Level of Human Rights Awareness and Experiences Among Southeast Asian Students in the Philippines: Basis for a Proposed Human Rights Empowerment Program for International Students

Abstract

The main focus of this study was to determine the level of human rights awareness and experiences among Southeast Asian college students and whether or not there is a significant difference considering demographic profile. Furthermore, the study looked into whether there is a significant relationship between respondents’ level of human rights awareness and experiences. The descriptive method was utilized in this study. Findings indicated that among the documentary sources of human rights, The Convention on the Rights of Women and the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights were more instrumental in the development of the respondents’ human rights. All of the dimensions indicated much awareness except for civil rights which is only moderate. In the area of human rights experiences, civil rights category got the highest mean followed by social and economic rights. When taken as a whole, the respondents had a moderate level of human rights experiences. The level of human rights awareness of the respondents was not significantly different when grouped according to age, gender and family monthly income. However, there was a significant difference as regard religion and nationality. When the human rights experiences of the respondents were compared as regard age, gender and family monthly income, the results showed no significant difference but there was a significant difference when grouped according to religion and nationality. As a whole, the results show no significant difference. Lastly, a positive relationship was seen when the respondents’ level of human rights awareness was compared to their human rights experiences. This study hopes to contribute to raising the bar of human rights awareness among international students particularly through the proposed Human Rights Empowerment Program.

Keywords: Human rights awareness, human rights experiences, Southeast Asian students, human rights empowerment program and international students