Knowing our rights workshop at St Dominic’s 6th Form College (London)

Last week we delivered a workshop in St Dominic’s 6th Form College for the Knowing Our Rights project we are participating in! The workshop was with 18 students and although some had not looked into their Human Rights before, simply thinking about them in the course of our workshop instinctively made them realise the importance of some of the simpler ones like free speech and right to life.

The class was incredibly engaged from the start making for some powerful speeches at the end! 50% of the students did not agree with the prospect of repealing or changing aspects of our Human Rights, which is a trend we have seen in all schools where the workshop has been delivered so far in this project. The reality is, what the next generation want in relation to Brexit and Human Rights is very different from the they have currently got, which is creating a lot of anger and frustration.

One of the most interesting aspects for the students in this workshop was stop and search. In a classroom with a large number of BAME students, stop and search was often talked about with relation to the HRA.