HUMAN RIGHTS 

by Willie Ng’ang’a Macharia

“First before considering everything else, consider everyone is a human regardless of their gender,race,religion or anything else”. These words were the key outputs of the seminar. Various issues were raised by the both students and Dr Germana concerning human rights.

1. As far as we have to judge war leaders; we should consider to respect their rights as human beings first before an judgement is given. Death penalty was also discussed and many class participants agreed it is not valid since it does not respect human rights.
2. As far as refugees is a crisis in Germany, the authorities should consider to prioritise human rights to economic benefits. This is because Germany through populists politics have been advocating for the country to barr refugees from seeking asylum in Germany since they see it as threat to their economy.

Road To Europe.
Dr Germana Favognano explained the factors that led to creation of European Union. She explained the effects of the world war 2 and after the war , Deutschland and France felt that a lot of uncertainty remained whether there would another world war. Through this uncertainty the two countries saw it fit to supervise each other coals mining since coal is mainly used to make weapons. This led to start of creation of the European Union.

What became interesting is when the class was discussing the challenges affecting European Union. Rise of immigration crisis and Brexit formed the best part of the conversation. Many refugees have been coming to Europe and the European Union signed a rule that states that a refugee must seek an asylum in the country they reach first. What this meant is that, only Italy, Spain and Greece would be affected since they are the entry point of Europe. This means that no refugee was to get to Germany since it is in middle Europe. This has caused a lot of problems in European Union. The refugee crisis discussion personally feel was a capacity building seminar which was very important to many of us (Tübingen South Africa students) since it helped us to know what exactly was happening in Europe. It turned that when we attended carnival parade, some of us were asked by a German lady, “Are guys refugees from Gambia?” Many of us did not get personal since we felt that she might be getting her reference from what she heard from media. I believe such discussion are good and important to every Tübingen South Africa participants since it make them aware of the problems facing Europe and some stereotypes challenges they may come across when they are in Europe..

Special thanks goes to Dr Germana Favognano for her great skills in conducting the three seminars. Not only did she came to seminars but also came to reception and South Africa dinner where she interacted with many of us and made us feel so welcomed. No words can describe our appreciation from us all, but we can just say siyabonga (Thank you in Zulu) again and again.