WE INSPIRE - WEEDUCATE - WE EMPOWER

We as a youth-led organization working on making an impact to the lives of people by inspiring educating and empowering them. We are empowering youth, children and women through various form of activities. We are also working on bringing impactful solutions to different type of social issues though creating awareness and other programs including open forums, Conferences, Workshops, Capacity building programs and social media campaigns.

The Road to Rights believes in bringing young people and communities together to ensure peace and justice. Sport, Art, ICT, Tourism programs are a few major tools that road to rights is working on engaging people to educate themselves on their rights, responsibilities and goals. Since we believe in building a value based society where people care, respect and love each other, living in socially, economically and culturally developed communities, we are strongly working on promoting Human Rights Education, Sustainable Development Goals and Human Rights Based approach to the Development.

Why Human Rights Education?

Human rights are the rights that every person is entitled to simply by virtue of being human. At the root of the human rights concept is the idea that all people should be able to live with dignity. Violations of our human rights amount to denials of our basic humanity. There were many important people throughout history that contributed to the notion and understanding of human rights. Plato believed in universal truth and virtue. This idea has continued on to become universalism that human rights are universal, and as such are above the laws of individual states.

It’s time people come together and educate themselves and the youth in the basic human rights. These rights were set forth by the United Nations in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The purpose of the Human Rights Walk is to unite people in these rights and make them a reality. Through education, we can end a war, discrimination and intolerance. Yet 61 years on, these rights are still not being used for teachings in most of the schools around the world. The youth, and people, no matter of their age group, still don't know their 30 Human Rights.

What is a Human Rights-based Approach?

A human rights-based approach is a conceptual framework for the process of human development that is normatively based on international human rights standards and operationally directed to promoting and protecting human rights. It seeks to analyse inequalities which lie at the heart of development problems and redress discriminatory practices and unjust distributions of power that impede development progress.

Mere charity is not enough from a human rights perspective. Under a human rights-based approach, the plans, policies and processes of development are anchored in a system of rights and corresponding obligations established by international law. This helps to promote the sustainability of development work, empowering people themselves— especially the most marginalized—to participate in policy formulation and hold accountable those who have a duty to act.

What are the Sustainable Development Goals?

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), otherwise known as the Global Goals, are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

These 17 Goals build on the successes of the Millennium Development Goals, while including new areas such as climate change, economic inequality, innovation, sustainable consumption, peace and justice, among other priorities. The goals are interconnected – often the key to success on one will involve tackling issues more commonly associated with another.

The SDGs work in the spirit of partnership and pragmatism to make the right choices now to improve life, in a sustainable way, for future generations. They provide clear guidelines and targets for all countries to adopt in accordance with their own priorities and the environmental challenges of the world at large. The SDGs are an inclusive agenda. They tackle the root causes of poverty and unite us together to make a positive change for both people and planet. “Poverty eradication is at the heart of the 2030 Agenda, and so is the commitment to leave no-one behind,”

OUR WORK

Ongoing Projects and Campaigns

My Rights and My Goals

My Rights MY Goals is a project where we identify the importance of both SDGS and Human Rights. As we believe that by achieving SDGs Human Rights will be protected, in the same way when rights and responsibilities are protected and practiced SDGs are fostered.

Meet the Minister

Meet the Minister is a platform where we give a valuable opportunity to our youth to meet one of a minister in the country to discuss matters and get opinion on youth matters. It’s a valuable opportunity where youth can discuss their opinion independently.

Green Girl Campaign

This is a campaign designed to empower and educate the girls to protect the environment, while educating them about their strengths and capabilities. Participants of the programme will be exposed and coached to a wider range of skills to develop their attitudes. The programme will be also focus on gender equality and is open to both genders.

Tourism for all

The project will focus on the accessibility of tourism of people of various backgrounds and needs. People with special needs, including disabilities, youth, seniors, and people in various family settings are part of the demographic population in ensuring tourism is accessible to all individuals. Tourism for all’ means that environments are created to cater to the needs of everyone; young, old, able, disabled, families with children and without children to name a few. The right to accessible tourism is a universal right providing opportunities for every citizen of the world to experience the fascinating diversity and the beauty of the planet.

Growing to the Future

This is an initiative to educate our future generation about SDGs. Its platform for kids to get themselves educate about SDGs.

Ilead

The project will focus on developing the leadership skills of youth, children, and women and on gender equality It will pave a platform for leaders to share their innovative ideas on leadership and communicate it to a wider audience. The project will also include hosting a leadership conference to help build passionate leaders who are aware of human rights and responsibilities in order to create an empowered community.

Charity Cafe

Charity cafe is a new venture of the organisation the Road to Rights. Its a eco friendly cafe where 90% of the sales of the food and products will be allocated for projects in The Road To Rights. This a new venture of the restaurant industry where we encourage restaurants to support the children and under developed areas in Sri Lanka.

Annual Events

White Night- International Human Rights Day Celebration

International Walk for Human Rights is an annual event that is happening in Sri Lanka on 10th of December. Walk for human rights was initially organized in 2011 with the support of many government and non-governmental organizations. As a result of the work we have done in celebrating the international Human Rights Day; in 2013 we were able to bring the event to the national level.

Peace expo

Peace Expo is a unique two-day event, which was launched in 2016 as a part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals Action Campaign activities.. NGOs, NPOs, CSRs, Youth-led Institutes and Humanitarian Projects actively involved in Education, Volunteering, Human Rights, Environmental, Peace and other issues, are given an opportunity to present their activities to a diverse public, promote their efforts, raise awareness on civic issues, establish new partnerships, address potential sponsors and volunteers, and even increase valued knowledge.

The United Cup

Sport, as a tool for education, development and peace, solidarity, tolerance, understanding, social inclusion. It has a powerful ability to promote human rights and create platforms to achieve them. Believing that, the road to rights has been working on a few sport initiatives to promote human rights education. “The United Music Video” was one of the main inspirations for our volunteers to take an active participation on this. Based on this initiative, we have conducted workshops for sportsmen and women, capacity building session for sports leaders based on human rights education. Currently we are working with the ministry of sport conducting programs for national sport clubs around the country in promoting Human Rights through sport.

Colombo food fest

The food festival is happening concurrently with the Peace Expo . It will be a youth and family friendly food festival featuring independent vendors selling various kind of food, restaurants and hotels. Food Festival is also part of the fundraising project of the road to rights youth-led organization to support their upcoming projects which are listed on the website www.roadtorights.org and UN SDG Action campaign activities in Sri Lanka.

Independence and Youth

“70th Independence & Youth” is an event where we bring young people together from all different platforms to have an intelligent dialogue on various crosscutting issues in Sri Lanka and identify the role of youth in creating a better Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has been going through various social transformations politically, economically, and socially. Today 2018, we stand on the post-war era where there are many transformations are in the country. As young people, we have a key role to play in contributing to the nation building process while identifying ourselves as global citizens. When we look at many industries and areas in the country, we are still facing many challenges. After passing a thirty-year war era Sri Lanka is standing on a significant place where the country must design its path way for her youth and children. Youth has a strong responsibility in contributing to that especially on peace reconciliation process, development process and social economic and political transformations.

The Road to Rights International Summit

The Road to Rights International Summit is to raise awareness about Rights and responsibilities and build the capacity of Local and International youth Delegates to use various channels of communication to bring positive changes in communities and mobilize the Sustainable Development Goals, which is a set of goals agreed upon by member states in the United Nations in September 2015 pertaining to Education, Gender Equality, Health, extreme poverty and Climate Change.

The Road to Rights National Summits

The Road to Rights National Summit is platform for youth to engage where they could find solutions for various crosscutting issues in the society. It’s thus the main platform for our national chapters to come together .

National Volunteer Awards

Its an annual event organised by the Road to Rights to appreciate volunteer efforts. Volunteers are the driving force of the organisation, thus their commitments are never wasted. National Volunteer Award identifies excepteional individuals and appreciates committed volunteers for their commitment towards making their community a better place.

International Youth Day celebration

In order to celebrate international Youth day

Expressions

Arts, broadly defined as aesthetics, play a vital role in taking the message of human rights to the society hence building peace with and within people. We believe that Art, especially visual art, have the power to mobilize a society towards peace or conflict. Therefore our hope and vision is to use Art as a tool in evoking peaceful emotions within our communities while contributing towards Development and Human Rights Education.The initiative is promoting the understanding of human rights, peace and development through arts, inviting reputed and renowned artists in several aesthetic fields to gather under one roof and make a valuable contribution towards the process we have undertaken to carry out. It is a rare occasion of reuniting many celebrated artists of the nation under a single concept of ‘Mentoring Peace through Art’.

AREAS OF WORK

Education & Employment: We’re preparing young people for the jobs employers are looking to fill. With a demand-driven approach, our partnerships and initiatives underscore life skills and technical/vocational training as critical components of successful youth workforce development. In our library, you can find more than 25 years' worth of learning on the topic through publications such as Getting Youth in the Door and Creating Opportunities for Youth in Hospitality.

Entrepreneurship: Our self-employment initiatives enable young people to build, scale, and lead small and micro-enterprises. Whether it's our Build Your Business curriculum in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, Young Entrepreneurs in India, Youth Entrepreneurship Development in Palestine, or the entrepreneurship component of an employability program like Zimbabwe:Works, we're promoting self-employment as a vital opportunity for youth.

Social Innovation: IYF nurtures young leaders and the institutes that support these change-makers. Our YouthActionNet® initiative strengthens youth-led social ventures around the world. To learn more about these young innovators, meet the 2016 YouthActionNet class of Laureate Global Fellows.