Omah Munir'€™s human rights module for schools

Jakarta   /  Sun, February 21, 2016  /  07:30 am

Enrichment: Omah Munir executive director Salma '€œFifi'€ Safitri displays the human rights enrichment module of the Pancasila state ideology and civic education for junior high school students at the Omah Munir human rights museum in Batu, East Java.

'€œThere are four fundamentals: introduction to human rights; human rights, Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution; human rights in Indonesia; and human rights around us,'€ explained Fifi.

By the end of 2015, 1,000 volumes had been printed and distributed to schools in nearly all regions across Indonesia. It applies a fun learning method, which is in line with the 2013 curriculum and is equipped with learning aids concerning human rights implementation in the world and tables of the kinds of human rights recognized by Indonesia.

The learning aids include the facial masks of Indonesian human rights activists such as, of course, Munir, Udin who was a Bernas daily journalist killed due to his reporting work and Marsinah, a worker murdered as a result of her fight for labor rights.

Fiti hopes this module may soon be integrated into school lessons, adding that students would subsequently understand human rights earlier.

Today, the civil and political freedom of citizens is protected by law. '€œThe problem is that law enforcement is yet to be properly carried out and thus rights violations keep occurring,'€ she emphasized.

Suciwati, Munir'€™s widow, said that she would strive for the continued use of the module, after improving its content. '€œThere will certainly be further enhancement because many areas of human rights are yet to be understood by youth,'€ the chairwoman of Omah Munir'€™s executive board said.

Besides receiving a positive response from those teachers who trialled the module in schools last year, according to Suciwati, during visits to Omah Munir, many teachers from outside of Java have shown an interest.

'€œTherefore, Omah Munir will strive to keep popularizing this module in the hope that, with speedy improvement, it can be promptly applied to the curriculum at various schools,'€ she said. The museum has also planned to coordinate with both Madrasah, Christian and Catholic schools for this purpose.

'€œAt least their teachers can explain the link between the religious context of rights and rights as an inter-human concern,'€ added Suciwati, envisaging the module'€™s further development for use by all students from primary school to senior high school levels.

'€” Photos by JP/Nedi Putra AW