What is the Human Rights and Values Programme?

The Human Rights and Values Programme is a series of school activities on Human Rights and Values mainly for the schools in the Western Division.

The Programme started in 2004 with the help of the Ministry of Education, Lautoka Office with the aim of training and educating the young people of Fiji of their individual human rights as well as the moral values of the people of Fiji.

In 2004, the Programme consisted of a Human Rights and Values Written Competition and in 2005 the Programme consisted of a series of debate, reseacrhed project and the written competition.

For the coming years there are plans to introduce cultural dramas and plays that enact historical events in Fiji, with a view to making the Rights and Values program more interactive.

How it all began ?
The brain-child of the then Deputy Director of the Centre, the program had its beginnings in early 2004 when Dr. Singh realised that there was a better way of promoting national reconciliation between the major ethnic groups in the country than was being proposed at the time. Instead of merely having meetings on the issue, one had to actively raise an awareness amongst the people of both the cultural values and sensitivities of the major ethnic groups of the country as well as the basic human rights of the individual. The germ of the idea that eventually flourished into the current program of activities is contained in his article, titled “Of Human Rights, Values and Sensitivities” published in the Fiji Times on 20 February 2004 and in the Daily Post of 2 March 2004. In this article, Dr. Singh wrote

“It is clear that to live happily and productively in a multi-ethnic nation like ours, we need to think of more than just the obvious elements of human rights. We need to consider the system of values and cultural sensitivities of all components of the society. “
As he put it, “Accepting our differences and trying to live with them are the hallmarks of a mature nation. Clearly, we need to make all in our society aware of these rights, values and sensitivities.

The seeds of our future are always planted in our past. We do, think and feel today what we learnt to do, think and feel when we were young. It is important therefore that the correct mental and emotional framework for relating to others is established at the very beginning – when we are at school and even earlier.”

According to the article, the complete formula for teaching human rights, values and sensitivities would be made up of the following procedural elements:

• Promote greater social interaction between the different cultural groups.
• Encourage the learning of vernaculars across the ethnic divide
• Harness the competitive spirit that is naturally present amongst our youth
• Spice the whole process with the lure of a reward.

Consultations were held with the Human Rights Commission, the Education Department at the USP and Ministry of Education in Lautoka. Substantive support for the idea was found with the Ministry in Lautoka.. After consultations with the Divisional Education Officer Western Mr. Rajendra Singh, a decision was reached to start the ball rolling with a written competition, consisting of two papers administered in a cross-cultural fashion. One of these was to test the knowledge of human rights and Fijian values of Indo-Fijian students, while the other tested knowledge of rights and Indo-Fijian values of Fijian students. A Working Committee was formed, and the competition was formally launched at the Ministry of Education Lautoka on 22 September 2004 with the donation of a trophy. Winning students were to be awarded cash prizes while the school with the highest aggregate for both papers was to receive the trophy. The first competition was held at Tilak High School on the 23rd of September of the same year.

From this simple beginning barely a year ago, this nation-building initiative has now grown into a three-component program of activities, which not only tests the students’ knowledge and understanding of the topic, but also his or her ability to gather data and to think critically about issues that are important to all of us.