Transition Times: When it wanted to highlight human rights the charity recruited some of the best-known writers in the country, reports Louise Holden.

What does a chocolate film star have to do with human-rights abuses? In The Chocolate Colin Farrells, a new play by Roddy Doyle and students at St Vincent's Secondary School in Dundalk, a simple transition-year project brings to the surface latent racism that leads its characters to examine their attitudes to equality.

The Chocolate Colin Farrells begins with a light-hearted depiction of the unfortunate attempts of a student mini company to make chocolate Santas; they end up bearing a strange resemblance to the Dublin actor. That's not the only surprise in store, as the students discover their views on race and ethnicity are different from what anyone expected.

The play is just one of 10 works that sprang from a new transition-year programme by Amnesty International. Last year 10 well-known writers worked with schools to produce plays that express teenagers' views about human rights. Voice Our Concern, as the scheme was called, was such a successful pilot that this year the programme goes nationwide.

Maeve Binchy, Neil Jordan, Gerry Stembridge and Conor McPherson were among the leading writers to take on the views of transition-year students and turn them into art. This year the programme will focus on poetry (the writers taking part will be announced on December 10th, which is Human Rights Day).

How does the programme work? Its main objective is to get students thinking about human rights and to bring their concerns to a wider audience; Voice Our Concern begins with education and ends with creativity.

"We believe that opportunities for young people in Ireland to express and address issues of concern to them are limited: young people are unable to vote, and their concerns are not generally represented in the mainstream media," says Karen O'Reilly of Amnesty International. The education team at the organisation's Dublin office set about preparing a human-rights-education module for transition year but decided they should take the process a step farther by turning the student's learning into dramatic art.

"Following a number of meetings between writers and students, the 10 plays were completed in March of this year," says O'Reilly. "They explore issues ranging from young people's feelings of powerlessness to racism in schools and perceptions of refugees and asylum seekers. Several of the plays have already been performed, thereby bringing these concerns to a wider audience and empowering young people by making their voices heard."

Amnesty will now make the plays and human-rights materials available to all post-primary schools in the country, with the aim of inspiring other classes to explore these and their own human-rights concerns and build projects around them.

As the next stage of this phase of the project, the Abbey Theatre will host a four-day course, split over two weekends in November and February, for teachers interested in using drama as a way to explore social issues in the classroom. The sessions will include voice and movement workshops, as well as workshops on directing, casting and working with a text. It is a unique opportunity to develop drama-in-education skills with Amnesty and Abbey professionals.

The poets whom Amnesty International names on December 10th will, like last year's writers, visit schools to listen to the human-rights concerns of transition-year students, then turn them into a body of poetry. The poets will also host workshops with students, who will have followed a short programme of human-rights education.

"This year we hope to involve as many schools as possible," says Karen O'Reilly. "We are also looking forward to seeing a body of work that many students have had a chance to contribute to. With help of our Amnesty poets, students all over the country should get a chance to express their human-rights concerns through the poetic medium."

Last year's students learned that human-rights abuse is not simply an issue in the developing world. Although some students wrote about minority groups in Ireland, such as asylum seekers, others explored the abuse that can take place in every home and classroom, regardless of ethnicity. Bullying is an excellent example: many students do not consider bullying to be a human-rights abuse until they look at the broader context.

Amnesty's education team has already reviewed the learning material used last year, based on the experience of transition-year students. They plan to keep improving the programme in consultation with students. In future years Voice Our Concern will draw in the expertise of film makers, musicians, visual artists and others. As the project grows, the quality and quantity of original human-rights education material, created for and by 15- to 18-year-olds, will increase.

If you would like to get involved in this year's Voice Our Concern project, contact Karen O'Reilly at Amnesty International (kaoreilly@amnesty.ie, 01-6776361). Teachers interested in taking part in the Abbey workshops are also invited to get in touch

The play's the thing

Last March 10 leading Irish writers collaborated with transition-year students to create 10 original plays about human rights.

Maeve Binchy went to Fingal Community College in Swords, Co Dublin, to write First Day, Last Chance.Roddy Doyle worked with students at St Vincent's Secondary School in Dundalk, Co Louth, to write The Chocolate Colin Farrells (see feature). Hugo Hamilton went to Wesley Collegein Dublin to write Knackers. Dermot Healy worked with students at St Mary's Secondary School in Ballina, Co Mayo. Conor McPherson went to Newpark Comprehensive in Blackrock, Co Dublin, to write First Person In Newpark.

Paul Mercier worked with students at Gael Choláiste Chillian in Clondalkin, Dublin, to write Nua Blascoad. Barry Murphy went to Ramsgrange Community School in New Ross, Co Wexford, to write Right Said Bob. Peter Sheridan and Coláiste Choilm, Swords, Dublin, wrote Incident At Dojran. And Gerry Stembridge went to Coláiste Mhichíl in Limerick to write Your Man. Neil Jordan was also involved in the collaborative project.