U3 Unit Wrap Blast: Stand Up

Stand Up

What are some ways we can defend our own human rights and the
rights of others?

Background

Standing up for your own rights and the rights of others isn’t always easy, but the rewards can be

huge.

Malala Yousafzai has become a celebrated activist for women’s rights. She gained attention when

she started documenting what it was like to attend school in her home country of Pakistan, where the
Taliban had begun attacking schools because they did not believe that girls should be educated.
Malala decided it was time to stand up for her rights and the rights of all Pakistani girls. She made a
speech in Peshawar, Pakistan, in September 2008, called “How dare the Taliban take away my basic
right to education?” She was eleven years old at the time. Malala began blogging about her
experience. As she gained fame and recognition, the Taliban made her a target. In 2012, a Taliban
member shot Malala. She survived, continued her education, and continued to speak out against the
Taliban. She published an autobiography, I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was
Shot by the Taliban, in 2013. In 2014, Malala was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her staunch
advocacy of women’s and children’s right to education.

Background

The other winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 was Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian human rights

activist. When Kailash was 26 years old, he gave up a lucrative career in electrical engineering in order
to dedicate his life to helping the millions of children in India and South Asia who are forced into slavery
by powerful and corrupt businesses and landowners. He organized raids on factories and farms where it
was suspected that child slavery was used. Kailash now spearheads a global fight against child labor,
and he is the head of the Global March Against Child Labor and the South Asian Coalition on Child
Services, among several other similar organizations.

Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi are two examples of people who stood up for what they

believed in despite the opinions of people in power. What are some ways we can defend our human
rights and the rights of others?

Open Ended

What are some ways we can defend our own human rights and the rights of others?

Poll

Which human right do you think is the most important to defend?

• The right to an education

• The right to religious freedom

• The right to freedom of speech

• The right to freedom from slavery

Multiple Choice

Number Crush! Take a guess what the number 80,000 means?!?

• Approximate number of children Kailash Satyarthi has saved from child labor as of 2014

• The number of people living in the city of New York

• The number of books published by J.K. Rowling

• The number of countries in the world