Attend

Be an Upstander empowers students to recognize injustice and use their strengths to create change.

The Be an Upstander showcase is an annual event which amplifies students’ voices and work for human rights. Students are invited to share their work in the Museum galleries and talk with visitors about how they are taking action to turn injustice toward justice.

Join us on May 24, 2022 to talk with students about how they are becoming upstanders for human rights.

Participate

Students who have done work for human rights during the school year are invited to participate in the Be an Upstander showcase.

Students can participate in two ways:

Upstander Exhibition

The Upstander Exhibition is an opportunity for students to display work or projects and interact with the public to share about their work for human rights. Exhibition projects should include the following elements:

• A visual, artistic or interactive element 
  • Past projects have included displays, works of art, infographics, interactive activities, short films, recorded songs and podcasts
• Information to create awareness and engage the public about a current human rights topic
• Talking points for students to share with the public about their work and action for human rights

The 180

The 180 is a fast pitch event where students share a 180‐second speech about how they are turning injustice toward justice.

The 180 speeches should:

• Address a current human rights injustice
• Identify root causes of the injustice
• Propose and outline steps toward a resolution
• Identify how students are personally taking action to turn injustice toward justice

*Students are welcome to participate in both the Upstander Exhibition and The 180.

Submit

Students in grades 5–12 are invited to submit their work by May 13, 2022. Submitted work does not need to be done as a part of the “Be an Upstander” program; however, projects must have a connection to human rights and a student response to injustice through action. Students may submit final drafts or other work near completion.

Submissions should be made to education@humanrights.ca.

Submissions should include:

1. A description or picture of the exhibition and/or copy of The 180 speech
2. A summary of project content, including how it connects to human rights (100 words)
3. A summary of a student plan for action and/or results of student action (100 words)
4. Relevant digital files (images, audio or film) attached or as accessible links

Resources

We have resources to help your students learn about what it means to “be an upstander.”

Grades 5–8

Student resource https://humanrights.ca/upstander/#/

Teacher guide https://humanrights.ca/upstander/#/teacher-guide

Virtual field trip https://humanrights.ca/virtual-field-trip/be-an-upstander

Grades 9–12

Resources coming soon