Why use the Human Rights Key in educating
health professionals?

Objectives

• to assist students in understanding human rights
• to illuminate the links between human rights and health
• to promote student awareness of different perspectives with relevance for practice
• to encourage students in becoming socially accountable health professionals
• to enable students to be advocates of change for advancing human rights by supporting their patients to
  • take control in turning their own Keys
  • promote autonomy in owning their Keys
  • develop their own agency

In the classroom the Key:

• is fun and innovative, motivating an interest in the topic enabling learning
• facilitates each student to draw their own personal meaning
• promotes constructivist experiential learning
• helps students remember the information
• clarifies complex concepts

In professional practice the Key aims to:

• promote sensitivity to gender and cultural issues
• assist in contextualizing the health needs of each individual
• integrate the social and legal complexities of the right to health
• help clinical encounters to be viewed through a human rights lens

Evaluating the Key in teaching and learning

1. Educators
1. Prof Athol Kent MBChB, MPhil,FRCOG
   Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
   University of Cape Town, South Africa.



I think your "Key" analogy allows students to grasp a finite image to give their concepts about Health & Human Rights some substance. Too often there is a disconnect between observing an unsettling situation and doing something about it. The key opens the door to action. Teaching and the real world of health care sometimes move apart. We need to work on ways of bringing them together. The key and role playing drawing from practical experience gets them closer.

2. Dr Kevin Williams PhD Education / Pharmacy Education
   Senior Lecturer, Higher & Adult Education & Studies Unit
   University of Cape Town, South Africa.

   The 'Human Rights Key' has emerged as a thoughtful and yet practical tool for educators within the health care sector. Among this model's strengths is the integrated way in which professional health care and human rights are envisaged within the practice of and curriculum for students. The Key itself provides an excellent aide memoir beyond the initial learning experience, and provides useful visual and conceptual cues for learning. While designed for use within health and human rights, there seems little reason why educators in allied human rights fields could not adapt the tool (with the original designer's permission) for their contexts.

3. Nariman Laattoe M Phil Ad Ed
   Core Courses Convenor, Community Health Sciences Faculty
   University of the Western Cape, South Africa.

   The Human Rights Key is an innovative and effective tool for mediating and integrating human rights teaching and learning.
   It allows students to see how different conventions link.
   It engages all learning styles
   It ensures that human rights education is not just seen as an add-on!

4. Narissa Philander M A Clinical Psychology
   Facilitator, School of Public Health and Family Medicine
   University of Cape Town, South Africa.

   I've REALLY found the key to be an amazing tool.
   My impression is that it is user-friendly, comprehensive, yet engaging.
   The presentation was clear and very easy to follow.
   I believe this will be an excellent addition to resources for teaching.

2. Students

352 out of 393 students affirmed that the Human Rights Key promoted their understanding of health and human rights.

Students’ evaluative comments indicated that the Key assisted them to:

• motivate an interest in human rights and a will to become advocates for change
• promote critical reflection by providing a memorable framework and lens from which to refer
• enable students to each understand the concepts from their own personal meaning-making
• demonstrate respect for different viewpoints
• illuminate the layers of issues involved in a rights-based approach to health
• contextualize earlier learning about professionalism
• promote a holistic approach to clinical practice drawing sensitivity to gender and cultural differences
• summarize discussion by making connections with human rights theory
• raise awareness of the interrelated nature of human rights
• promote an understanding of the broader context of human rights globally