Seite - 76 - in Reflective Cosmopolitanism - Educating towards inclusive communities through Philosophical Enquiry

76 REfLECTIvE COsMOPOLITANIsM 1. Right to express yourself and for adults to take what you say seriously (art.12) 2. The rights and duties of the parents and, when applicable, legal guardians, to provide direction to the child in the exercise of his or her right in a manner con- sistent with the evolving capacities of the child (art.14) 3. Right to choose your friends (art.15) 4. Right to be protected from all kinds of violence (art.19) 5. Right to a clean environment (art.24) 6. Right of every child to a standard of living adequate for the child’s physical, men- tal, spiritual, moral and social development (art.27) 7. In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities or persons of indigenous origin exist, a child belonging to such a minority or who is indige- nous shall not be denied the right, in community with other members of his or her group, to enjoy his or her own culture, to profess and practice his or her own religion, or to use his or her own language. (art.30) Exercise: The declaration of children’s obligations The same way that we asked students to write down a Declaration of Obligations rela- ted to the rights stated in the Universal Declaration of 1948 (see this manual, episode 1, leading idea 1 “Rights and obligations”), we will now ask them to make a similar list, but in connection with the rights stated in the Convention for Children’s rights of 2006. If you have already done the exercise related to episode 1, you may now concentrate on those rights that are specific to children and that do not appear in the Declaration. Episode 5: A visit to the mayor Leading Idea 1: Respect and tolerance As we know, in 1995 a Declaration of Principles of Tolerance was adopted by UNESCO’s member states (see manual to Ella, episode 6, leading idea 2). However, the term “tolerance” has several meanings and can be applied to both people (tolerance to pain, or tolerance towards the other’s way of thinking and acting) and to other living beings (some plants’ tolerance to lack of sunlight). On the other hand, the term “respect” refers solely to human attitude and cannot be used when referring to other living beings, objects, or things. Human beings may or may not res- pect other living beings and things (e.g. cats, furniture, laws, or climate conditions). However, the opposite does not happen unless we are talking metaphorically. For example, if, when talking about an extreme cold wave, we say “the low temperatures don’t respect anybody” (expressing that temperatures are exceptionally low), or if we say that a certain law does not respect Human Rights (expressing the idea that that law is no good), or if we say that two dogs respect each other when they are facing each other just before a fight (we are actually referring to a certain degree of fear), then we are talking metaphorically. The concept of tolerance that we are interested in is the one applied when taking the Other’s way of thinking and acting into consideration and accepting it. However, in this definition we –once again– discover two ways of understanding tolerance which have a different relation to the term “respect”.