DEH CHO - The Northwest Territories Human Rights Commission visited Deh Cho communities to give presentations on the NWT Human Rights Act last month.

The commission conducts a trip to communities in different regions in the NWT each year, said Therese Boullard, director of Human Rights for the commission. The goal is to get both kids and adults thinking about their rights as human beings.

"It's a way of spreading the word about the commission and the work of the commission and the importance of the Human Rights Act," she said. "It's important to make that connection directly."

Presentations were given in Wrigley, Jean Marie River and Fort Liard for the first time since the commission was established in 2004, Boullard said. It was a second visit for Fort Simpson.

The presentations were geared to both adults and children, Boullard said. While the group was unable to do presentations at Echo Dene School in Fort Liard or the schools in Fort Simpson during this trip, presentations were given to Aurora College students along with municipal employees.

"When we're talking to adults, we talk more specifically about the Northwest Territories Human Rights Act and how it applies in their daily lives," she said.

Presentations given to children were focused on helping kids develop an awareness of their rights.

"For the students we wanted to introduce them to the concept of human rights, those kinds of broader concepts of human rights and why they're important," she said.

During the presentation, Boullard showed students a website called youthforhumanrights.org that features short "commercials" about human rights.

"They have 30 second public service announcements on each of the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," she said. "They're developed by youth with a youth focus."

The commercials captured the attentions of students at Wrigley's Chief Julian Yendo School, principal Kent Bratton said.

"Each commercial highlighted a different human right," he said. "It was really good. It got the kids thinking about what rights are and why they are important."

The commercials were a good tool to help illustrate the concept of human rights to children, Bratton said.

"They were really engaged by the video," he said. "It was a really good way to get kids involved and get a good picture of what some of the different human rights were."

Grade 6 student Ethan Cli said he learned about respect while watching the videos.

"There was one about a couple kids sitting around a circle with an old man," he said. "It was about learning their traditions."

Students in grades 4 to 6 and grades 7 to 9 split into two groups for the presentation, Boullard said. The younger children were shown pictures to help them learn about what their human rights are.

"First she talked about rights and asked what they needed to be happy," Bratton said.

The children were then shown pictures and were asked to identify which human right was being depicted.

Bratton said the children enjoyed the exercise.

"The kids were really into it and got a lot out of it," he said.

The activities and presentations were well-received in all communities, Boullard said

"It was really positive, there was a lot of interacting and a lot of input into the presentations," she said.

"We had really good experiences in all of the classrooms."

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