For respect, tolerance & co-responsibility
“It is high time that ethics, justice, sustainable balance become our concerns. For we are threatened by the gravest dangers that could put an end to the human adventure on a planet that is becoming uninhabitable for us.”
Stéphane Hessel, French diplomat, poet and activist,
from his pamphlet “Empört Euch!” (“outrage!”), 2010
In the spirit of democracy and human rights education, we would like to inspire and enable young people in particular to commit themselves to living together in respect, tolerance and co-responsibility. For educators and those involved in schools, district projects, youth facilities and church congregations, HUMAN offers a variety of impulses for creative engagement with the basic themes of being human, for peaceful coexistence in the sense of UN human rights and the Earth Charter: from a single project day to (interdisciplinary) lessons, to a school project week that can lead to a dance performance, for example. HUMAN themes can also shape international student encounters, district projects or activities in church congregations.
For the realisation of their own projects, we offer two HUMAN scripts for teachers as inspiration and guidance.
Questions and Answers
How can a school, for example, get involved in HUMAN?
Participation is possible at any time and without application. As the responsible educator, you can decide in which form and to what extent you take up the human rights issue. As support for the realisation of your own projects, we have various free materials that you can find here .
We are happy to publish projects that have been created and implemented as inspiration for others. Simply share your projects or project ideas here with us.
How can I use the HUMAN music in my school?
The music expresses important themes of being human in 13 short pieces of music, rich in nuances, forceful and powerful. Fields of tension play a central role.
- HUMAN music or individual HUMAN music pieces can be used in many subjects. For example, as a creative introduction, to address selected human rights such as the importance of freedom of the press, inclusion, dimensions of work and home.
- HUMAN music can also be an inspiration for actions in the visual arts.
- HUMAN-Musik kann auch eine Inspiration für Aktionen in der bildenden Kunst sein.
- The school orchestra can rehearse the HUMAN Suite and invite it to a concert, a concert reading (e.g. with texts on human rights issues) or to a music and dance performance. We are also happy to provide conductors of school orchestras with an adapted score. Please contact us here.
We are always open to further ideas. We are also happy to receive experiences with HUMAN projects and publish them as testimonials, with the name of the school or author. Write us your feedback here.
You can find out more about the core issues of HUMAN at HUMAN music and HUMAN dance.
How can schools combine HUMAN music with movement & dance?
Movement and dance to HUMAN music provide a creative, playful approach to basic themes of being human and human rights, not only in the subjects of music and sport.
- A project week could focus on preparing and creating an internal or public HUMAN dance performance in which the HUMAN music is played on CD or in which the school orchestra plays live.
- The HUMAN music can inspire the development of a community dance choreography, developed together with the students or by teachers. No application or licence is required.
- HUMAN choreographers can be invited and engaged for a “Five days to dance project week” at the school. This intensive pedagogical-artistic project week is rounded off with an internal or public HUMAN Community Dance performance. Between 50 and 120 pupils can take part in such a HUMAN Community Dance project week; the number of participating choreographers varies with the number of participants.
We are also happy to receive experiences with HUMAN projects and publish them as testimonials, with the name of the school or author. Write to us here .
You can find out more about the core issues of HUMAN at HUMAN music and HUMAN dance.
What materials are available for dance projects?
- The script “Dancing HUMAN” offers an insight into the choreography ideas of Wilfried van Poppel, Amaya Lubeigt, Nanni Kloke and Susan Barnett for the 13 HUMAN themes of the Community Dance premiere at Theater Bremen. We will be happy to send you the complete version of the script on request. You can find an excerpt here.
- First HUMAN dance impressions of the HUMAN choreographers to selected HUMAN music can be found on our YouTube channel. The film of the HUMAN Community Dance premiere in Bremen can be found here.
What materials are available for HUMAN music?
The HUMAN music can be purchased as a CD via the online store of the Kulturbüro Burggrabe, ordered as a CD and vinyl via amazon or streamed on all common platforms: Spotify, Apple Music, amazon, Deezer, Tidal, Qobuz.
Schools, orchestras and theatres can get the CD for the special price of 12€/CD (plus postage). Request here.
We are happy to give the study score to interested conductors, orchestras and musicians. Just contact us.
You can download Helge Burggrabe’s explanations of the 13 HUMAN music pieces in various languages:
In the HUMAN album trailer the composer Helge Burggrabe and the British conductor Duncan Ward, who conducted the CD recording, outline their approaches to the composition.
Music videos for selected pieces of HUMAN music can be found auf unserem YouTube channel.
Does HUMAN offer workshops for educators?
Train the trainer workshops are planned with the HUMAN choreographers team around Wilfried van Poppel and Amaya Lubeigt for interested teachers. If you are interested, please contact us.
What HUMAN materials are available on the topic of human rights education?
Aspects and topics of human rights are included in the curricula of almost all subjects and grades nationwide. An overview of all HUMAN materials can be found here.
What further materials and contact points on human rights education can you recommend?
Many organisations in the field of human rights also offer materials for schools, and some promote their own “youth engagement groups”. With regard to school materials, we would like to point out some addresses here:
- The book “Compass. Handbook on Human Rights Education” fans out ideas and materials on human rights education on more than 600 pages. It is published by the German Institute for Human Rights Education, the Council of Europe, the Federal Agency for Civic Education, Amnesty International and the Lucerne University of Teacher Education. The book has been translated into 30 languages and is available for free download or can be ordered from the Federal Agency for Civic Education (nominal fee 7.50 € plus postage).
- right now is an initiative of the two human rights experts and education practitioners Else Engel and Lea Fenner. Their work focuses on children’s rights and human rights education. In their experiential and process-oriented trainings – also for teachers/students – they are guided by a human rights education that shapes intersections with peace education as well as ethical, political and intercultural education. In this way, they support people and organisations in putting human rights into practice.
- The Berlin Committee for UNESCO Work e.V. is a member of the UNESCO Club Movement network and has published a documentation with numerous texts and ideas under the heading “The right to be a human being”. Download here.
- The website “Menschenrechte – Deine Rechte” of the Baden-Württemberg Youth Foundation offers information and methodological suggestions as well as project ideas for working with young people (“human rights city tour”, “human rights talk”, etc.).
- On the focus “Freedom of the press is a human right”, the association “Reporters without Borders” has produced, among other things, the “World Map of Freedom of the Press” with teaching recommendations.
- The church relief organisations misereor and Bread for the world offer teaching materials on individual aspects of human rights in the globalised world. The thematic booklet “Human Rights” can be downloaded free of charge from the Misereor website.
- The Kinderschutzbund Deutschland focuses on all issues related to children’s rights and provides building blocks and materials for working with younger children.
You can find more links to materials and organisations on our page Support & Network.
Is there an exchange between the schools involved in HUMAN projects?
Experiences, ideas and activities are welcome to be published on the HUMAN website in the form of texts and videos as inspiration and for networking purposes. We are happy to hear from you here.
I have more questions, who can I contact?
You can find more answers in our Fragen und Antworten on the following topics HUMAN music, HUMAN dance, HUMAN education and Donation. In addition, you are always welcome to contact us here .
HUMAN music
The basis of the HUMAN International Culture Project
HUMAN dance
Connecting HUMAN music with community dance projects.
SUPPORTING HUMAN
We would like to support as many projects as possible that set signs for more humanity with music, dance and creativity. As a purely donation-based, non-profit project, we are happy about every donation (tax-deductible).