Are you thinking about doing some human rights education with others? Or do you want to have a grounding knowledge in human rights to be able to chat – or argue- with friends and colleagues. Here is a human rights guide in a nutshell, contributed by Stephanie Hanlon

Human Rights Education

"Pie ball", "Pikey", "Knacker", "Gypo". A beautiful collection of words aren't they? Words that carry connotations now well beyond what they used to mean in general Irish society. They've become ingrained in our vocabulary over the past few years by way of describing a certain cohort of society, not dissimilar to the intentions of words such as "faggot" or "dyke". All of the above are words used, intentionally or otherwise, to demean or belittle a person.

Recently, both globally and across Europe, the concept of free speech seems to be a hot topic. I understand that a person has a right to free speech, but they do not have the right not to be challenged on this when it is deemed to be oppressive or discriminatory in nature. This has in turn given me food for thought, when does free speech become hate speech? And is the regulation of this type of speech an infringement upon our human rights?

We’ve all heard the argument that hate speech is free speech. Finding a person who hasn’t heard the argument of “by telling me not to be homophobic/racist/sexist you’re being oppressive" is quite difficult.