so-savory business practices of the multi-billion
dollar pharmaceutical industry. In the process of learning the secrets of his powerful
enemies, Justin must learn all of his wife's many secrets as well.

Flowers from the Other World

Director: Icar Bollan
Year: 1999

A story that talks about interculturality. Patricia is a Dominican that escapes to Madrid in
search of economic security for her small children. Marirrosi comes from Bilbao and works
and lives an autonomous and comfortable life, but she is alone. Milady, a Cuban, has just
turned 26 and has left Havana in search of a different life.

The rights of children and adolescent

Particulars

Description
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Different but equal in rights

All the Invisible Children
Director: M. Charef, E. Kusturica, S.Lee, K.
Lund, J. y R. Scott, S. Veneruso and J.Woo
Year: 2005
Sleepers
Director: Barry Levinson
Year: 1996

Video produced by the Inter American Institute for Human Rights.

Il ladro di bambini (the thief of children)

Director: Gianni Amelio
Year: 1992

Antonio, a policeman (carabiniere), has an order to take two children (Rosetta and her
brother Luciano) from Milan to Sicily to an orphanage. Their mother has been arrested for
forcing Rosetta (11 years old) to work as a prostitute. First the relation between Antonio and
the children is tough, but it relaxes so they become temporary friends

The 400 Blows

Director: Franois Truffaut
Year: 1959
Va, vis et deviens (go and live)
Director : Radu Mihaileanu
Year : 2005
Anche libero va bene (free is good too)
Director : Kim Rossi Stuart
Year: 2005

Paris, in the 50's. Antoine is a misunderstood adolescent that has just one friend, Ren.
After having tried to steal a typewriter, he is locked up in a juvenile prison. Faced with the
rigidity of an education based on obedience, it is proposed to live according to ones age.

Lettere da Sahara (letters from Sahara)

Director: Vittorio de Seta
Year: 2006
Azur and Asmar
Director: Michel Ocelot
Year: 2006

Thirteen years after directing his last TV documentary, "In Calabria," Italy's great filmmaker
Vittorio De Seta returns with a long, heart-felt, but ultimately uninvolving story about an
African youth struggling to survive in Italy.

Oliver Twist
Director: Roman Polanski

In the Nineteenth Century, the orphan Oliver Twist is sent to a workhouse, where the
children are barely fed and mistreated. He moves to the house of an undertaker, but after
an unfair severe spank, he starts a seven day runaway to London. He arrives exhausted

Cinematographic project made up of several parts realized by eight renowned directors to

give a voice and a face to millions of invisible children and adolescents that live in all the
parts of the world and who are denied their fundamental rights.
Four boys growing up in Hell's Kitchen play a prank that leads to an old man getting hurt.
Sentenced to no less than one year in the Wilkenson Center in upstate New York, the four
friends are changed by the beating, humiliation and sexual abuse by the guards sworn to
protect them. Thirteen years later and a chance meeting lead to a chance for revenge
against the Wilkenson Center and the guards

In 1980 the black Falashas in Ethiopia are recognised as genuine Jews. In turn they are
secretly carried to Israel...
Tommi (11) and his slightly older sister Viola live in the city with their father. They cope with
being a single parent family until their mother shows up, having disappeared without trace not for the first time, we soon learn. These are the four protagonists in a bittersweet portrait
of their ongoing struggle with love, friendship, puberty and life in general.

This is a story of a friendship between a western prince charming and an exotic Aladdin. It
is an ancient story that brings to light a comparison between the West and the Far East, the
bearer of a profound message of peace and brotherhood. It is a story capable of bring to
light the blindness of prejudice and the error of superstition, while at the same time showing
the importance of solidarity.

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Year: 2005

and starving, and is welcomed by a gang of pickpockets leaded by the old crook Fagin.
When he is mistakenly taken as a thief, the wealthy victim Mr. Brownlow brings Oliver to his
home and shelters him. But Fagin and the dangerous Bill Sykes decide to kidnap Oliver to
burglarize Mr. Brownlow's fancy house. Oliver is wounded, while Mr. Brownlow tries to save
Oliver.

Osama
Director: Siddiq Barmak
Year: 2003

A 12-year-old Afghan girl and her mother lose their jobs when the Taliban closes the
hospital where they work. The Taliban have also forbidden women to leave their houses
without a male "legal companion." With her husband and brother dead, killed in battle, there
is no one left to support the family. Without being able to leave the house, the mother is left
with nowhere to turn. Feeling that she has no other choice, she disguises her daughter as a
boy. Now called 'Osama,' the girl embarks on a terrifying and confusing journey as she tries
to keep the Taliban from finding out her true identity. Inspired by a true story, Osama is the
first entirely Afghan film shot since the fall of the Taliban

Quando sei nato non puoi pi

nasconderti (since you are born, you
cant hyde anymore)
Director: Marco Tullio Giordana
Year: 2005
Sciusci
Director: Vittorio De Sica
Year: 1946

A coming-of-age drama set in contemporary Italy. One night, during a sailing trip through
the Mediterranean, Sandro, the only son of a wealthy Italian entrepreneur, falls overboard.
Although given up for dead, Sandro, instead, has been rescued by a fishing boat carrying
illegal immigrants to Italian shores. Thus begins an adventuresome return to Italy, at the
end of which nothing will ever be the same

Voces Inocentes
(Innocent voices)
Director: Luis Mandoki
Year: 2004

During the 80's in Salvador, the armed forces of the government were locking up children
12 years old and not allowing them to go to school. This is the moving story of an eleven
year old and his life that is transformed in a survival game and not only from bullets of war
but also from the effects of daily violence.

Pasquale and Giuseppe work as sciusci, or shoe shiners, to make some money.
Pasquale is the older of the two, is an orphan and lives with Giuseppes parents, who live
thanks to the money the two kids make. The two friends are united by deep affection and
share a dream: to buy a white horse. With a little job the dream becomes a reality, but
doesnt last long: the two are arrested and sent to a reformatory.

Active and responsible citizenship and child and youth participation

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Particulars
Queremos que nos oigan
(We want them to listen to us)
Yo participo- I participate
Matilda
Director: Danny De Vito
Year: 1996

Carola Carazzone

www.volint.it

Description
A short video produced by the Inter American Institute for the Child IIC.
A short video produced by the Inter American Institute for the Child IIC.
Matilda is an extremely curious and intelligent girl, just the opposite of her unrefined parents,
who usually just ignore her. Growing up, she discovers that she has special powers
supported by her teacher, who encourages her to understand that she can use her powers to
help others. The people that made her life impossible will suffer the consequences.

The lord of the flies

Director: Harry Hook
Year: 1990

An airplane falls into the Pacific Ocean about twenty boys survive and try to organize a
society on a desert island. Very soon, however, the group is divided into two rival groups and
slowly the reasonable order that the boys tried to create in order to resolve the problems of
living together is threatened by wild and uncontrollable instincts.

Children of heaven
Director: Majid Majidi
Year: 1997

This is a story told from the point of view of children. Amir, a 10 year old boy, takes his
sisters shoes to be repaired. Unfortunately, he loses them. Seeing as how money was tight
and how he is afraid of being punished, his siblings try to keep the situation hidden from their
parents. Since Zahra does not have another pair of shoes, the brothers decide to share
Amirs shoes. The two kids seem much more adult and responsible than their parents most
of all because of how they organize their life based upon having only one pair of shoes.

Goonies
Director: Richard Donner
Year: 1985

Mickey is a boy that lives in the United States. His father is worried because some
businessmen want to build a golf course in the neighborhood where Mickey and his friends,
the Goonies, live. This is the story of a trip of a group of friends searching for a lost treasure
that might just be the solution to everyones problems.

The defenders of Human Rights:

Particulars
Gandhi
Director: Richard Attenborough
Year: 1982

Description
This is the biography of Mahatma Gandhi, from his beginnings as a lawyer in South Africa
to when he became the famous leader of India. After having defended the rights of nonEuropean citizens in South Africa, he understood that Hindus became second class citizens
in his country and is able to push the population up against the regime imposed by the
British government through a doctrine of non-violence.

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Hotel Rwanda
Director: Terry George
Year: 2004

Ten years ago some of the worst atrocities in the history of mankind took place in the
country of Rwanda--and in an era of high-speed communication and round the clock news,
the events went almost unnoticed by the rest of the world. In only three months, one million
people were brutally murdered. In the face of these unspeakable actions, inspired by his
love for his family, an ordinary man summons extraordinary courage to save the lives of
over a thousand helpless refugees, by granting them shelter in the hotel he manages.

Mandela and De Klerk

Director: Joseph Sargent
Year: 1997

The film tells the historical events that took place in Pretoria (South Africa) from 1964,
concerning the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela for his anti-government behavior and his
valiant fight against apartheid.
His wife, Winnie, looked for support from the entire population to obtain his freedom, and 18
years later succeeded thanks to the collaboration of the leader De Klerk.

Malcolm X
Director: Spike Lee
Year: 1992

Malcolm was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1925. His father, a Baptist minister, died when
he was a child and his mother wound up in a psychiatric hospital when the Ku Klux Klan set
fire to their house. Rejected by the military, he became a delinquent and ended up in jail.
When freed, he began to preach faith and the supremacy of the black. But when he
discovered large irregularities among the highest members of his church, Malcolm X was
obliged to change his attitude, a fact that created a series of conflict within his life and his
family. He was the founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity. He was
assassinated while holding a conference during the first day of National Brotherhood Week.

Zwartboek (Black Book)

Director: Paul Verhoeven
Year: 2006

Israel 1956. Rachel, a Jew, rather unexpectedly meets an old friend at the kibbutz where is
she working as a teacher. It brings back memories of her experiences in The Netherlands
during the war, memories of betrayal. September 1944. Rachel is in trouble when her
hiding place is bombed by allied troops. She gets in contact with a man from the resistance
and joins a group of Jews who are to be smuggled across the Biesbosch by boat to the
freed South Netherlands. Germans from a patrol boat murder them all however. Only
Rachel is able to escape. She is rescued by a resistance group under the leadership of
Gerben Kuipers. When Kuipers' son is captured after trying to smuggle weapons, he asks
Rachel to seduce SS-hauptsturmfhrer Ludwig Mntze. Soon she will find out the attack in
the Biesbosch wasn't a coincidence.

Erin Brokovich
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Year: 2000

This is based on a true story. Erin Brokovich is a divorced woman with three kids and no
work. Her life is put back on track thanks to a car accident. Her lawyer, who is not able to
win her case, offers her a job in his studio as compensation. Erin discovers by chance that
someone is trying to cover up a fraud concerning the contamination of water that is causing
deathly illnesses to the people that live in the community. Erin thoroughly investigates the
matter and succeeds in uncovering the fact that many people living near some installations
belonging to Pacific Gas and Electric have cancer caused by the contamination.

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racial discrimination

Particulars
Different but with equal rights
The Last King of Scotland
Director: Kevin Macdonald
Year: 2006

Description
Video produced by the Inter American Institute for Human Rights (IAIHR).
In 1970, the just-graduated doctor Nicholas Garrigan moves to Uganda to get rid of his
conservative father. While working in a mission in the country, he meets the new President
Idi Amin after the coup-d'-tat that overthrow the former government. He is invited to
become his personal physician in Kampala and along the years he sees how despotic his
friend is.

Life Is beautiful
Director: Roberto Benigni
Year: 1998

A few years before the beginning of WWII, Guido arrives in a small Tuscan town to open a
bookstore. He meets Dora, girlfriend of the fascist Ferruccio, who he manages to marry and
have a child with. With the arrival of the war the three will be deported to a concentration
camp where Guido will make it possible to make his son believe that this terrible situation in
which they find themselves is only a game.

Hotel Rwanda
Director: Terry George
Year: 2004

Ten years ago some of the worst atrocities in the history of mankind took place in the
country of Rwanda--and in an era of high-speed communication and round the clock news,
the events went almost unnoticed by the rest of the world. In only three months, one million
people were brutally murdered. In the face of these unspeakable actions, inspired by his
love for his family, an ordinary man summons extraordinary courage to save the lives of
over a thousand helpless refugees, by granting them shelter in the hotel he manages.

Train de Vie (A train for life)

Director : Radu Mihaileanu
Year : 1998

Central Europe, the village fool of a small Jewish community warns the townsfolk that the
Nazis are coming, and advises them to build a fake deportation train to cross the Russian
border and get to Palestine. Some Jews are dressed up with German uniforms, and soon
they start getting strange ideas about how it feels to be a Nazi; others are infected with the
fast-spreading germ of communism. Meanwhile, the Russian border gets closer and
closer...

American History X
Director: Tony Kaye
Year: 1998

A brutal Neo Nazi skinhead named Derek Vinyard is tried and sent to prison for three years
for the murder of two black guys who tried to steal his truck. When he returns from prison
reformed, his younger brother Daniel Vinyard who idolizes him is on the brink of becoming
a Neo Nazi himself. Derek must save his younger brother from a similar fate.

Salvador
Director: Oliver Stone
Year: 1986

A journalist, down on his luck in the US, drives to El Salvador to chronicle the events of the
1980 military dictatorship, including the assasination of Archbishop Oscar Romero. He
forms an uneasy alliance with both guerillas in the countryside who want him to get pictures
out to the US press, and the right-wing military, who want him to bring them photographs of

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the rebels. Meanwhile he has to find a way of protecting his Salvadorean girlfriend and
getting her out of the country.

Country of My Skull
Director: John Boorman
Year: 2003

Langston Whitfield is a Washington Post journalist. His editor provocatively sends him to
South Africa to cover the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, in which the
perpetrators of murder and torture on both sides during Apartheid are invited to come
forward and confront their victims. By telling the unvarnished truth and expressing
contrition, they may be granted amnesty.

Schindlers list
Director: Steven Spielberg
Year: 1993

Oskar Schindler, a man of great cunning and talent for public relations, creates an
ambitious plan for gaining the sympathies of the more powerful Nazis and, in this way,
saves the lives of hundreds of Hebrews from the deportation to and certain death of the
Nazi Concentration camps.

Romuald and Juliette

Director: Coline Serreau
Year: 1989

The loving relationship between Romuald (an executive in a yogurt company and a
financial shark willing to do anything to keep his position) and the black, married mother of
several children responsible for the cleaning of the company is the story the director uses to
describe the encounter of two cultures and two ways of looking at the world and from which
both parts can reap benefits.

Guess who's coming to dinner

Director: Stanley Kramer
Year: 1967
Bwana
Director: Imanol Uribe
Year: 1996

A white woman and a black man decide to get married and tell this to each of their families.
The situation makes both families obliged to deal with their own racial and social
prejudices.
Antonio is a taxi driver from Madrid that goes to a secluded beach accompanied by his wife
and children to look for clams. There they meet Ombassi, a clandestine immigrant who has
arrived at the coastline accompanied by his friend Yambo. In the cold night they share the
warmth of the fire and the hope of dreams. However, reality is much harder than it seems. It
is a reflection on xenophobia. On the one hand is the stupidity and cowardice embodied by
the taxi driver and his wife and on the other hand is the absolute wickedness represented
by a group of neo-Nazis.

gender discrimination and violence

Particulars

Description
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Carola Carazzone

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Different but with equal rights

Flowers from another world
Director: Icar Bollan
Year: 1999

Video realized by the IAIHR.

Safar e Ghandehar
Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Year: 2001

Nafas is a reporter who was born in Afghanistan, but fled with her family to Canada when
she was a child. However, her sister wasn't so lucky; she lost her legs to a land mine while
young, and when Nafas and her family left the country, her sister was accidentally left
behind. Nafas receives a letter from her sister announcing that she's decided to commit
suicide during the final eclipse before the dawn of the 21st century; desperate to spare her
sister's life, Nafas makes haste to Afghanistan, where she joins a caravan of refugees who,
for a variety of reasons, are returning to the war-torn nation. As Nafas searches for her
sister, she soon gets a clear and disturbing portrait of the toll the Taliban regime has taken
upon its people.

North Country
Director: Niki Caro
Year: 2005

A mistreated woman returns to her hometown with her two kids, leaving her husband. She
decides to work in the mine because it is the best paid work. No one likes the idea of a
woman working in the mine and the protagonist will be forced to deal with her father and
the other men that work there because they see their jobs threatened by women and take
out their anger on them through sexual molestation and continual humiliation.

Mona Lisa Smile

Director: Mike Newell
Year: 2003

Katherine Ann Watson has accepted a position teaching art history at the prestigious
Wellesley College. Watson is a very modern woman, particularly for the 1950s, and has a
passion not only for art but for her students. For the most part, the students all seem to be
biding their time, waiting to find the right man to marry. The students are all very bright and
Watson feels they are not reaching their potential. Altough a strong bond is formed between
teacher and student, Watson's views are incompatible with the dominant culture of the
college.

Take my eyes
Director: Icar Bollan
Year: 2003
Bend it like Beckham
Director: Gurinder Chadha
Year: 2005
Mine alone
Director: Javier Balaguer
Year: 2001

One winters night Pilar leaves home, fleeing her husband. Even though she is afraid of
him, there is something that always brings her back, convinced that the man will change
sooner or later.

A Dominican immigrant tries to build herself an emotional and economic stability for herself
and her children. The arrival of a caravan of women in the town where she lives unleashes
a series of conflicts when one of these women tries to hook up with an inhabitant of the
town.

Jess parents want Jess, an eighteen year old girl, to act like their idea of a real Hindu
woman, even if they live in London. But the only thing she wants to do is play like her only
hero, the soccer player David Beckham.
It was love at first sight. At the beginning, ngela invented thousands of ways to love
Joaqun and when she becomes pregnant, both are very happy. Happy, that is, until the
first fight, the first scream and the first slap in the face. Only one bad day was needed for
Joaqun to brutally beat her for the first time.

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Billy Elliot
Director: Stephen Daldry
Year:

Carola Carazzone

www.volint.it

1984, North England. Billy is a 14 year old boy from a humble family with one peculiarity: he
is attracted more to dance than he is to boxing. The dance teacher immediately sees great
talent in Billy and decides to give him lessons unbeknownst to his father and older brother.
Despite this, they find out and force him to distance himself from this girly environment
until they overcome their prejudices and become aware of Billys talent.

Promotion of the Rights of Disabled People

Particulars
Different but equal in rights
A beautiful mind
Director: Ron Howard
Year: 2001

Description
Video realized by the IAIHR.
This film is based on the life of John Forbes Nash. Nash possessed a privileged mind. At
the beginning of his career, he comes upon an exceptional discovery that brings him
international fame. Despite this, his exceptional intelligence was united with a strong
personality disorder, schizophrenia. After having fought many years to dominate his
condition, his efforts were repaid when, during the last part of his life, he received a Nobel
Prize for his theories.

I am Sam
Director: Jessie Nelson
Year: 2001

Sam Dawson has the mental capacity of a 7-year-old. He works at a Starbucks and is
obsessed with the Beatles. He has a daughter with a homeless woman; she abandons
them as soon as they leave the hospital. He names his daughter Lucy Diamond (after the
Beatles song), and raises her. But as she reaches age 7 herself, Sam's limitations start to
become a problem at school; she's intentionally holding back to avoid looking smarter than
him. The authorities take her away, and Sam shames high-priced lawyer Rita Harrison into
taking his case pro bono. In the process, he teaches her a great deal about love, and
whether it's really all you need.

Forrest Gump
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Year: 1994
My left foot
Director: Jim Sheridan
Year: 1989
Rainman
Director: Barry Levinson
Year: 1988

Forrest Gump is a boy with a mental retardation affected by a form of physical disability that
becomes a hero during the Vietnam war. His perseverance and goodness brings him to be
accepted by the popular masses.
This tells the story of Christy Brown, an Irish writer suffering from cerebral palsy, whose
tenacity will bring him to overcome all the barriers that impede his integration into society.
A carefree young man that dedicates himself to the beautiful life and an independent life
one day receives the news of the death of his father who has left something for him to take
care of: the older brother his father hid from him, who is autistic.

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The miracle worker
Director: Arthur Penn
Year: 1962
Edward Scissorhands
Director: Tim Burton
Year: 1990

Carola Carazzone

www.volint.it

A professor is charged with instructing a deaf, blind and mute girl. The girl is considered a
disgrace of nature that has no way out and with whom it is impossible to communicate.
Only the mother kindles a weak hope.
A magical story of a young man that has life thanks to his inventor who, unfortunately, dies
before being able to complete him, leaving him with enormous scissors where his hands
should be. Edward remains alone until one day, a neighbor finds him and takes him home,
without thinking of the impact that it could have on the town they live in.

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