Programmes

In 2012, René Cassin is launching the René Cassin Legacy Essay Competition to acknowledge outstanding papers on contemporary human rights issues of particular importance to our organisation.

Law students, trainee solicitors, pupil barristers and junior lawyers (current, prospective or inbetween stages) are encouraged to enter the Competition. To read the rules of entry, please click here.

The deadline for entries is Friday 4 May 2012. 

Submissions

We are currently seeking the submission of papers in the following categories:

• Slavery and human trafficking
• Our other policy areas of detention, genocide, discrimination and economic, cultural and social rights.

The Prize

• two complementary tickets to our Human Rights Speaker Series; and
• an ITunes voucher.

About René Cassin's legacy

The organisation and the Competition are named in honour of French jurist René Cassin.  Cassin persistently worked to protect human rights on an international scale throughout his career.  Cassin was active in the first international government, The League of Nations, as a French delegate from 1924 to 1938. Here he pressed for progress on disarmament and developing institutions to aid the resolution of international conflicts. Following the atrocities of the Holocaust, Cassin, together with Eleanor Roosevelt, wrote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948 and remains at the centre of human rights discussions today.   The UN honoured Cassin’s work the Human Rights Prize, and in 1968, René Cassin was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

We are proud to honour René Cassin's committment to human rights through this competition, which aims to encourage awareness and knowledge of international human rights issues among students and young professionals.

Crystal's Vardo is a play targeted at key stage 2 Primary School children (7-11 year olds). The play forms part of one of our educational programmes, which is the result of collaboration with Brighton-based organisation, Friends, Families and Travellers (FFT) to educate local communities about the widespread discrimination facing Gypsies and Travellers.

The Plot

Crystal is a young Gypsy girl who is bullied at school. Desperate to get away, she runs away from home with her Grandfather’s vardo and pony only to wake up in the grounds of another school, miles from anywhere familiar. At first she is wary of the school children, but realises she must trust them to help her find her way back. As she begins to tell them the story of her ancestors, something extraordinary happens and Crystal and her companions find themselves far back in time, when the first Gypsies migrated from Northern India.

By piecing together the shards of her ancestry, she regains a confidence in her own identity whilst raising the awareness of her new friends and enabling the vardo to find its way back.

The format

The play unfolds employing the use of traditional story-telling, music and projection. It is performed by three actors and the audience are invited to participate.  At the conclusion of the play, Holocaust survivor and author, Ruth Barnett, talks to the children about the historical similarities between the experience of Jewish people and Gypsy and Traveller people.

Schools are provided with follow-up work which facilitates discussion, role-play and creative interpretation.

Aims

The aims of the play are to help address the reasons why children from different backgrounds are often bullied; to help break down barriers and enable the children to empathise and identify with the main character; to facilitate their acceptance  that we are all different and embrace those differences. We aim to teach the audience something of the history and culture of Gypsies and Travellers by bringing it to life in a colourful and informative way, and in turn enabling Gypsy and Traveller children to be proud of their heritage.

Collaboration

Crystal's Vardo was written by Suzanna King, at Friends, Families and Travellers, and is being supported and supplemented by René Cassin.  The production is one example of our organisations working together to combat discrimination facing Gypsies and Travellers.

Friends, Families and Traveller’s (FFT) is the only national charity that works on behalf of all Gypsies and Travellers regardless of ethnicity, culture or background. 

The collaboration between René Cassin and Friends, Families and Travellers is important because of the shared aims, goals and vision with respect to ending discrimination facing Gypsies and Travellers.

More information

To request more information, or to book your school for a performance, please email info@renecassin.org with the subject 'Gypsy and Traveller play.  You may download a flyer about the play by clicking here.

* Thank you to Chris Porsz for allowing the use of this photograph

René Cassin is celebrating Sukkot with the release of a new educational resource that links our Gypsy and Traveller campaign with the themes of the Jewish harvest festival.

To read our Sukkot resource, please click here.

If you would like to order a printed copy, please email info@renecassin.org.

We would like to thank Alma Smith, Lyn Julius and Michael Goldin for their work in contributing to this resource.

Thank you to Chris Porsz for providing us with this image.

Each year, René Cassin runs presentations and training sessions on topical human rights isssues at Limmud Conference. In December 2011, René Cassin Project Committee members, Alma Smith and Sam Grant, presented on our campaign to end slavery and human trafficking.  In December 2010, René Cassin's Director, Simone Abel, ran a seminar entitled 'How to be a Voice for Human Rights'.

UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) is the organisation working specifically for children and their rights.  Its mission is to campaign for the protection of children’s rights in order to meet children’s basic needs and empower them to realise their full potential.